Removing old/hidden COM ports in Windows

Seairth

I'm just putting this in a separate post so it doesn't get buried as a comment elsewhere.

To remove old/hideen COM port assignments for the FTDI USB Serial ports, you will need to perform the following steps:

1. Add a system environment variable "devmgr_show_nonpresent_devices=1".
2. Open Device Manager.
3. In the menu, enable "View > Show Hidden Devices".
4. Under "Ports (COM & LPT)", all of the FTDI COM ports will be labeled "USB Serial Port". Remove at will!

For step-by-step instruction on doing this, read this page.

Publison

Gee, did you have a few show up when you programed all those badges?

I guess each badge had a new COM Port?

I got over the nasty Flu that prevented me from helping. Would have love to be there.

lonesock

I make a batch file with the name "Remove USB COM - run as admin.bat". Inside is the following text:

set devmgr_show_nonpresent_devices=1
start devmgmt.msc

Then I just right-click the batch file and, you guessed it, run as administrator. [8^) Then I just follow your steps 3 & 4.

Jonathan

Seairth

Publison wrote: »

Gee, did you have a few show up when you programed all those badges?

I guess each badge had a new COM Port?

I got over the nasty Flu that prevented me from helping. Would have love to be there.

Hah! Indeed I did! I'm sorry you weren't able to make it. I was looking forward to meeting you. Maybe next time.