how to remove old NICs from upgraded XP guest??

[tlyczko]

I had trouble installing VMware Tools and ended up with three (3!!) unusable old AMD PCnet etc. network adapters after putting in the vmxnet 3 driver.

XP won't let me remove these NICs from Device Manager, I have presently disabled them.

XP guest keeps saying "Failed to uninstall the device. The device may be required to boot up the computer."

How do I remove them?? Do I remove the vmxnet and start all over again??

I need to know the correct way to remove the old NICs as I have quite a lot of VMs to upgrade.

Thank you, Tom

[vmroyale · Accepted solution]

Hello.

Removing old NICs is usually done via Device Manager. From the command prompt type the following:

set devmgr_show_nonpresent_devices=1

devmgmt.msc

When Device Manager opens, select the View menu and choose "Show Hidden Devices."

If you can't remove them this way, then you may have to go into the registry. Search in HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Class for the name of NIC (as it appears in Device Manager). The Characteristics field will likely have a value similar to 0x00000029 - changing this value to 0x00000009 will make the NIC user removable.

As with all things registry related, have good backups and be careful.

Good Luck!

[tlyczko]

I forgot to say I did all that with the devmgr etc.

Thank you for the registry tip.

Thank you, Tom

[tlyczko]

Fixing one of the errant NICs' registry value enabled cleaning all the excess junk.

Thank you, Tom