Hi,
I have a client PC that had tons of spyware/adware on it which I removed, and I don’t think there is anything bad left. But when I open the Device Manager, it it empty. In Safe Mode, all devices show up fine.
I have read plenty of forums by now and tried all the solutions offered there:
1. Check if Plug and Play service is on (also check msconfig)
2. Registry entry HKLM\SYSTEM\CURRENTCONTROLSET\ENUM must have permissions set correctly, i.e. Full Control for System and Read for user (use regedt32.exe)
3. Remove Apropos spyware
4. SFC /scannow
I also checked if there were registry errors in Enum, but none were found.
I have tried uninstalling and re-installing one of the MS Fixes that came from Windows Update, but I didn’t go into a lot of detail there since on that day 12-15 of them were installed, and I don’t want to uninstall all of them unless I can be sure that’s what it is.
I went through most of the following forum thread, and this is where I the information I have stated above. I am posting it here so others with the same problem can get more details, and I hope it will work for them.
http://www.annoyances.org/exec/forum/winxp/t1051715405
If anyone has another idea which I have not tried yet, please let me know.
Thanks!