Remove Ghost Devices From Your Windows Computer

Trouble:

Many times we connect devices to out computer which we never attach again. Once you attach these devices to computer, there is an entry created in your Windows Devices list and it remain there.

For example once I attached a gaming joystick to my computer which I borrowed from a friend. Sometimes we attach mouse / data-cars / or any other device which we don’t plan to attach again. These device’s entries remain in Windows.

The problem with having too many ghosted devices is that Windows searches for such devices at start-up and its can Windows Slow Startup Problem. In this article I will share with you how you can use free tool called GhostBuster to remove such ghosted devices from your Windows Computer.

Fix:

Follow the below steps to use GhostBuster on your computer.

1. Download GhostBuster Installer and Install Ghost Buster.

2. If you are using Windows XP, just run Ghost Buster from start menu shortcut. If you are using ghost buster on Windows Vista or Windows 7, browse to the following path “C:\Program Files\Swiss\GhostBuster” and right click on GhostBuster Application file and click Properties.

Now click on Compatibility tab and select Windows XP compatibility Mode and click OK.

Now launch ghost busters. It may give a UAC warning like one below:

3. GhostBuster will list down all the devices which are ghosted. You can now remove these devices as seen in screenshot below:

You can check more hardware related problem solutions here.

Author + Admin: Rohit Khurana
Software Engineer by profession. I am a part time tech blogger and believe in blogging because I enjoy writing on technology. I also write about Cars and Bikes at www.carblogindia.com. You can catch me on twitter @rohit_khurana. Get in touch with me at RohitKhurana.in.