Years ago I read this article in Sound on Sound about cleaning up the hidden devices that were not connected in Device Manager.
http://www.soundonsound.com/techniques/hyperthreading-spring-cleaning
 
These include things like moving a usb stick from one place to another and having a greyed out usb thing and an active one, as well as hardware that you may no longer be using.  Cleaning out these things could make computers work faster.  
 
This article was written in 04, back when computers ran on something known as a Pentium (???).  
 
Obviously computers are faster nowadays and most of us run 64 bits (+/- a bit or two I suppose).  
 
Is this Spring Cleaning still a necessity?  
 
I remember back then (right after gore released the internet) that there were tweaks to optimize a computer for DAW applications.  I do not remember the last time I did an optimization run.  Of course, I don't remember this morning either.  
 
Thanks
 
 
 

I doubt the kind of spring cleaning described there would have added much to the performance of a pentium machine either. The time it takes to fetch data from the registry database is pretty fast in OS terms even if some dead end entries exist. There was one instance in which getting rid of ghost devices was sometimes needed, but that had (has?) to do with a limit on the number of MIDI devices that Windows would recognize. Ghost devices counted in the total, and when that total was exceeded no new device could be added until another device was removed. That is different than the general registry cleaning that has been recommended to enhance performance, which has probably always been way overstated.
 
http://www.harmonycentral.com/articles/solving-the-windows-midi-port-problem
 

I believe windows 10 16xx had some of this crapping out..as it would make ghost devices, and not change at all when new drivers are put...it would hold the old one in use, or mix em up....not sure about it being so noted here or in other forums...But, I was told, and did witness MS tech remote viewing my system...doing this very thing!
 
And reinstalling all my drivers...and some would install, and some would not, and others would disappear, once installed.
 
And they told me my system is working fine, and ended the session, with no audio, no software would install, and other things disappeared while trying to solve it...until I gave up on win 10...I was then told, after a speaking to the MS RND head programmer of support Top level guy...as he could not solve via remote viewing my issues ...He said it will be resolved in Aprils offering....you have to wait.
 
This is what I paid for...win 10 pro...not the free gift...and, this is with it...Bugs!
 
I hope for CW and Sonar...all works out.
 
But just too much crappiness going on with bugs....And we surely want the best of both to work properly.
 
Not sure about RND on MS side of things...But something was always with some good folk finding something not working proper.
 
And if they do it...and I have seen them do it...unhide the device manager, and remove all greyed out devices...and sometimes all devices...in my case....and still no go with win 10.
 
Then they say, make sure your bios and drivers are up to date, and all firmware....yah yah yah.
 
So...?...we wait.