Device Manager is blank or empty - How to fix it?

Posted by Muhammed Posted on Thursday, September 20, 2012

Device Manager


Recently we have heard a problem with Device Manager and it shows blank or empty window when it opens. This behavior occurs if the Plug and Play service is turned off (disabled) or permissions in the registry for the Device Manager Key are corrupt.

Here is the solution for it.

Method1: Enable Plug and Play Windows Service

  1. Click Start, click Run, type services.msc, and then click OK.
  2. Double-click Plug and Play.
  3. If you receive a Configuration Manager message, click OK.
  4. In the Startup Type list, click Automatic, and then click OK.
  5. Close Services.
  6. Restart the computer.

Method2: Edit the registry permissions


Caution: Improper editing registry key may cause system instability. Hence, we highly recommend you to back up the registry settings before proceed.

  1. Go to "Start", "Run", and type "regedit"
  2. Navigate to “HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Enum”
  3. Right-click on Enum and choose Permissions.  
  4. At this point you will probably notice there are no permissions on this key.
  5. Click "Add" and add the group "Everyone" and the user "SYSTEM".
  6. Select "Everyone" and check "Read" ONLY!
  7. Select "SYSTEM" and check "Full Control".
  8. Click the "Advanced" button and select "Replace permission entries on all child objects with entries shown here that apply to child objects".
  9. Click OK and if a warning message comes up, just click OK
  10. Close “regedit” and restart the computer
If you need more help post a comment here!