How to remove orphaned hardware devices

1. Open a command prompt
   If you are on an OS with User Account Control enabled, you need to run the command prompt as an Administrator.
2. Type the following:
   set DEVMGR_SHOW_NONPRESENT_DEVICES=1
3. In the same command prompt window, type:
   devmgmt.msc
4. Device Manager opens.
5. Select View, Show Hidden Devices
6. Expand the various categories to display orphaned devices. They will be grayed out:
   
7. Right-click and select Uninstall to remove the device completely from the system.
8. A reboot may be necessary after your have removed the devices. Sometimes Device Manager will inform you of this, sometimes not.

I find this extremely useful on virtual machines that have moved from one virtualization platform to another. In this situation old Network Interface Cards (NICs) can sometimes be problematic.