"Other devices"

Hello, i have a lot of "Other devices" in my Device manager list.
How do i get rid of them?
Thnx

Regards

mto1971 said:

Hello, i have a lot of "Other devices" in my Device manager list.
How do i get rid of them?
Thnx

Regards

Click to expand...

You can uninstall the drivers if you are sure you don't need them.

Kind regards,

Scroll down to "Device Cleanup Tool V1.5.1" and download it. Needs to be run as Administrator.

Each once attached device leaves an entry in the Windows device management. By means of the Windows device manager you can delete one by one only. With this tool you can delete multiple or all non-present devices.
Since V1.5 there is a separate dialog for Bluetooth devices in the Tools menu.
Non-PnP devices and 'soft' devices are not listed by default, this can be changed in the Options menu.

Click to expand...

.

Once I tried to manually force install drivers for all the Bluetooth protocols in "Other devices" of Device Manager. What I did made my Bluetooth to not connect to any device at all! To fix it I had to uninstall (delete) all Bluetooth devices in Device Manager and restart the computer to automatically install them again expect the "Other devices". So from now on I just ignore them.

Did you first try deleting them through Settings > Bluetooth & devices > ... > Remove device

They are generally devices that don't need a driver.

mto1971 said:

Hello, i have a lot of "Other devices" in my Device manager list.
How do i get rid of them?
Thnx

Regards

View attachment 162199

Click to expand...

This falls under the "If it's not broken, don't try to fix it" category. Not all hardware needs a specific driver to function correctly. If you're not seeing errors or problem codes, there's nothing wrong with your system.

Thanks y'all for the replies. I indeed assume that there's nothing (really) wrong with the system
but it would be nice if they disappeared :)
I forgot to mention that this happened after i disabled a bunch of "unnecessary" services.

mto1971 said:

Thanks y'all for the replies. I indeed assume that there's nothing (really) wrong with the system
but it would be nice if they disappeared :)
I forgot to mention that this happened after i disabled a bunch of "unnecessary" services.

Click to expand...

Perhaps they were not as unecessary as you think!

People often go to insane lengths to deleting services in pursuit of the holy grail of "improved performance" and frankly this is pointless and has not be needed since XP days. As you have seen turning off services can have unexpected consequences. Never listen to internet warriors who tell you it is safe to stop service a,b,.... blah blah blah.

Funny how they never tell you of hidden consequences, how to reverse changes or advise making backups etc first.

I remember back in Windows XP days that I read about disabling Telephony service (supposedly not needed if you are not using a dial-up internet connection) and cryptography (or similar) service (supposedly not needed if you don't encrypt your hard disk). Of course I didn't want to risk some incompatibility so I didn't do that. Even if I did the performance improvement would be negligible, I don't think these services use too much RAM or CPU time. One simpler and safer way to speedup a system is to disable all visual effects (transparency, fades, animations), all useless startup applications (browsers, update reminders and the like) and some non-Microsoft services. The latter are require more experience to figure out if you need them or not, so if unsure don't touch them. Of course all these imply that you have first updated all your drivers. I prefer to download the graphics driver directly from manufacturer (nVidia, Intel, AMD) to get the latest version and the full package including the Control Panel to tweak performance and appearance. Windows Update frequently installs an older version without any extras (core functionality, not Control Panel) and as you might know the default settings are not ideal.

The device manager is bricked. Once you clean it up on the next boot every thing will be bonkers again. MS has to be aware of this. But there are numerous examples of Win 11 MS apps that are bricked. Things are in sad shape at MS.

Just a reminder... Whatever is in "Other devices" category is not without drivers. That category has devices without installed drivers, but also has devices that have drivers and work properly but not belong to any other category. If you have some free time, you can right-click one of them, select Properties and check the drivers. If it has drivers, it is OK. If it hasn't you can see the Hardware IDs and Google them to find drivers. Once again I warn you to just ignore Bluetooth devices. Unnecessarily installing drivers for all protocols might make your Bluetooth unable to connect to any Bluetooth device! Been there done that.

For those that don't want to manually search for drivers, you can use Snappy Driver Installer which detects the missing drivers and installs them from its database. To avoid incompatibility issues DON'T update existing drivers (blue text in the list). Install only missing drivers (green text in the list). Also NEVER use Snappy or other driver tools in tablets. You will lose the touch and rotation features and nothing you do can fix it, unless you download the chipset (aka platform) drivers from manufacturer and reinstall them. Even then success is not guaranteed, you may have to reinstall Windows! You have been warned.

Snappy Driver Installer

Don Kee said:

The device manager is bricked. Once you clean it up on the next boot every thing will be bonkers again. MS has to be aware of this. But there are numerous examples of Win 11 MS apps that are bricked. Things are in sad shape at MS.

Click to expand...

The Device Manager is not bricked. In the OP's screenshot I see all the Bluetooth devices and protocols. If you delete them they are detected and listed again. This is normal. Just ignore them. Don't ask for trouble.