Here's our Tip for.. January 29, 1998
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Hardware Housecleaning
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We've all learned (some of us the hard way..) about housecleaning when it comes to software. We religiously run uninstallers (to track system changes) every time we install some new application, we've gotten familiar with certain Registry "hacks" and other tricks to help us rid our systems of unwanted software and system entries. But what about your hardware?

Sure, we all know about Device Manager (Start, Settings, Control Panel, System, Device Manager) and how to inspect its lists for installed hardware - but when is the last time you ran Device Manager in Safe Mode? Never? You're not alone, after all what's the difference ..right? The answer is ..PLENTY!

Running Device Manager in Safe Mode will give you a VERY different perspective on installed hardware devices - past AND present.

Looking at the screen shot below, we ran Device Manager in Safe Mode on a test machine and we found three devices that were either duplicated or they just plain no longer existed anymore. Read on.

Look at the Tape Drives entry. There are two (although different) Conner QIC-80 tape drives listed - the machine only has one, the other entry was added as a result of upgrading our backup software. The old one can (and should) be removed.

Further up, you can see there are two SCSI controllers listed. This one is a no-brainer - the BusLogic was removed weeks ago to make room for a newer Adaptec card. So why is it still listed? Because certain hardware settings still existed in the Registry! The BusLogic entry got the axe, and doing so in Safe Mode cleared the Registry of its existence too.

Last, but not least, we see there are multiple hard drives listed. This isn't unusual since the test machine does in fact have three SCSI hard drives - but one of them is listed twice, and both entries are identical. OK, so what do we do now? This is where it gets a little tricky.

Generally, if Win95's Hardware Detection was run recently, and it did "duplicate" an entry, it usually lists the latest addition at the bottom - therefore that's the one that your machine currently recognizes as "being in service" and you'll want to delete the one on TOP. Otherwise, if you delete the last entry, you will have removed the "working" entry and Win95 may re-detect it again the next time you restart.

NOTE: DO NOT attempt to delete any of the listings in your Device Manager without first making a full backup of your Registry and secondly, make sure you have all of the necessary drivers disks for any and all hardware in case you really DO screw up...

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