Device Manager displays information about the hardware devices installed on your computer. When it comes to troubleshooting, it can be an invaluable tool. However, you may not have noticed that Device Manager does not actually list all the hardware.

Two types of devices are hidden in Device Manager: non-plug and play devices and ghosted devices (nonpresent). You can easily force Device Manager to display non-plug and play devices. Click the Start menu, click Control Panel, click System and Maintenance and click Device Manager. Select Show Hidden Devices from the View menu.

Forcing Device Manager to show Click the Advanced system settings link. Click the Environment Variables button. Under System Variables, click the New button. Type devmgr_show_nonpresent_devices for the Variable Name. Under Variable Value, type “1″ and click OK. Now open Device Manager again and from the View menu, click Show Hidden Devices.

Tags: windows, vista, windows vista, vista tips