How to get rid of auto-generated sequence number in network's device name in Windows?

Posted by Piotr Dobrogost on Super User See other posts from Super User or by Piotr Dobrogost
Published on 2011-08-15T08:47:04Z Indexed on 2012/10/13 21:42 UTC
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Every time one plugs in the same usb wireless adapter in a new usb port, Windows creates new network device with auto-generated sequence number which looks like this
Wireless-N USB Network Adapter #2, Wireless-N USB Network Adapter #3, ...
The name of a device is being displayed as part of network's information in Control Panel|Network Connections. network's name and network's device name

How can I get rid of this sequence number?

I found out device name which is displayed in network's information is kept in the FriendlyName REG_SZ value under
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\ControlSet001\Enum\USB\VID_[device specific string]\[usb port specific string] FriendlyName of network device However when I try to modify this value I get error

Cannot edit FriendlyName: Error writing the value's new contents.

I tried to delete extra keys under
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\ControlSet001\Enum\USB\VID_13B1&PID_0029
but got Cannot delete KEY NAME: Error while deleting key. error. Trying to solve this problem I followed this answer but trying to change owner with Replace owner on subcontainers and objects option checked I got this error - Registry Editor could not set owner on the currently selected, or some of its subkeys. To find out which subkey is the source of problem I tried changing owner of each subkey. After successfully changing owner of Properites subkey I saw it has subkeys which were previously hidden. Hidden subkeys of Properties key

Now trying to change owner of these subkeys looks like this:

Permisions... Windows Security warning Windows Security error

Any idea how to delete these keys?

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