device names

I am new here and was just wondering if there is any way to change the name that is assigned to a peice of hardware in device manager. I have no problem editing the registry. As an example having my Belkin USB hub be listed as a Belkin hub instead of generic USB hub. I am running XP home SP2.

I would suggest thats a very risky buisness

Device names for usb devices are either returned from a register in the device itself or via any driver needed for it/them (if all the device yields is a class description) .. editing the registry therefore is not only risky (but you can just back that up of course), but it won't do you any good !

I could understand this request if was for some corporate environment, where such matters can be critical for remote admin, but for a home system, figuring out what '.inf' or other changes might be required, seems like a lot of work for not that much return, most especially when you consider that any subsequent driver updates are gonna put you back where you started ..

So I think the best advice is just to 'live with it' - sorry not the answer you obviously wanted, but reasonable, I think :)

Oh well I can live with it how it is. I just got a new Seagate ST3120814A (111.7GB formatted) drive and clean installed XP on it instead of ghosting from my old drive so I am still adding all the little tweaks back to it. I have it partitioned as a 40.0GB boot drive and a 71.7GB storage drive. The old drives were a Seagate ST36531A (5.99GB Formatted) for boot and a Fujitsu MPB3064AT (6.01GB formatted) for storage so I now have almost 10x the space. The old drives are still working fine I just ran out of space. All drives are NTFS formatted and the new one easily maxes out the ATA33 controller in this old Compaq at 24-26MBps beginning to end according to SteelBytes HD_Speed.

Before anyone asks why I have XP installed on an old computer it is because it runs faster than 98SE on here and I don't have the money for a new system. Specs are: Proc: Pentium III 500MHz SECC2, Ram: 320MB 2X128+1X64,Video: Matrox Millenium G200 AGP, Sound: Creative PCI SoundBlaster (playback) Avance Logic ALS4000 (record), USB2.0: NEC uPD chipset 4 port external 1 port internal PCI, Network: Compaq NC3121 10/100 PCI with the 3 pin WOL connector attached, CD: Philips CDRW2412A Mouse: $20 Logitech USB optical wheel, Keyboard: IBM Model M made March 24 1988, Printer: Lexmark X7170 AIO, Router: Linksys WRT54GS V.2 running HyperWRT, Internet: Mediacom 5Mbps cable.

I know that is a long list and this is far from a new computer but it works well for me. At leats MyVitalAgent lets me know I am getting the full 5Mbps.
http://home.mchsi.com/~danielthechskid/5029_Kbps.bmp