Accepted Solutions
- 25 June 08 - Updated **
Last update, I promise.
I made some additional chages to this hardware removal script and tested it over the past couple of months with conversions. It now removes (for my Win 2000/2003) machines all non-present devices except those listed under 'non plug and play drivers'. This is the location of vendor specific devices and still needs to be cleaned manually. Other than that, the script should remove all other non-present devices.
Cheers,
SP
Someone pointed out that the script attached here doesn't actually work! The actual line that did the removal was configured to just echo the command .. oops. This has been fixed now
Devcon is not able to detect ghosted devices. You can do a devcon find and a devcon findall which shows the difference between present and non-present devices.
The way described in my previous email will remove the important non-present devices such as media, networking, sound/video etc, but you can define this by which class you use. Some of the devices (especially system devices) come up as non present, inparticular was the terminal services redirector, so removing all devices (difference between find|findall) removed some of these, and hence why we are using devices in just a few classes.
I search for devices in the following classes:
net cdrom diskdrive display fdc hdc keyboard media monitor scsiadapter unknown floppydisk processor volume
If you want to do a complete automated ghosted hardware removal, the best way would be to run devcon on the physical hardware prior to imaging (devcon find), and compare this with an output run on the virtual machine (devcon findall). The difference between them will be the devices that were presented on the physical and no longer present on the virtual and remove them. Personally, I still think this cause cause troubles because of the software devices present.
I have attached the mentioned scripts to this post. The zip file contains 4 batch files:
1_runonvm.cmd - run on virtual machine to remove most of the non-present hardware
2_rundevmgr.cmd - run on virtual machine, sets the environment variable and launches devcon
downgrade_UP.cmd - automated script to change the current HAL to a uniprocessor (2000/2003)
upgrade_MP.cmd - automated script to change current HAL to multiprocessor (2000/2003)
The folder should be fully self-contained, contains binaries and is path-independant, so can run from network share (1_runonvm.cmd requires writing to the folder though).
If you use and make any improvements, feel free to let me know. Use at your own risk, obviously.
-SP
Hi,
I agree with you about BusLogic adapters and you're right changing it by LSI adapter. Converter uses BusLogic because you can have a specific adapter card on your physical server. So, by using BusLogic, your VM won't have trouble to start (BusLogic is a generic adapter). Changing adapter, you also have to convert disk. Notice that the convert doesn't work on Windows 2000 server because the boot step on W2k doesn't accept new card/disk. Windows 2003 haven't got problem, but you have to reboot after the first boot.
LSI has got more performance than BusLogic, so it is a very good idea to change it.
About devices, I uninstall and delete all locals devices : Floppy, serial, LPT, USB and all around. I have to uninstall in Windows too... I didn't know this variable : devmgr_show_nonpresent_devices. I take note
Olivier
###############
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Our post - P2V process uses devcon for most of the automation.
1. For a defined set of classes (ie, run 'devcon classes'), find the difference between a devcon findall and devcon find. This finds a number of devices that are 'non present', and can be simply removed using devcon remove. This normally covers all the network cards, storage, drives and sound/video components. This does not work well with system device classes, so don't use them unless you want strange behaviour in your VM.
2.You can easily modify the hal between UP and MP in Windows 2000 and 2003 without any hotfixes, and without being dodgy. The process is basically telling the OS the valid options for the HAL.
ie, if you do a devcon hwids @root\*hal* and look at the 'hardware ID's', you will see the 'compatible' IDs. Use devcon to simply add another valid id and switch it to MP or UP as you wish.
to switch from MP to UP - devcon sethwid @root\*hal* :=+ACPIAPIC_MP
to switch from UP to MP - devcon sethwid @root\*hal* :=+ACPIAPIC_UP
then devcon update "%windir%\inf\hal.inf" ACPIAPIC(UP|MP) will force the update, and reboot.
