Device manager is blank

Anonymous
2009-10-18T10:41:49+00:00

I tried Microsofts suggestion of clicking on plug and play and making sure it was set on automatic but that didn't work.

Windows for home | Previous Windows versions | Devices and drivers

Locked Question. This question was migrated from the Microsoft Support Community. You can vote on whether it's helpful, but you can't add comments or replies or follow the question.

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Anonymous
2009-10-20T17:05:54+00:00

Hello Estridge48,

Thank you for your post.  Try the following registry edit to resolve your issue:

  1. Go to "Start", "Run", and enter "regedt32"
  2. Maximize the "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE" window.
  3. Scroll down to "SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Enum"
  4. With "Enum" selected click the "Security", "Permissions" menu.

Note: At this point you will probably notice there are no permissions on this key.

  1. Click "Add".
  2. Add the group "Everyone" and the user "SYSTEM".
  3. Select "Everyone" and check "Read" ONLY!
  4. Select "SYSTEM" and check "Full Control".
  5. Click the "Advanced" button at the bottom of the window.
  6. On the Advanced window check "Reset permissions on all child objects..."
  7. Click "OK"
  8. On the warning window click "Yes"
  9. Close REGEDT32

Modifying REGISTRY settings incorrectly can cause serious problems that may prevent your computer from booting properly. Microsoft cannot guarantee that any problems resulting from the configuring of REGISTRY settings can be solved. Modifications of these settings are at your own risk.

Please let us know if  this did or didn't help to resolve your problem.

Cheers

Jason Microsoft Answers Support Engineer Visit our Microsoft Answers Feedback Forum and let us know what you think.

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  1. Anonymous
    2011-01-02T22:55:26+00:00

    Hello everyone - the information in this thread was very helpful but did not work for some people like me who had a permission problem and could not follow the instructions above.  I found out how to solve that problem as well after several hours of Googling and experimenting.  The most useful information came from this website (basically gives the same instructions as above with screenshots), but specifically the instructions near the bottom by DaveMcG54

    "For those having problems with lack of permission to change the …/enum parameters, first go to the owners tab on the advanced page of enums permission. Highlight your user name and select “Replace owner on subcontainers and objects” and hit apply. When you go back to the permission fields mentioned in option #2, you should now have authority to make changes."

    I actually did this while in Administrator mode, in an attempt to have as much user privilege as possible.  You can find out how to go to Administrator modehere .  Being in Administrator mode, running the registry in"Run as administrator" mode were not on their own enough to get the registry fix to work.  I had to follow the extra instructions of DaveMcG54 to finally get Device Manager back.

    Thanks immensely to everyone who contributed!  Now on to fixing my daughter's Zune installation ...

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  2. Anonymous
    2009-10-24T14:14:35+00:00

    I'm having the same problem, my device manager is empty.  Like Estridge, I had no success in Microsofts solution, and I did try the suggestion listed here by Jason.  Everything was fine until I was in the "SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Enum" part.  I didn't find the "Security", "Permissions" menu with "Enum" selected.

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  3. Anonymous
    2009-10-24T18:48:01+00:00

    Try right clicking on Enum, that opened it for me.

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  4. Anonymous
    2009-10-24T18:45:48+00:00

    When I get to Permissions for Enum in the securities tab, I get the following under Group or user names:

    Administrators Paul-44A119FFFB\Administrators

    Interactive

    Should I continue with "add" as you suggested?

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