USB Device Driver Removal

When you plug a flash drive into your pc, you'll notice a quick installation prompt and then your drive starts to work.  If you plug enough usb drives into your system, eventually you'll have problems with some of them such as drives not coming up properly.  Your system will get slower as windows has to load more and more drivers upon boot.

There are tools out there that help clean out some of this driver glut.  But if you want to get your hands dirty or just don't have internet access to download those tools when you work on a pc - here's a way to do this without any additional software.


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This procedure has been performed and tested on several Windows 7 Pro computers.
These instructions work for other devices too, not just usb devices.
WARNING: DO NOT DO THIS IF YOU ARE NOT SURE WHAT YOU ARE REMOVING!

It sounds complicated from the steps below, but its really just a two step process.

1. Show hidden devices and remove them
2. Update the list of devices by removing the file and reboot.

HERE ARE THE INSTRUCTIONS:

Open a command prompt with Administrator access

• Click Start - type cmd - Right click icon and run as administrator

Type the following at the command prompt:

• set devmgr_show_nonpresent_devices=1
• devmgmt.msc

In the device manager screen:

• Click view - show hidden devices
• right-click, and choose uninstall on any items to remove it from the system completely
• I would do this for only devices in the following groups - if you just want to clean out usb flash drive related items:

1. Universal Serial Bus Controllers - Remove anything greyed out
2. Universal Serial Bus Devices - removed anything greyed out

Once you are done, we want windows to update the list of devices still available.  We'll need to delete the infcache.1 file.

Go back to the CMD screen.

• type: cd c:\windows\system32\driverstore
• type: start . (this should open up explorer in a new window.)

Delete the file infcache.1

• Right click the file infcache.1 (do this so we can delete the file)
• Click properties - security - edit - add - type Administrators - OK - Add full control for administrators - click apply
• Now you can Delete the file infcache.1
• Reboot pc

That's it!

Now if you do have internet access and want a simple tool to do this for you - and a little more.  Download drivecleanup.  Though Drive cleanup does not help you remove other old drivers such as old video cards, modems, etc...

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Ping Sweep Using DOS Commands

When I want to find out what machines are on my local network, I have always relied on tools such as Angry IP Scanner or Look@LAN (XP).  Recently I could not get Look@LAN working properly on a 64-Bit Windows 7 machine, I kept getting crashes or errors.  I ended up finding and alternative they have made, called fing for Desktop.  They have great GUI versions for IOS and Android, but no GUI for windows.  However, they did have the command line version, which is better in some respects but not as easy to start out with.  I'll write more about that in another post.

I wanted to look for something simpler and I started to write my own script, but figured I can find it online.  I've looked in the past but never found one that was simple enough.  Recently, I found a very simple one line command by YouFooBar.  I couldn't believe how simple it was once I saw it.

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In short, the command is:

FOR /L %i in (1,1,255) do @ping -n 1 -w 200 192.168.1.%i | find "Reply"

This command will skip any non-responding systems and give us the "alive" systems on the local subnet.

You can put the above command in a batch file (make sure to add the extra % in front of %i) and redirect output etc..

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Getting Your PC's Serial Number Without a Reboot

If you're in my line of work and have to setup or reconfigure machines on a regular basis, it helps to have a tool to help keep your hardware inventory.  One item on my inventory that I need to update any time I work on a computer is the Serial Number of the machine.  This number helps me keep track of who is on what machine and when service is needed, it's usually the first number you look for.

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In the past, I've had to rely on external stickers on the pcs themselves or rebooting the computer and getting the serial number.  Some systems will provide the number in certain system software.  It's great that we can find it in all these places, but if you have to remember where to look just to get to the number, it's a hassle in itself.

A couple of years ago, I discovered a command line that will shoe just the serial number:

wmic bios get serialnumber

This has saved me much head scratching and looking for online tips every time I need it.  I've used it enough now that I have memorized the command and its just a few click away!  I've primarily used this on Dell computers and it has worked on a few other brands as well.  It will work on Windows XP, 7 and 8.

Many of you sysadmins already know this command, if you didn't, I hope this will help you save some head scratching.

For additional links to tips and tricks follow me on Twitter. If you would like to contribute to FrugalNYC or FrugalTech in any way, contact me via email. Click here to add this to your RSS reader or Subscribe to FrugalTech by Email.