Hidden Devices in XP

There is a list of hidden devices that do not normally show up in the Device Manager. You can get XP to reveal these by either changing a Registry entry, or by creating a batch file to launch the Device Manager with the correct options

If you’re comfortable with the Registry, open the Registry Editor and navigate to

 HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\ControlSet001\Control\SessionManager\Environment\.

Here, create a String Value called DEVMGR_SHOW_ NONPRESENT_DEVICES, and give it a value of 1.

If you’d rather create a batch file, open Notepad, and type in the following:

@Echo Off
Prompt $p$g
set
DEVMGR_SHOW_NONPRESENT_DEVIC
ES=1
start devmgmt.msc
exit

Then save it as “devmgmt.bat”. You can use any descriptive filename you like with the .bat extension.