How to modify an offline device in Windows 7?

Question

I have assigned the wrong driver to my USB mouse, and everytime I connect it the system crashes (BSoD). Now I have to change the driver, but it must be done while the device is offline. Is it possible?

Answer 1

Yes, it's possible but you have to enable the display of hidden devices in the Device Manager.
Follow instructions here for instance.

To get rid of that unwanted driver, device, or service:
1) Open the “Start” menu and choose “Run…”
2) Type in “cmd” (without the quotes) and click “ok”.
3) At the cmd prompt, type in “set devmgr_show_nonpresent_devices=1″ (without the quotes) and press enter. (Note that nothing seems to happen–this is ok. We are actually setting an environment variable which is going to help us to see hidden devices)
4) On the next cmd prompt line, type in “devmgmt.msc” (without the quotes) and press enter. This will launch the Windows Device Manager Console.
5) In the Device Manager Console, from the “View” menu, select “Show Hidden Devices”.

Once you find the problematic device (its icon will be faded as it's currently unplugged), either update the driver or uninstall (delete) completely the device so Windows will install it again (with the correct driver) the next time you plug it in.

Answer 2

If you want to remove offline devices in Device manager, go to the command prompt and type

set devmgr_show_nonpresent_devices=1

Followed by

devmgmt.msc

This should start device manager with offline/disconnected devices shown and allows you to remove devices.

However, it is possible it will use the same driver automatically next time it is connected, so look in the details of what files it is using and try to delete them (well, the unique ones).

Alternatively, you can also use a tool called Nirsoft USBDeviceW that should show offline devices and allow you to easily delete them.

Answer 3

Definately on XP. you can delete the inf files. is windows 7 really that different ?