devices and Printers window loads real slow in windows 8.1

Anonymous
2013-12-21T07:18:42+00:00

devices and Printers window loads real slow in windows 8.1 and loads fast in windows 7 both are on the same computer as a dual boot system

Windows for home | Previous Windows versions | Performance and system failures

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  1. Anonymous
    2014-06-06T02:54:57+00:00

    avb, I have Windows 8.1, but couldn't find the "Device Stage" folder. Any tips?

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  3. Anonymous
    2014-06-03T14:55:36+00:00

    Thanks Dillon_642, that was the answer for me.

    The question is ... why were all those greyed out devices showing in the first place?

    Well, one answer might be if you have been using System Restore a number of times (as I had).  I can only think that when System Restore restores your system back to an earlier restore point, then it somehow adds all these extra unconnected devices so that they show up in Device Manager.

    So if you use System Restore, be sure to check after a restore that there are no extra greyed out devices showing in Device Manger.  If there are, delete them.

    Hope this helps.

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  4. Anonymous
    2014-05-27T10:52:48+00:00

    I had this problem but it seems to have solved itself while sorting another problem.

    Here is what happened.

    In Device Manager - View - Show hidden devices - Storage volume shadow copies, I found I had about a 1000 'Generic volume shadow copy'.

    All but one were greyed out showing  'Currently, this hardware device is not connected to the computer. (Code 45)'. 

    I did post a question about this elsewhere but have not received a solution.

    See post :

    1000 'Generic volume shadow copy' entries in Device Manager

    Further research showed I had about 25 greyed out 'Generic volume' under Storage volumes and many greyed out entries under Universal Serial Bus controllers.

    I manually 'un-installed' all of the 'Generic volume' greyed out entries and the many greyed out entries under Universal Serial Bus controllers.

    This automatically removed the vast majority of the 1000 'Generic volume shadow copy'. 

    I then manually un-installed the rest of the greyed out ones.

    Lo and behold - Devices and Printers now loads instantly!

    This may not work for you and I hasten to add that I am a total amateur!

    As always, don't forget to do a backup first (don't bother with Microsoft's methods. They don't work - many posts on this too! I use Macrium Reflect - works well).

    Good luck

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  5. Anonymous
    2014-05-23T14:50:24+00:00

    FYI...I have Server 2008 R2 & 2012 R2 and the D&P screen loads properly.

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