We’ve been looking at using Base Image Scripting Framework (BISF) as our new preparation and personalization platform for our PVS farm. In our current world we have a bunch of features and tweaks that are not apart of BISF so I’ve been writing some additions so that we achieve feature parity.
One of the features I wanted to take a good hard look at was removing ‘Ghost’ devices — or devices that aren’t present in your system. Ghost devices look like this:
Our current world accomplishes this task by using a script written by Simon Price and devcon.exe. There is nothing wrong with this method per se but BISF is native Powershell and I want to stick to that without having outside dependencies. Can this requirement be achieved with nothing but PowerShell? Fortunately, google came to rescue and pointed me here. A script written by Alexander Boersch got me 80% of the way there (whoo hoo!). He wrote the method and ability to access setupapi.dll which gives us the functions and methods necessary to query and manipulate devices in Device Manager. PowerShell is supposed to have the ability to do C# code natively and his example was perfect for taking me where I needed to go.
How does it work? What’s the output?
1 |
. "removeGhosts.ps1" -listDevicesOnly |

1 |
. "removeGhosts.ps1" -FilterByFriendlyName @("Citrix","Intel") |

notice the “filter match” text
And a brief video of it in action:
Lastly, the script:
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 109 110 111 112 113 114 115 116 117 118 119 120 121 122 123 124 125 126 127 128 129 130 131 132 133 134 135 136 137 138 139 140 141 142 143 144 145 146 147 148 149 150 151 152 153 154 155 156 157 158 159 160 161 162 163 164 165 166 167 168 169 170 171 172 173 174 175 176 177 178 179 180 181 182 183 184 185 186 187 188 189 190 191 192 193 194 195 196 197 198 199 200 201 202 203 204 205 206 207 208 209 210 211 212 213 214 215 216 217 218 219 220 221 222 223 224 225 226 227 228 229 230 231 232 233 234 235 236 237 238 239 240 241 242 243 244 245 246 247 248 249 250 251 252 253 254 255 256 257 258 259 260 261 262 263 264 265 266 267 268 269 270 271 272 273 274 275 276 277 278 279 280 281 282 283 284 285 286 287 288 289 290 291 292 293 294 295 296 297 298 299 300 301 302 303 304 305 306 307 308 309 310 311 312 313 314 315 316 317 318 319 320 321 322 323 324 325 326 327 328 329 330 331 332 333 334 335 336 337 338 339 340 341 342 343 344 345 346 347 348 349 350 351 352 353 354 355 356 357 358 359 360 361 362 363 364 365 366 367 368 369 370 371 372 373 374 375 376 377 |
<# .SYNOPSIS Removes ghost devices from your system .DESCRIPTION This script will remove ghost devices from your system. These are devices that are present but have a "InstallState" as false. These devices are typically shown as 'faded' in Device Manager, when you select "Show hidden and devices" from the view menu. This script has been tested on Windows 2008 R2 SP2 with PowerShell 3.0, 5.1 and Server 2012R2 with Powershell 4.0. There is no warranty with this script. Please use cautiously as removing devices is a destructive process without an undo. .PARAMETER filterByFriendlyName This parameter will exclude devices that match the partial name provided. This paramater needs to be specified in an array format for all the friendly names you want to be excluded from removal. "Intel" will match "Intel(R) Xeon(R) CPU E5-2680 0 @ 2.70GHz". "Loop" will match "Microsoft Loopback Adapter". .PARAMETER filterByClass This parameter will exclude devices that match the class name provided. This paramater needs to be specified in an array format for all the class names you want to be excluded from removal. This is an exact string match so "Disk" will not match "DiskDrive". .PARAMETER listDevicesOnly listDevicesOnly will output a table of all devices found in this system. .PARAMETER listGhostDevicesOnly listGhostDevicesOnly will output a table of all 'ghost' devices found in this