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
    2014-06-03T14:55:36+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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  3. 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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  4. Anonymous
    2014-06-06T14:28:57+00:00

    I've been fighting this issue for a while now with no success until today. For me it had to do with the Devices and Printers cache in my user profile. Delete or rename the following folder and it should be back to normal.

    %systemroot%\users\*currentuser*\Appdata\Local\Microsoft\Device Stage (in Windows 8)

    %systemroot%\users\*currentuser*\Appdata\Local\Microsoft\Device Metadata (in Windows 7)

    Hope this helps!

    I only had (2) subfolders in Device Stage:

    Device

    Task

    Neither looked to have cache.  What do yours look like?

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  5. Anonymous
    2014-06-06T14:30:01+00:00

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

    In file explorer, make sure you have hidden items checked under view.

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