Fast way to remove all from device manager/ENUM key (Win9x/ME ONLY)

[Carl Price]

I was reading the posts this morning and Reboot answered GLC about a fast way to remove devices from device manager. I thought it should be repeated here so everyone might see it.

GLC, actually there IS a fast way.
Open regedit, browse to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Enum
Remove all entries.

Reboot, thanks and if you know any more of these gems we all could use the education.

[Edited by Carl Price on 02-16-2001 at 04:10 PM]

[glc]

Does this actually work? I think I tried this once and wound up reinstalling Windows......

[Carl Price]

I have only tried it once and it worked like a charm. I just removed the whole key "enum". When windows rebooted only "computer" showed up in device manager. I went to control panel and clicked on "add new hardware" and let windows sort thru everything again.

Having said that, I want everyone to realize that I tried this on a machine which had just received a new install of Windows. I did this as a test and as I said it worked like a charm

[Edited by Carl Price on 02-17-2001 at 02:34 PM]

[Floppyman]

Can you guys tell me where this is in win2k? There is HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/enum...thanks.

[WJWheels]

My wife's mobo blew a couple weeks ago. I used this method when I moved her 10gig hdd to a different pc. It worked like a charm.

[MrDon]

Oh great! I have the hard drive out and did not remove the enum. What do I do now?

[Carl Price]

Put it in your machine and boot into safe mode and delete it from there. Then reboot.

[MrDon]

When taking out the devices using enum. I assume you remove all of the items listed under enum and not the enum listing.

[HAL9000]

Right, just the entries.

[Carl Price]

Actually, It's quicker to just delete the enum key. Windows will make another one.

[HAL9000]

Alrighty then! I stand corrected.

[glc]

I've had to do this a lot recently - and here's a few tips.

Before starting, make sure the Windows "cab" files are on the hard drive, plus any drivers that are not included with Windows (video, sound, modem, etc.) and expand them into a folder if appropriate.

Yes, you can just delete the whole "enum" key. When you reboot, absolutely nothing will be found by itself. It will be in 640x480 16 color, and give you a display properties error. Cancel and close that and go to "add new hardware" and let it search. Reboot when prompted (this will happen several times) until you no longer get the prompts. If it prompts you to insert the Windows CD, point it to the cab files. If it asks for a manufacturer's driver disk, point it to the appropriate folder. Don't worry if a driver install fails, you can always go back later and reinstall that particular device from scratch. If you have a VIA based board, now is the time to install the "4 in 1" drivers.

Now, go into device manager. You will probably have some yellow flags. You will probably have 2 items that are flagged with unflagged duplicates - the keyboard and the DMA controller. Remove the entry that is NOT flagged. If you have 2 display adapters, one will be flagged - usually the "standard VGA" will not be flagged and the actual adapter will be flagged. Remove the unflagged standard VGA. By now you should have CD support, so any other devices that are flagged can be reinstalled using the appropriate CD if necessary.

[reboot]

Very nice addition GLC!

[MadMax]

There is a registry tweak to eliminate being prompted for Windows CD.

My Computer\HKey_Local_Machine\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Setup

Right click on "SourcePath" and select "Modify". Edit "Value Data" to path of where cabs are stored.

[glc]

If you do your initial Windows install by copying the cabs to the hard drive and installing from there, the key will already be set.

[Carl Price]

I've been using the "delete ENUM" trick a lot in the past month, and I have worked out some procedures, the best of all being this. If you found you have made a mistake deleting ENUM you can get it back just like it was by restoring a previous booting copy of the registry. Use the command "scanreg /restore" and use the last previous registry that booted the machine. Enum will be back. I had a brain fart and deleted the wrong machine yesterday and this restored it.

[reboot]

I knew that, but never thought to include it in the instructions.
I never guessed that someone would actually delete the ENUM on the WRONG machine!

[Carl Price]

Guess you've never worked on four machines at once then.

