Serial ports COM3-COM49 used, but not listed in device manager
Go to My Computer, Properties, Advanced, Environment Variables, and make a System variable named
devmgr_show_nonpresent_devices
Make its value 1.
Now go to device manager, view, and check Show Hidden Devices.
Now expand Ports(COM & LPT). You'll see more ports than you did before. Right-click on and Uninstall whichever of the greyed-out ports you don't want.
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Ivan Vučica
Croatian developer, who used to focus on (and still likes) mostly iOS and Mac development. Currently at works for a search engine company. Interests include game and web development, with game development experience on Mac, Windows and GNU/Linux. #SOreadytohelp
Updated on September 17, 2022Comments
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Ivan Vučica over 1 year
Some piece of software or some driver appears to be using the serial ports COM3-COM49.
New COM ports for Bluetooth et al get assigned ridiculous numbers over 50. When I try to change the number, Windows claim that the lower COM port number is in use, and suggest that I don't apply new settings. However, ActiveSync docs say that COM port number must be 20 or lower.
I have no idea where to look to figure out what's reserving the all those COM port numbers. What other ways do I have for uninstalling devices that don't appear in device manager? How do I figure out what took over those COM port IDs?
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Ivan Vučica over 14 yearsThank you very much! Removing them will take a while though :-)
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tamberg almost 14 yearsThanks! Here's the MSDN link (also works for Windows 7) support.microsoft.com/kb/315539