Safely Remove Hardware No Longer Working

Hello everyone. I have done some prior searching but haven't found anything that seems to fix my particular problem.

Every since around the Win 10 Developer's Update, removing hardware via the notification tray dialogue has stopped functioning.

When I plug in an external device through usb, the icon will appear and when I click to eject it, the icon will go away. However, the device remains engaged and I never get the balloon notication saying that it's safe to remove the device. This isn't a problem with a usb stick, which I just unplug anyway and haven't had any problems with... but it's been a huge pain for charging my kindle.

When the kindle is plugged in to the computer, it goes into drive mode so that you can manage and upload files. However, if you want to read while the kindle is plugged into the computer and charging, you need to remove it from the safely remove device dialogue. When I try this, the kindle stays in drive mode and I can't get out of it without unplugging the usb cable from the system.

I didn't add or remove any programs or drivers at the time this started happening. I believe it was caused by a windows update.

Thank you for any help you can offer.

Try running sfc /scannow from an admin command prompt to check / repair your system files. Also try the Hardware & Devices Troubleshooter at Control Panel\All Control Panel Items\Troubleshooting\All Categories

Berton said:

Have you opened File Explorer, located a USB Thumb drive then tried the Eject on the right-click of the drive? How about in Control Panel, Devices and Printers? Do either of those actions work?

You mentioned Developer's update but what does pressing Windows key and R key at the same time and typing winver give you as to specific numbers?

Or did you mean an Insider Preview [BETA/test] Version or the Creator's Update Version or the Anniversary Update Version?

Hello, thank you for your reply. I finally got around to looking in to this again.

Using the right-click menu eject in windows explorer works!

Trying to remove the device in "devices and printers" does not work and results in the same problem as trying to eject via the "safely remove hardware and eject media" notification tray icon.

My current windows version is 1703 (OS Build 15063.540)

Ejecting in windows explorer is a nice workaround, but it would be great to get to the bottom of this and fix the problem.

Steve C said:

Try running sfc /scannow from an admin command prompt to check / repair your system files. Also try the Hardware & Devices Troubleshooter at Control Panel\All Control Panel Items\Troubleshooting\All Categories

Hello! Thank you for the reply.

The command prompt scan did not find any errors.

Running the Hardware & Devices troubleshooting scan with before the erroneous ejection produces no results. After the failed ejection the scan finds an error but whatever it is attempting to do to fix it is not having any effect, the problem persists.

Bastet said:

Have you tried this:
For safe eject USB notification missing:
• Press keyboard*"win + R"
• Type "regedit"
• Search the value "HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Notification\Settings\Microsoft.Explore r.Notification.{...}"
• If you REG_DWORD 0x00000001(0) set "0" you can double click on value. Set the value*data to "1"
• Click "OK"

Hi! Thanks for the reply. I couldn't find that path in the registry...

^ Yeah, that path does not exist in my registry.

bump