The attached file is for info in case you were not familiar with this
little trick... I had never heard it before...

Ken



I have a Delorme Blue Logger. (Blue Tooth device) I have installed and
uninstalled it so many times that the COM port is now up to 31!
How do I get rid of all those unused ports, and get the COM port down to a
resonable number again? I have even used Regedit to remove all of them, but
the number just keeps climbing.

tnx


Here is a little trick that may help...

In SYSTEM PROPERTIES, click on the ADVANCE TAB then click on the
ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES BUTTON (at bottom).
Under SYSTEM VARIABLES, click NEW - then enter the below:

name = DEVMGR_SHOW_NONPRESENT_DEVICES
value = 1

I can't remember if a reboot is necessary - can't hurt??

What this does is show all devices, including old ones in device manager.

NOW, GO INTO DEVICE MANAGER.Under VIEW select SHOW HIDDEN DEVICES.

Now, uninstall all of those pesky old com ports.





The port numbers are now back to single digit numbers, plus I was able to
fix a lot of other tings.

Thanks for the help!

tnx