Device Manager: Network Adapters always expanded -- Gigabit Network  

Wisewiz said:

Tweaker, you old fellow-Canuck,

You've covered it for me. And your two screenshots answered my question about where I saw the "unplugged" notice. I'm going to go with your solution. Many thanks for taking the time to do the shots and address my problem. Stay safe.

You're most welcome, Dan.

I'm glad to contribute to cleaning up that Device Manager behavior.
My fingers are crossed for the end of this Ontario lockdown and that you & yours stay safe too.

Michael

FYI, any time Device Manager is expanded like what the OP is showing, there is "somewhat an issue" in the expanded area. In the OP's case as mentioned, their ethernet port was disabled in the BIOS and Device Manager was simply pointing it by expanding the area and putting a black down arrow next to the offending item.

The "somewhat an issue" here being the OP knew about the disabled ethernet port, they just didn't realize Device Manager would still complain :)

Bottom line is Device Manager should not be expanded unless there is an issue.

On a side note I always check Device Manager after driver, BIOS, hardware, and Windows updates; and especially when upgrading to a new OS - Windows 1909 to Windows 2004 for example.

W10 Tweaker said:

Your device manager is designed to open in an expanded state to draw attention to any deficiencies. While you may be happy to have your Ethernet Controller disabled, Windows just doesn't agree and wants you to know about it.

I too dislike seeing the Network Adapters expanded and choose to keep my Ethernet Controller enabled so that when I open the Device Manager, everything looks as it should, no sections appear expanded and no unusual icons.

If you choose to enable the ethernet controller, this entire issue will disappear.

sygnus21 said:

FYI, any time Device Manager is expanded like what the OP is showing, there is "somewhat an issue" in the expanded area. In the OP's case as mentioned, their ethernet port was disabled in the BIOS and Device Manager was simply pointing it by expanding the area and putting a black down arrow next to the offending item.

The "somewhat an issue" here being the OP knew about the disabled ethernet port, they just didn't realize Device Manager would still complain :)

Bottom line is Device Manager should not be expanded unless there is an issue.

On a side note I always check Device Manager after driver, BIOS, hardware, and Windows updates; and especially when upgrading to a new OS - Windows 1909 to Windows 2004 for example.

Wasn't that sufficiently covered already?

I totally agree and also practice the activity in your side note.

sygnus21 said:

FYI, any time Device Manager is expanded like what the OP is showing, there is "somewhat an issue" in the expanded area.

Sygnus, thanks for your time and interest. We had quite a conversation between your #6 post and your #12 post, and resolved the issue satisfactorily, I'm happy to say. Your #12 was unnecessary, but welcome anyway.

Dan

Look at it as a summarized FYI

And yes, I knew the issue was resolved before I wrote it

Gotcha. Many thanks for the many post you've made (and the many I've learned from!).