Question "Ghost" devices in Device Manager ?

[Oblivion77]

Dear all

In Windows Device Manager, when showing hidden devices, there are a lot of "ghost" devices / you can only see their properties.

1.
Can a hardware part be shown as more than 1 device in Device Manager?
For example, a network card is shown as 2 devices in Network adapters
If yes, why is that?

2.
When removing a hardware part that is shown only as 1 device in Device Manager.
can that turn into 2 "ghost" devices?

Thank you

 

[helpstar]

just let it be like it is

2. yes

 

[Eximo]

That can be related to hardware profiles, disconnected hardware, system images that contain drivers for multiple hardware sets, or any device you have replaced/updated.

I agree, just leave it as is. If you want a clean(er) system a fresh install is the best way to go about it.

 

[CountMike]

DriverStoreExplorer.v0.12.88 Nice utility to clean up old, obsolete or leftovers from uninstalled drivers.
https://www.majorgeeks.com/files/details/driverstoreexplorer.html

 

[Oblivion77]

That can be related to hardware profiles, disconnected hardware, system images that contain drivers for multiple hardware sets, or any device you have replaced/updated.

Is that related to both 1. and 2.?

 

[Oblivion77]

2. yes

Can you explain why?

 

[helpstar]

Can you explain why?

I can speculate, but don´t know for sure.
e.g. network adapters or blue-tooth devices tend to place ghost devices
eventually if the repairing fails and the users deletes it in the bluetooth menu and while pairing again the key can be different to connect
network adapters mac address could be randomized and therefore the system reads a different device
different firmware versions...

 

[Ralston18]

Another way to obtain device information is to use Powershell's Get cmdlets.

FYI:

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/p...evice/get-pnpdevice?view=windowsserver2025-ps

Start with the basic Get-PNPDevice cmdlet.

Then you can use Get-PNPDevice | Format-List for a much longer and detailed result.

Powershell is included in Windows. The cmdlet can be run with local rights.