The third part of the post process is to remove known software. This is done by maintaing a list of known software titles (from add remove programs registry entries). This is usually HP openview, Dell software and anything else you come across. If there is a match, the script simply tells it to run the uninstall string listed in the registry. This works 90% of the time.
Anyone is more than welcome to the shell scripts for the above - I just don't have them with me atm
Cheers,
SP
Well, I'm not sure it will improve performance. But, for me, if you delete them, windows will have got less drivers to load, and so, more disponibility for other.
For security, make a snapshot before delete them... we never know... 
Olivier
###############
If you found this information useful, please consider awarding points for "Correct" or "Helpful". Thanks!!!
Hi Snapper - I can see all the hidden devices (HP NIC drivers etc) - is there a way I can just use devcon to remove everything that is hidden / greyed out? Or do I just run "devcon remove"?
I'm new to Dev Con.... and it sounds like you aren't
- 25 June 08 - Updated **
Last update, I promise.
I made some additional chages to this hardware removal script and tested it over the past couple of months with conversions. It now removes (for my Win 2000/2003) machines all non-present devices except those listed under 'non plug and play drivers'. This is the location of vendor specific devices and still needs to be cleaned manually. Other than that, the script should remove all other non-present devices.
Cheers,
SP
Someone pointed out that the script attached here doesn't actually work! The actual line that did the removal was configured to just echo the command .. oops. This has been fixed now
Devcon is not able to detect ghosted devices. You can do a devcon find and a devcon findall which shows the difference between present and non-present devices.
The way described in my previous email will remove the important non-present devices such as media, networking, sound/video etc, but you can define this by which class you use. Some of the devices (especially system devices) come up as non present, inparticular was the terminal services redirector, so removing all devices (difference between find|findall) removed some of these, and hence why we are using devices in just a few classes.
I search for devices in the following classes:
net cdrom diskdrive display fdc hdc keyboard media monitor scsiadapter unknown floppydisk processor volume
If you want to do a complete automated ghosted hardware removal, the best way would be to run devcon on the physical hardware prior to imaging (devcon find), and compare this with an output run on the virtual machine (devcon findall). The difference between them will be the devices that were presented on the physical and no longer present on the virtual and remove them. Personally, I still think this cause cause troubles because of the software devices present.
I have attached the mentioned scripts to this post. The zip file contains 4 batch files:
1_runonvm.cmd - run on virtual machine to remove most of the non-present hardware
2_rundevmgr.cmd - run on virtual machine, sets the environment variable and launches devcon
downgrade_UP.cmd - automated script to change the current HAL to a uniprocessor (2000/2003)
upgrade_MP.cmd - automated script to change current HAL to multiprocessor (2000/2003)
The folder should be fully self-contained, contains binaries and is path-independant, so can run from network share (1_runonvm.cmd requires writing to the folder though).
If you use and make any improvements, feel free to let me know. Use at your own risk, obviously.
-SP
Hi all,
I have modified the script so that it should work with x64 Windows. I simply relocated the awking of some output to use findstr instead of a third party application which does not work under 64 bit Windows.
There are several other modifications:
By default, this will create a directory under the %systemdrive% (normally C:) \admin with the same name as the script. The output files are placed in here, including the list of removed devices.
For the time being (until I get access to a x64 platform), you will need to replace the devcon.exe with the 64bit version and name it the same. When I get the opportunity, I'll use wmic to get the actual os version correctly, and use the appropriate 32|64 bit.
I've included contact information in the output screen as well - please use this if there are errors or improvements, as I don't monitor this post
Cheers,
Simon
twitter: saniti
Don't forget to award points where appropriate
Sorry for the delay but I have updated the version of the script significantly.
It will now:
- Work on all flavours of Windows including 32 and 64 bit. So XP, Windows 2008 x64.
- Based on feedback, have added some new device classes that it will remove
- Creates a list of removed devices in the output folder (%systemdrive%\admin\Don't forget to award points where appropriate