Fun with Windows 7 .......

I made an interesting discovery today while trying to burn a DVD with some files to keep as a back-up. Both the DVD Drive and the BluDrive below it, although they were physically still there and their trays would open and close, they couldn't be seen by Windows. Nothing of them on the Computer's window with the drives, and nothing in Devices.

I put the Hardware Wizard to work checking for problems, and it said it was fixing something, but then said that the drivers for both drives had a problem which couldn't be fixed, suggesting I re-install the drivers. Windows couldn't update them. While I was fumbling around with Google looking for sites that would have drivers, I came across a question and answer site where a guy was telling someone else with a similar problem that it wasn't the drivers, it was really a Registry problem, due to some brands of burning programs editing the Registry for their own programs, and that corrupted it so that Windows couldn't recognize the devices.

He advised to open the Registry editor (Regedit.exe) then navigate to  H-Key Local Machine->Current Control Set ->Control -> Class, and look under it for an entry {4D36E965-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318. Click that to make it open its right column keys, and among those look for a listing for UpperFilters and also one for LowerFilters. If found, click on them and select (and press) Delete. You will be asked to confirm that you wish to do that, and just click on 'Yes'. You may only find one of those two, the LowerFilters one, and if so go ahead and delete that. These are restored to their defaults during a reboot, so once you've done that, you can quietly exit the Registry, and do a system reboot. If you get the same results that the other guy and I did your DVD or CD-ROM and BluDrive will suddenly be shown and Device Manager will say they are "working normally" once again. So that guy was right - it isn't the drivers, even though that's what brings it to your attention. It's something that hacked your Registry, requiring you to unhack it again. Luckily, I stumbled onto the instructions to use.