You may want to disable a device in Device Manager if you want Windows Vista to ignore it, if it's using valuable system resources, or maybe as part of a troubleshooting step.
Once you disable a hardware device, Windows Vista and any other software on your computer will no longer be able to use that piece of hardware. In most normal Windows Vista systems, no hardware is disabled.
Follow these easy steps to disable a device from within Device Manager in Windows Vista:
Open Device Manager from the Windows Vista Computer Management utility.
Note:: There are several other ways of opening Device Manager.
With Device Manager open, locate the hardware device you want to disable.
Note: Navigate through the categories of hardware devices by clicking the [+] icon. Specific devices are listed under the major hardware categories.
After finding the hardware you're looking for, right click on the hardware's name or icon and choose Properties.
In this Properties window, click the Driver tab.
Click the Disable button, located near the bottom of the window.
You will prompted with a message that says "Disabling this device will cause it to stop functioning. Do you really want to disable it?"
Click Yes.
This piece of hardware should now be disabled.
Click OK.
You should now be returned to the main Device Manager window.
Note: A black arrow should now be showing on top of the icon for the device you just disabled, confirming that the disabling is complete. Another way to verify that the hardware is disabled is by checking the device status in Device Manager.
Disabled devices will return a Code 22 error.
If you would ever like to reverse the disabling of a piece of hardware, all you need to do is re-enable the device from within Device Manager.
Not a Windows Vista user? See How to Disable a Device in Device Manager in Windows for links to steps specific for your operating system.
