Windows 10: how to remove COM0

Hi, i have an isue where i plug a lot of devices to windows via USB and windows remembers every usb as hidden, and at some point windows starts assigning COM0 and some new devices struggle to connect via usb due to COM0, manually deleting is a chore and takes to much time, is there a way to bulk quickly remove unused saved com ports? since at this point device manager struggles to load and manually uninstall. And maybe there is some kind of option to make windows stop saving useless ports?

:)

 

Unable to remove multiple devices labelled as COM0

I looked into the Registry @ HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\COM Name Arbiter\Devices and there are no listings for COM0, so I don't even know where the ghost devices are being stored...

 

Unable to remove multiple devices labelled as COM0

Hi,

I came into an issue where I have exhausted all available COM ports (1 to 4096) and all new devices are being added as COM0 (I have around 3,000 disconnected/hidden devices as COM0).

Using pnputil and devcon I was able to script removing all of the disconnected devices on COM ports 1-4096. However, I have been unable to remove any of the devices on COM0, either through devcon or by manually removing the device through Device Manager. If I try to change the COM port number in the device manager advanced settings it causes device manager to crash.

This computer will have more devices added daily. If more devices continue to be added to the computer as COM0, will this eventually cause something to break?

Does anyone know of a way to clean up this mess?

Can I remove these ghost devices through the registry somehow?

I would prefer not to reset/restore the computer if possible as it is a remote setup that I would have to then travel out to go restore all of the settings and software.

Any help and advice is appreciated!

Edit: Adding pictures below













*** Solution ***

After playing around a lot I found a tool that helped me get rid of them.

I used a tool I found called Ghostbuster ( Bitbucket ).

Using this I was able to remove all of the ghosted COM0 ports. I believe the remnants are somewhere in the registry and this tool was able to clear them from the registry.

 

Unable to remove multiple devices labelled as COM0

*** Solution Found ***

After playing around a lot I found a tool that helped me get rid of them.

I used a tool I found called Ghostbuster ( Bitbucket ).

Using this I was able to remove all of the ghosted COM0 ports. I believe the remnants are somewhere in the registry and this tool was able to clear them from the registry.