[Billnodeal]

Hey Carl Price! Yes I did the same thing on the 3 junks I'm working on now. I put the wrong hdd in & deleted enum. but did not have the cab files on the hdd. i learned a quick lesson there! lots of fun to make more work for yourself is'nt it?

[Werewolfdaddy]

Just been to regedit for the first time; man, that is a serious long list. My pci card is having a little bit of trouble(it's probably this computer) but I talked to the tech guy and he said that I maybe having trouble with the integrated agp not being properly disabled through device manager. I could disable it through here, right? He was talking about doing a safe mode start and disable it there.

[glc]

Your onboard AGP has to be disabled in BIOS or by a jumper - THEN you can boot into safe mode and remove it from device manager. Don't even mess with the registry to do this particular thing.

[Werewolfdaddy]

I have to send this thing back as soon as the new one gets here. I thought I would play around on it to get a feel for a few things. To tell the truth, I really don't have that much time right now to play around on it, though.

[Werewolfdaddy]

It is with deep,sincere gratitude, that I want to say thanks to all of you. In one way or another, you have all helped me. This spring, I begin taking computer tech classes at the University of Tennessee; I am an english major, but I love computers as much as writing. Heck, you never know, this time next year, I may be writing for a tech magazine. Well, I can dream.

[southrk]

where is the enum key on win2000 pro? i cant find it.

[glc]

southrk - you can't really follow this procedure with Win2K - a reinstall is the best recommendation here unless someone else has a better idea. Win2K handles hardware enumeration differently.

[kentfoxx]

I think I will "ghost" my hd and not take any chances. By the way, does anyone have an opinion on the new amd xp processors. just bought the 1700 and will be installing 512k of ddr2700 ram with a gforce2 ti 64meg vid card.

[robo555]

WindowsXP doesn't have that key

Anyone know where this magic key is located in WinXP?

[glc]

You should not do this with 2000 and XP. This procedure is intended for use with 95/98/ME.

[puggs]

With 2000/XP, just use hardware control panel and choose Uninstall Hardware. When it gives a list of devices, click show hidden and then you can remove the ones for those parts that you no longer have in your system.

[Hpro]

Machine Laptop Inspiron 3200 - of Dell computer - customer was fed up with XP and liked to have Win98SE installed - ok no problem - but also no restore disk

Anyway easy task easy money - hehe cheated again on me - Fdisk - Format Setup - just to miss about just all the drivers - but thanks to Floppyman and of course GLC - I found them on the 100to click time Dell website and downloaded them - installed and OH everything smooth neat and clean - restarted after the sound drivers (Crystal onboard sound) had been installed just to find out the computer would hang itself when entering Explorer - meaning Desktop..
I tried to get this working but it just wouldn't work - again looked around for drivers but there wasn't any other drivers available to Download - but he diagnotics utility instead - Ok made the requested floppy disk inserted it waited for almost 2 hours just to find out that there were no problems on that computer from hard ware.. - REINSTALL windows - and the same again - Now I got upset - FDISK FORMAT Setup again and still it wouldn't stop to hang - consulted GLC on the #pc-mech IRC channel this late afternoon and we checked everything there and it still would hang - then I had a thought - copied all the cab files to the hard drive - sayd goodbye to GLC - he had to be up to I gues almost 3 am and then deleted the ENUM FOLDER complete - restarted used the Add new Hardware wizard to detect the hardware again and installed all the drivers as it was asked by the wizard = restarted and SEE It works beautiful..! no more hangs..

This just to prove again that sometimes even you install on a CLEAN HARD DRIVE from the CDROM some of the files may not being copied correctly which of course then brings up problems - so if anyone has problems like this - then do not hesitate - delete the enum key in the registry - copy the cab's to the hard drive and use the add hardware wizard - and I'm sure most of the problems are or can be solved..

hope this helps to make computing easier for anyone out there who has problems..
Thanks for reading..