system. .EXAMPLE Lists all devices . "removeGhosts.ps1" -listDevicesOnly .EXAMPLE Save the list of devices as an object $Devices = . "removeGhosts.ps1" -listDevicesOnly .EXAMPLE Lists all 'ghost' devices . "removeGhosts.ps1" -listGhostDevicesOnly .EXAMPLE Save the list of 'ghost' devices as an object $ghostDevices = . "removeGhosts.ps1" -listGhostDevicesOnly .EXAMPLE Remove all ghost devices EXCEPT any devices that have "Intel" or "Citrix" in their friendly name . "removeGhosts.ps1" -filterByFriendlyName @("Intel","Citrix") .EXAMPLE Remove all ghost devices EXCEPT any devices that are apart of the classes "LegacyDriver" or "Processor" . "removeGhosts.ps1" -filterByClass @("LegacyDriver","Processor") .EXAMPLE Remove all ghost devices EXCEPT for devices with a friendly name of "Intel" or "Citrix" or with a class of "LegacyDriver" or "Processor" . "removeGhosts.ps1" -filterByClass @("LegacyDriver","Processor") -filterByFriendlyName @("Intel","Citrix") .NOTES Permission level has not been tested. It is assumed you will need to have sufficient rights to uninstall devices from device manager for this script to run properly. #> Param( [array]$FilterByClass, [array]$FilterByFriendlyName, [switch]$listDevicesOnly, [switch]$listGhostDevicesOnly ) #parameter futzing $removeDevices = $true if ($FilterByClass -ne $null) { write-host "FilterByClass: $FilterByClass" } if ($FilterByFriendlyName -ne $null) { write-host "FilterByFriendlyName: $FilterByFriendlyName" } if ($listDevicesOnly -eq $true) { write-host "List devices without removal: $listDevicesOnly" $removeDevices = $false } if ($listGhostDevicesOnly -eq $true) { write-host "List ghost devices without removal: $listGhostDevicesOnly" $removeDevices = $false } $setupapi = @" using System; using System.Diagnostics; using System.Text; using System.Runtime.InteropServices; namespace Win32 { public static class SetupApi { // 1st form using a ClassGUID only, with Enumerator = IntPtr.Zero [DllImport("setupapi.dll", CharSet = CharSet.Auto)] public static extern IntPtr SetupDiGetClassDevs( ref Guid ClassGuid, IntPtr Enumerator, IntPtr hwndParent, int Flags ); // 2nd form uses an Enumerator only, with ClassGUID = IntPtr.Zero [DllImport("setupapi.dll", CharSet = CharSet.Auto)] public static extern IntPtr SetupDiGetClassDevs( IntPtr ClassGuid, string Enumerator, IntPtr hwndParent, int Flags ); [DllImport("setupapi.dll", CharSet = CharSet.Auto, SetLastError = true)] public static extern bool SetupDiEnumDeviceInfo( IntPtr DeviceInfoSet, uint MemberIndex, ref SP_DEVINFO_DATA DeviceInfoData ); [DllImport("setupapi.dll", SetLastError = true)] public static extern bool SetupDiDestroyDeviceInfoList( IntPtr DeviceInfoSet ); [DllImport("setupapi.dll", CharSet = CharSet.Auto, SetLastError = true)] public static extern bool SetupDiGetDeviceRegistryProperty( IntPtr deviceInfoSet, ref SP_DEVINFO_DATA deviceInfoData, uint property, out UInt32 propertyRegDataType, byte[] propertyBuffer, uint propertyBufferSize, out UInt32 requiredSize ); [DllImport("setupapi.dll", SetLastError = true, CharSet = CharSet.Auto)] public static extern bool SetupDiGetDeviceInstanceId( IntPtr DeviceInfoSet, ref SP_DEVINFO_DATA DeviceInfoData, StringBuilder DeviceInstanceId, int DeviceInstanceIdSize, out int RequiredSize ); [DllImport("setupapi.dll", CharSet = CharSet.Auto, SetLastError = true)] public static extern bool SetupDiRemoveDevice(IntPtr DeviceInfoSet,ref SP_DEVINFO_DATA DeviceInfoData); } [StructLayout(LayoutKind.Sequential)] public struct SP_DEVINFO_DATA { public uint cbSize; public Guid classGuid; public uint devInst; public IntPtr reserved; } [Flags] public enum DiGetClassFlags : uint { DIGCF_DEFAULT = 0x00000001, // only valid with DIGCF_DEVICEINTERFACE DIGCF_PRESENT = 0x00000002, DIGCF_ALLCLASSES = 0x00000004, DIGCF_PROFILE = 0x00000008, DIGCF_DEVICEINTERFACE = 0x00000010, } public enum SetupDiGetDeviceRegistryPropertyEnum : uint { SPDRP_DEVICEDESC = 0x00000000, // DeviceDesc (R/W) SPDRP_HARDWAREID = 0x00000001, // HardwareID (R/W) SPDRP_COMPATIBLEIDS = 0x00000002, // CompatibleIDs (R/W) SPDRP_UNUSED0 = 0x00000003, // unused SPDRP_SERVICE = 0x00000004, // Service (R/W) SPDRP_UNUSED1 = 0x00000005, // unused SPDRP_UNUSED2 = 0x00000006, // unused SPDRP_CLASS = 0x00000007, // Class (R--tied to ClassGUID) SPDRP_CLASSGUID = 0x00000008, // ClassGUID (R/W) SPDRP_DRIVER = 0x00000009, // Driver (R/W) SPDRP_CONFIGFLAGS = 0x0000000A, // ConfigFlags (R/W) SPDRP_MFG = 0x0000000B, // Mfg (R/W) SPDRP_FRIENDLYNAME = 0x0000000C, // FriendlyName (R/W) SPDRP_LOCATION_INFORMATION = 0x0000000D, // LocationInformation (R/W) SPDRP_PHYSICAL_DEVICE_OBJECT_NAME = 0x0000000E, // PhysicalDeviceObjectName (R) SPDRP_CAPABILITIES = 0x0000000F, // Capabilities (R) SPDRP_UI_NUMBER = 0x00000010, // UiNumber (R) SPDRP_UPPERFILTERS = 0x00000011, // UpperFilters (R/W) SPDRP_LOWERFILTERS = 0x00000012, // LowerFilters (R/W) SPDRP_BUSTYPEGUID = 0x00000013, // BusTypeGUID (R) SPDRP_LEGACYBUSTYPE = 0x00000014, // LegacyBusType (R) SPDRP_BUSNUMBER = 0x00000015, // BusNumber (R) SPDRP_ENUMERATOR_NAME = 0x00000016, // Enumerator Name (R) SPDRP_SECURITY = 0x00000017, // Security (R/W, binary form) SPDRP_SECURITY_SDS = 0x00000018, // Security (W, SDS form) SPDRP_DEVTYPE = 0x00000019, // Device Type (R/W) SPDRP_EXCLUSIVE = 0x0000001A, // Device is exclusive-access (R/W) SPDRP_CHARACTERISTICS = 0x0000001B, // Device Characteristics (R/W) SPDRP_ADDRESS = 0x0000001C, // Device Address (R) SPDRP_UI_NUMBER_DESC_FORMAT = 0X0000001D, // UiNumberDescFormat (R/W) SPDRP_DEVICE_POWER_DATA = 0x0000001E, // Device Power Data (R) SPDRP_REMOVAL_POLICY = 0x0000001F, // Removal Policy (R) SPDRP_REMOVAL_POLICY_HW_DEFAULT = 0x00000020, // Hardware Removal Policy (R) SPDRP_REMOVAL_POLICY_OVERRIDE = 0x00000021, // Removal Policy Override (RW) SPDRP_INSTALL_STATE = 0x00000022, // Device Install State (R) SPDRP_LOCATION_PATHS = 0x00000023, // Device Location Paths (R) SPDRP_BASE_CONTAINERID = 0x00000024 // Base ContainerID (R) } } "@ Add-Type -TypeDefinition $setupapi #Array for all removed devices report $removeArray = @() #Array for all devices report $array = @() $setupClass = [Guid]::Empty #Get all devices $devs = [Win32.SetupApi]::SetupDiGetClassDevs([ref]$setupClass, [IntPtr]::Zero, [IntPtr]::Zero, [Win32.DiGetClassFlags]::DIGCF_ALLCLASSES) #Initialise Struct to hold device info Data $devInfo = new-object Win32.SP_DEVINFO_DATA $devInfo.cbSize = [System.Runtime.InteropServices.Marshal]::SizeOf($devInfo) #Device Counter $devCount = 0 #Enumerate Devices while([Win32.SetupApi]::SetupDiEnumDeviceInfo($devs, $devCount, [ref]$devInfo)){ #Will contain an enum depending on the type of the registry Property, not used but required for call $propType = 0 #Buffer is initially null and buffer size 0 so that we can get the required Buffer size first [byte[]]$propBuffer = $null $propBufferSize = 0 #Get Buffer size [Win32.SetupApi]::SetupDiGetDeviceRegistryProperty($devs, [ref]$devInfo, [Win32.SetupDiGetDeviceRegistryPropertyEnum]::SPDRP_FRIENDLYNAME, [ref]$propType, $propBuffer, 0, [ref]$propBufferSize) | Out-null #Initialize Buffer with right size [byte[]]$propBuffer = New-Object byte[] $propBufferSize #Get HardwareID $propTypeHWID = 0 [byte[]]$propBufferHWID = $null $propBufferSizeHWID = 0 [Win32.SetupApi]::SetupDiGetDeviceRegistryProperty($devs, [ref]$devInfo, [Win32.SetupDiGetDeviceRegistryPropertyEnum]::SPDRP_HARDWAREID, [ref]$propTypeHWID, $propBufferHWID, 0, [ref]$propBufferSizeHWID) | Out-null [byte[]]$propBufferHWID = New-Object byte[] $propBufferSizeHWID #Get DeviceDesc (this name will be used if no friendly name is found) $propTypeDD = 0 [byte[]]$propBufferDD = $null $propBufferSizeDD = 0 [Win32.SetupApi]::SetupDiGetDeviceRegistryProperty($devs, [ref]$devInfo, [Win32.SetupDiGetDeviceRegistryPropertyEnum]::SPDRP_DEVICEDESC, [ref]$propTypeDD, $propBufferDD, 0, [ref]$propBufferSizeDD) | Out-null [byte[]]$propBufferDD = New-Object byte[] $propBufferSizeDD #Get Install State $propTypeIS = 0 [byte[]]$propBufferIS = $null $propBufferSizeIS = 0 [Win32.SetupApi]::SetupDiGetDeviceRegistryProperty($devs, [ref]$devInfo, [Win32.SetupDiGetDeviceRegistryPropertyEnum]::SPDRP_INSTALL_STATE, [ref]$propTypeIS, $propBufferIS, 0, [ref]$propBufferSizeIS) | Out-null [byte[]]$propBufferIS = New-Object byte[] $propBufferSizeIS #Get Class $propTypeCLSS = 0 [byte[]]$propBufferCLSS = $null $propBufferSizeCLSS = 0 [Win32.SetupApi]::SetupDiGetDeviceRegistryProperty($devs, [ref]$devInfo, [Win32.SetupDiGetDeviceRegistryPropertyEnum]::SPDRP_CLASS, [ref]$propTypeCLSS, $propBufferCLSS, 0, [ref]$propBufferSizeCLSS) | Out-null [byte[]]$propBufferCLSS = New-Object byte[] $propBufferSizeCLSS [Win32.SetupApi]::SetupDiGetDeviceRegistryProperty($devs, [ref]$devInfo,[Win32.SetupDiGetDeviceRegistryPropertyEnum]::SPDRP_CLASS, [ref]$propTypeCLSS, $propBufferCLSS, $propBufferSizeCLSS, [ref]$propBufferSizeCLSS) | out-null $Class = [System.Text.Encoding]::Unicode.GetString($propBufferCLSS) #Read FriendlyName property into Buffer if(![Win32.SetupApi]::SetupDiGetDeviceRegistryProperty($devs, [ref]$devInfo,[Win32.SetupDiGetDeviceRegistryPropertyEnum]::SPDRP_FRIENDLYNAME, [ref]$propType, $propBuffer, $propBufferSize, [ref]$propBufferSize)){ [Win32.SetupApi]::SetupDiGetDeviceRegistryProperty($devs, [ref]$devInfo,[Win32.SetupDiGetDeviceRegistryPropertyEnum]::SPDRP_DEVICEDESC, [ref]$propTypeDD, $propBufferDD, $propBufferSizeDD, [ref]$propBufferSizeDD) | out-null $FriendlyName = [System.Text.Encoding]::Unicode.GetString($propBufferDD) #The friendly Name ends with a weird character if ($FriendlyName.Length -ge 1) { $FriendlyName = $FriendlyName.Substring(0,$FriendlyName.Length-1) } } else { #Get Unicode String from Buffer $FriendlyName = [System.Text.Encoding]::Unicode.GetString($propBuffer) #The friendly Name ends with a weird character if ($FriendlyName.Length -ge 1) { $FriendlyName = $FriendlyName.Substring(0,$FriendlyName.Length-1) } } #InstallState returns true or false as an output, not text $InstallState = [Win32.SetupApi]::SetupDiGetDeviceRegistryProperty($devs, [ref]$devInfo,[Win32.SetupDiGetDeviceRegistryPropertyEnum]::SPDRP_INSTALL_STATE, [ref]$propTypeIS, $propBufferIS, $propBufferSizeIS, [ref]$propBufferSizeIS) # Read HWID property into Buffer if(![Win32.SetupApi]::SetupDiGetDeviceRegistryProperty($devs, [ref]$devInfo,[Win32.SetupDiGetDeviceRegistryPropertyEnum]::SPDRP_HARDWAREID, [ref]$propTypeHWID, $propBufferHWID, $propBufferSizeHWID, [ref]$propBufferSizeHWID)){ #Ignore if Error $HWID = "" } else { #Get Unicode String from Buffer $HWID = [System.Text.Encoding]::Unicode.GetString($propBufferHWID) #trim out excess names and take first object $HWID = $HWID.split([char]0x0000)[0].ToUpper() } #all detected devices list $obj = New-Object System.Object $obj | Add-Member -type NoteProperty -name FriendlyName -value $FriendlyName $obj | Add-Member -type NoteProperty -name HWID -value $HWID $obj | Add-Member -type NoteProperty -name InstallState -value $InstallState $obj | Add-Member -type NoteProperty -name Class -value $Class if ($array.count -le 0) { #for some reason the script will blow by the first few entries without displaying the output #this brief pause seems to let the objects get created/displayed so that they are in order. sleep 1 } $array += @($obj) <# We need to execute the filtering at this point because we are in the current device context where we can execute an action (eg, removal). InstallState : False == ghosted device #> $matchFilter = $false if ($removeDevices -eq $true) { #we want to remove devices so lets check the filters... if ($FilterByClass -ne $null) { foreach ($ClassFilter in $FilterByClass) { if ($ClassFilter -eq $Class) { Write-verbose "Class filter match $ClassFilter, skipping" $matchFilter = $true } } } if ($FilterByFriendlyName -ne $null) { foreach ($FriendlyNameFilter in $FilterByFriendlyName) { if ($FriendlyName -like '*'+$FriendlyNameFilter+'*') { Write-verbose "FriendlyName filter match $FriendlyName, skipping" $matchFilter = $true } } } if ($InstallState -eq $False) { if ($matchFilter -eq $false) { Write-Host "Attempting to removing device $FriendlyName" -ForegroundColor Yellow $removeObj = New-Object System.Object $removeObj | Add-Member -type NoteProperty -name FriendlyName -value $FriendlyName $removeObj | Add-Member -type NoteProperty -name HWID -value $HWID $removeObj | Add-Member -type NoteProperty -name InstallState -value $InstallState $removeObj | Add-Member -type NoteProperty -name Class -value $Class $removeArray += @($removeObj) if([Win32.SetupApi]::SetupDiRemoveDevice($devs, [ref]$devInfo)){ Write-Host "Removed device $FriendlyName" -ForegroundColor Green } else { Write-Host "Failed to remove device $FriendlyName" -ForegroundColor Red } } else { write-host "Filter matched. Skipping $FriendlyName" -ForegroundColor Yellow } } } $devcount++ } #output objects so you can take the output from the script if ($listDevicesOnly) { $allDevices = $array | sort -Property FriendlyName | ft $allDevices write-host "Total devices found : $($array.count)" $ghostDevices = ($array | where {$_.InstallState -eq $false} | sort -Property FriendlyName) write-host "Total ghost devices found : $($ghostDevices.count)" return $allDevices | out-null } if ($listGhostDevicesOnly) { $ghostDevices = ($array | where {$_.InstallState -eq $false} | sort -Property FriendlyName) $ghostDevices | ft write-host "Total ghost devices found : $($ghostDevices.count)" return $ghostDevices | out-null } if ($removeDevices -eq $true) { write-host "Removed devices:" $removeArray | sort -Property FriendlyName | ft write-host "Total removed devices : $($removeArray.count)" return $removeArray | out-null } |
Great work!
I just found this and wanted to say thanks! We use a content management app here for scanning, and it’s picky. Every time the Fuji scanners we use get plugged into a different USB port, windows shows an active scanner, and a false/hidden scanner. I modified this to include a parameter for just sorting through scanners so it will delete *all* scanners if it sees any false/hidden scan devices.
I also added this, because it complains if you run it on a system more than once — not your intent, but it is likely to happen where i work.
if (-not ([System.Management.Automation.PSTypeName]’Win32.SetupApi’).Type){
Add-Type -TypeDefinition $setupapi
}
@dave, Did you just add this to the end of the script (the piece for running on a system more than once)? I want to do the same but make sure I put it in the right place. Thanks!
I also like to say thank you because it helps me a lot.
I had a server with around 80.930 ghost devices. Remove it manual was not possible. The script ran for about 3 days and successfully removed all ghost devices.
That saved me the week.
Good Work
Thanks, it works well and help me a lot !
Thank you very much. Your script works really well.
This is a very well written PS script but what I need to do is simply remove three or four ghost printers from many computers in our organization. To “except” everything but the printers in question seems impractical. A function that would INCLUDE or EXCEPT filter results would be ideal. An additional parameter such as /i or /e with -filterByFriendlyName would allow one to remove one or more ghost devices or remove ALL BUT one or two ghost devices. That would seem to be more of a useful tool unless I’m missing something.
This script is far too sophisticated for me to modify it for my needs . . . way above my pay grade!
Beautimus! Exactly what I was looking for.
Thank you!
Very helpful, thank-you!
Fantastic work, thank you!
I’ve created an updated version of this script which can be accessed here: https://github.com/istvans/scripts. TrententTye, if this script is available somewhere where I can submit my change, please let me know.