How to remove a static IP configuration for an absent network adapter or uninstall hidden network adapter

In a scenario where you have physically removed hardware from a machine you can no longer see it in device manager.  This does not mean that it is gone.  Evidence of that is, if for example you had a network card that had a Static IP address set and you remove the card and add a new one then try to set the IP address to the same as the old NIC you will get an error message. The error might look something like “The IP address 192.168.30.100 you have entered for this network adapter is already assigned to another adapter (Microsoft Virtual machine Bus Network Adapter #3) which is no longer present in the computer.  If the same address is assigned to both adapters and they both become active, only one of them will use this address.  This may result in incorrect system configuration”.  In Windows Server 2008 R2 and Windows 7 it actually gives you an opportunity to “remove the static IP configuration for the absent adapter”. If you say Yes, this will eliminate the IP conflict problem but does not solve the problem of the adapter still being present in the machine.  In older versions of the OS, it was even worse because every time you go into network properties it gives you an error message.

Cause

This issue occurs because a network adapter with the same IP address is in the registry but is hidden in Device Manager.

Resolution

To Resolve this problem, uninstall an absent and hidden network adapter from the computer.

To uninstall and remove hidden network adapter follow below steps:

        1. open command promt of  windows

        2. Type set devmgr_show_nonpresent_devices=1, and then press Enter.

        3. Type Start DEVMGMT.MSC, and then press Enter.

        4. Click View, and then click Show Hidden Devices.

        5. Expand the Network Adapters tree.

        6. Right-click the dimmed network adapter, and then click Uninstall.