USB drives displaying weird icons (i believe in usb 3.0 ports only)

jimbo45 · 20 Jan 2020

Hi folks

what's the problem --

Here I've got one SSD connected via SATA-->USB3 adapter so showing correctly as a disk drive while the other one is an HP USB stick showing correctly as a USB drive.

Running on an up to date version of W10 Pro (Workstations) -- might be a problem in Home editions but I never use those "Toy OS'es" !!!

USB drives displaying weird icons (i believe in usb 3.0 ports only)-usb3.png

Cheers
jimbo

MaxFrames · 20 Jan 2020

You might want to read through this long thread to see what the problem is (was), what caused it, how it was then silently fixed on MS's part (on the device metadata server pool), how the devices that had already been affected did not benefit from this server side fix, and how MS never acknowledged the issue, and how a manual cleanup is the only remedy.

Edwin · 20 Jan 2020

MaxFrames said:

You might want to read through this long thread to see what the problem is (was), what caused it, how it was then silently fixed on MS's part (on the device metadata server pool), how the devices that had already been affected did not benefit from this server side fix, and how MS never acknowledged the issue, and how a manual cleanup is the only remedy.

Aw, give 'em a break! MS only has 148,465 employees! They can't keep an eye on everything!

jimbo45 · 20 Jan 2020

Edwin said:

Aw, give 'em a break! MS only has 148,465 employees! They can't keep an eye on everything!

@Edwin

Hi there

That's still NOTHING compared to Indian Railways, the British National health system and the Chinese Liberation People's Army !!!!! (whether the latter are actually employees and paid is a moot point though).

Cheers
jimbo

sygnus21 · 20 Jan 2020

Edwin said:

Aw, give 'em a break! MS only has 148,465 employees! They can't keep an eye on everything!

Microsoft get's blamed for everything even when they have no fault they get blamed for not being at fault

eLPuSHeR · 21 Jan 2020

How do you manually fix it without breaking my printers icons? I have also noticed most of my usb drives doesn't have the safe eject option anymore.

sygnus21 · 21 Jan 2020

Folks, be aware that having Automatic Device Driver Installation turned on can also block icon updates as well.

Even from Brinks tutorial...

Information - Windows can download high-resolution icons for many hardware devices that you connect to your computer, along with detailed information about them, such as product name, manufacturer, and model number—even detailed information about the sync capabilities of a device. These details can make it easier for you to distinguish between similar devices that are connected to your computer, such as different mobile phones.

Source: Turn On or Off Device Driver Automatic Installation in Windows 10

The way I block driver updates (especially those for GPU) is simply - Disable Driver Updates in Windows Update in Windows 10 (option 1 for Pro users).

Anyway there's no guarantee not turning on (or turning back off) Automatic Device Driver Installation will solve "icon issues" but, it's something to be aware of.

That said, I also have some "unspecified" devices showing in Devices and Printers as well, but right clicking them, Properties, and clicking Hardware will usually tell you what the device is or corresponds to. Regardless this does NOT affect the functionality of the device in question. And thus, no sleep lost.

My two cents.