How to Remove Hidden / Ghost Network Adapters

When working in a virtualized Microsoft environment, such as with Hyper-V, and after making changes to the virtual networking, you may end up with multiple hidden network adapters that are in need of removing. If you restore a VM image from a backup, you may start to see network adapters named "MS Virtual Bus Network Adapter #2"  when what you want to see is "MS Virtual Bus Network Adapter"  with no number appended to the end. 

This is sometimes caused when the old virtual network adapter within device manager goes into a hidden state but is still recognized by the OS as in use, and it can lock the IP address as well as cause other oddball network issues.

 To remove the hidden network adapters from device manager, you need to launch device manager from a command line with the following commands:

 set devmgr_show_nonpresent_devices=1

start devmgr.msc

Once device manager starts, from the file menu expand the View and select "Show Hidden Devices". After, expand the "Network Adapters" node and you should then be able to remove any unused hidden adapters.