Windows 10: "Ghost" devices

EDIT to save you time:
This thread has some useful tools to help rid your computer of old driver packages and ghost devices.
Turns out my issue was a registry problem, that was resolved on the 2nd page.



ORIGINAL POST:
Hey guys,

I have this problem where a previously used device (a long time ago) keeps showing up under devices on My PC, but without being shown in Device Manager nor under Devices and Printers.

Any tips on how to remove this?

I've used the "show hidden devices" in Device Manager to see if it would show up but it doesn't.

Any help appreciated. Thanks.


The "nexus 7" device may be leftover from my old Windows 7 install. I've deleted the old Windows installation.





:)

 

" SOFTWARE UPDATE FAILED "

SO HERE'S THE LINK TO THAT PIC

http://i26.tinypic.com/2ihbdco.jpg

CAN U PLZ CHECK IT ACTUALLY I HAVE USED THE NOKIA SOFTWARE UPDATER B4 ... BUT I DONT KNW WHY I M GETTING THIS ERROR NOW

 

" SOFTWARE UPDATE FAILED "

i have installed windows xp sp2

previously i was using windows media center i thought i might b facing this probs due to that but then i changed it to windows xp ! n moreover i have also shown to nokia service center executives but they were not having the latest updates available ......
my pc suite is showing that new update version of firmware is available but i cudnt download it

oh gawd wat to do ?

i tried in another pc then again i got an error u need to have minimum 256 ram

please cant it b rectified ? there must b any solution to this probs please help me guyz

god bless all of u thanx

 

I see that now and then when I take one of my Notebooks to another location, just today I had one in our church and it picked up and started to install a networked Ricoh Printer/Copier so I canceled it. After I returned home I just deleted the device in Control Panel, Device and Printers.

 

The unwanted device that shows up on my PC is constant, I believe I installed it via Bluetooth to share files back and forth.
I haven't used it in about a year, but I just now got motivated to remove it if possible.

This Nexus 7 device doesn't show up in Device Manager nor Devices and Printers.
Pretty annoying.

 

It may work to turn your Bluetooth off then try again. Or it may be necessary to uninstall your Bluetooth drivers then install them again.

 

I'll try to uninstall the bluetooth adapter and see what happens.

EDIT: that did nothing, the ghost device still remains even when the bluetooth adapter is uninstalled and also when it is disabled.

 

I found the device in the registry under HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{ca4fe134-f2ae-4594-b009-08cb336539be}

If I delete the registry GUID subkey it deletes the "Nexus 7" from showing up under My PC, but it is replaced by an empty sheet of paper icon.

It seems to be a registry issue. It would be nice to get rid of it completely.





I obviously made a backup of my registry before editing in case something happens.

 

Clearly seems to be a registry bug, and I wouldn't suggest combing through the registry unless you really know what you're doing...

This may be extremely incorrect, and I apologize in advance, but have you tried turning off Show Hidden Folders?

 

Normally the device is listed under: Device Manager->Portable Devices. Did you check there ???
Download DriverStore Explorer [RAPR]. Unzip and right click to run as Admin->Enumerate.
Go thru the list to see if the driver is there. Put a check mark to select, put a check mark on Force Deletion then click Delete Package

EDIT: While in this program, if your current Windows is running good. You can also delete all the old drivers such as NVIDIA etc... to free up some space.

 

Thanks for that application. I like cleaning out old stuff.
I used it, as deleted a lot of old driver packages.

As for the problem at hand, I did not find the "Nexus 7" device under Device Manager->Portable Devices in device manager.
This is still a mystery.

 

The "ghost" device is not hidden, so toggling that is not a all useful.
Categorize this under "annoying Windows stuff" haha

 

OK. One more app to try.
Download: GhostBuster
Right click and Run as Admin, Click on the first item, scroll down to the bottom, hold SHIFT and click on last item then right click->Add Devices. Click on "Remove Ghosts"

 

+1.0

 

Thanks for the nifty app, unfortunately the ghost device is still there. It is unbelievable. *sarc

I do have this odd device at the very top, but I cannot remove it: