Tip - Win2000 Registry LEGACY Entries

[RKBA]

This is an answer without a question, but I discovered something that was new to me and thought others might benefit if you don't already know about it.

I fiddle around with my registry occasionally (it's a necessary survival trait if you use Windows), and noticed that there are a bunch of LEGACY_* entries in the registry branch "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE \SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Enum\LEGACY" that can't be deleted even by Administrator. This has bugged me for awhile, and I finally found out how to get rid of these entries and thought I'd share the trick.

It turns out that these "LEGACY" registry entries are placeholders for non plug-n-play devices in Windows Device Manager. If you open up Device Manager (ControlPanel/System/Hardware/Device Manager) and then select "View->Show Hidden Devices," you'll see tons of "Non-Plug and Play Drivers." In my case, about half of these were pointers to old device drivers for things I'd installed and uninstalled ages ago and no longer want or need. The ones that don't have an actual device driver associated with them (most likely because it was removed during uninstallation) are a light gray, and the drivers that are working properly are a darker gray. I just right clicked on the light gray drivers that weren't working properly and chose "Uninstall." Afterwards, I checked the "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE \SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Enum\LEGACY" branch of my registry, and all the LEGACY garbage was gone!

There's an article about it at Microsoft's Windows2000 Resource Kit page (http://www.microsoft.com/windows2000/techinfo/reskit/en-us/default.asp?url=/windows2000/techinfo/reskit/en-us/regentry/30004.asp).

-- Ron

[iisbob]

Be VERY careful what you delete & uninstall here! For instance the Legacy VGA listig is what 2k uses for safe mode video!!

Best thing to do is leave this key ( and sub keys ) alone; for here also are the generic advanced power configuration drivers for 2k.

I hope you made a backup of this key(s)!


:eek:

[RKBA]

iisbob,

You should have read my post more carefully. I only uninstalled non plug-n-play device driver entries for device driver files that no longer exist and for which the device status is "This device is not present, is not working properly, or does not have all its drivers installed. (Code 24)." I fail to see how uninstalling a device driver that doesn't work in the first place could have any adverse effect on my system (and in fact it hasn't). There are still 47 non plug-n-play device driver entries in Device Manager that I have no intention of deleting, nor did I mean to imply that anyone should uninstall all non plug-n-play device drivers wholesale. What I said was:The ones that don't have an actual device driver associated with them (most likely because it was removed during [program] uninstallation) are a light gray, and the drivers that are working properly are a darker gray. I just right clicked on the light gray drivers that weren't working properly and chose "Uninstall." I did not make a backup of the LEGACY branch of my registry because I do not need one. Even if I did, I would merely reinstall the desired device driver.

-- Ron http://ron.dotson.org/emoticons/splat.gif