What are the "greyed out" devices in Device Manager?

Dear all

Device Manager > Show hidden devices.

From the start of using my laptop with Windows 11. It was was brand new fresh from the vendor.
When expanding both Network adapters and Bluetooth, there are some devices that are "greyed out".
Se below link for example.
https://filestore.community.support...1b59b-b5ff-4dfd-af82-803d077ea8cc?upload=true

1.
What are the "greyed out" devices?
Are they old hardware, that has been in the laptop, and then later removed?

2.
Why are they still there?

3.
I have taken out the hardware part: network card with integrated bluetooth.
Those devices under both Network adapters and Bluetooth are now "greyed out", but they are still there.
Why don't they go away?

Thank you

Did you look at the Properties of those devices? I had one hidden, a Samsung Modem, and it showed as not present so I was able to remove it. Some time over the months since getting the computer in Apr. '22 I may have had such a device. As to #3 about Network Adapters, are you not using the Internet? Bluetooth is a short-range wireless, usually between devices like a mouse, keyboard, cellphone, etc.

Right click an transparant device. And go to properties, You might see an message like this in the textbox
"Currently, this hardware device is not connected to the computer. (Code 45)"

Into_Oblivion1 said:

What are the "greyed out" devices?
Are they old hardware, that has been in the laptop, and then later removed?

Click to expand...

Yes, that's exactly what they are. They're only visible if you select 'Show hidden devices'. 'Disk drives' illustrates this well, you'll see every external usb drive that's ever been plugged in.

Into_Oblivion1 said:

Why are they still there?

Click to expand...

The drivers are still installed, ready for use should the hardware re-appear (as it would if you plugged in a usb drive again).

Into_Oblivion1 said:

I have taken out the hardware part: network card with integrated bluetooth.
Those devices under both Network adapters and Bluetooth are now "greyed out", but they are still there.
Why don't they go away?

Click to expand...

They are retained in case the hardware returns, or until you tell Device Manager to uninstall them.

What Bree said about the drives, mine lets me know what I've worked on over the months:

1. Past Devices that have been connected.
2. It was you that selected to see Hidden Devices.
3. Same thing, you took out the Wireless Card.

Why does it matter, just untick the option for seeing Hidden Devices.

Seems some of these past devices are maybe cleared when doing a version update like 24H2.
You can clear the greyed out ones manually, but again waste of time.