Prepping for new hardware, I uninstalled my CH Control Manager software.  The uninstall routine notified me that I needed to have all CH devices unplugged in order to continue, and I had already done that.  After uninstall and reboot, Windows set up "unknown device", so I checked Device Manager, and uninstalled the "unknown device".  Upon reboot, it just reinstalled the "unknown device".  I can't get rid of this device.

 

Apparently there is something left over in the registry.  I'm not good with that but I did a search for the device ID and deleted what I found.  Still, it installs the unknown device after each time I uninstall it.

 

Any help appreciated.

I'm not sure.  But others seem to have the same issue:

 

https://forums.eagle.ru/showthread.php?p=3349133

I also found this: https://www.windowsbbs.com/threads/unknown-device-installation-is-unsolicited.112340/

Yeah, I had found both of those.  From the latter:

 

"A thorough search of the registry revealed 67 (CH) entries alongside the PnP entries for the pedals. After manually deleting the erroneous entries, the system is back to normal. Also deleted the leftover entry for the CH Control Manager Software from the add/remove programs listing."

 

I'd like to know how he did that.  I just did a search for "CH" in the entire registry, and it didn't come up with anything.

 

Also, I don't have any left over "CH Products" category in the Device Manager.  It just lists a heading of "unknown devices" or some other such thing.  There is also no remnant in the Programs part of the Control Panel; all references there to CH Products are gone. 

 

If I uninstall the unknown device, it does remove, and would stay OK so long as I don't reboot; but upon reboot, Windows automatically reinstalls it:

 

 

Here is what shows in the Device Manager:

 

 

Properties:

 

 

I searched for that value in the registry, found one, and deleted it.

 

It still continually reinstalls.

Have you run a program such as ccleaner to clean up the registry and othere "junk" left around?

Have you run a program such as ccleaner to clean up the registry and othere "junk" left around?

 

No; if you recommend that program or any other in particular, I could try it.  The guy in Klaiber's second link tried Malwarebytes and ADW Cleaner, and said that neither found "any threats".  Obviously this is not a virus or malware.  If you think ccleaner or any other program might find whatever I'm missing, I'm game.  This guy said that what eventually worked was to manually delete entries he found.  His post was not that helpful, in that he didn't really describe exactly what he searched for and manually deleted.  I actually searched for the device value shown in the above screen shot, found one which I deleted, then using "find next" found about 8 more all located in the same place; so I deleted those too.  Perhaps I should have deleted the entire heading instead of just the values on the right side of the screen.  There were other values in that area, about 3, which did not specify "CH Products" in the string, and instead specified something about USB....I left those alone.  I feel pretty safe deleting anything that says "CH Products", but other stuff I don't want to screw up.

Installed the free version of CCleaner, and scanned the registry.  Many issues found, 2 related to CH Control Manager.  "Fixed" them all.  Rebooted and ran scan again.  More issues found.  "Fixed" this smaller list.  Ran another registry scan; no issues found.  Uninstalled unknown device in Device Manager; rebooted.

 

Unknown Device reinstalled.

 

So far, the only solution I have is to disable the device and leave it installed.  Otherwise, I'd have to uninstall it every time after a reboot.

I'm certainly nobody to help with uninstalling this. Be careful with CCleaner in the registry though. I had to do a Windows reinstall when something went wrong "Fixing" the registry. Would not boot at all and therefore I couldn't use my image back-up. MAJOR PITA!

 

Is this "Unknown" device causing any issues (other than the distraction / irritation of seeing it listed)? If not... maybe say the Serenity Prayer and move on. 

Well crap!

Damn Vonrd never had an issue using it over 10 years now!

 

Yes disable and move on agreed!

Pretty much figure that it will take a "Reset this computer" (i.e. same as a total reinstall) to make this go away.  So far, no problems; I did back up the registry before doing anything.  Of course, I haven't tried using a lot of things (RoF/BoX included) yet.

 

Right now, I've just disabled the unknown device.  I'll have to see if the new stuff works 100% without any issues.

Damn Vonrd never had an issue using it over 10 years now!

 

Yes disable and move on agreed!

I had been using it quite a bit also without problems. Maybe just a glitch. I had been indiscriminate in what to "fix"... I just said fix it all! Assumed the back-up would save me if things went awry.

 

OTOH I'm sure my registry is now loaded with crap.