How to have Device Manager show non present devices.

Here are a few small commands that a colleague of mine showed me. These commands will start the Windows Device Manager and allow you to see devices that have been removed from the system.

This can come in handy if you P2V (Convert a Physical machine to a Virtual machine). the Virtual hardware will be using rather than the physical hardware that was once in the original system. This can help prevent certain BSODs

To run the commands open up a Command Prompt on the machine and type

set devmgr_show_nonpresent_devices=1
start devmgmt.msc

Also in Device Manager click on the View menu item and select "Show Hidden Devices"

Hope this helps...