Recently I got a question as to how to restore a deleted device-- most everything is plug and play today so there should be very little involved. Restarting your computer should cause any uninstalled devices to either install or request needed drivers to get them installed.

The best place to see what is going on with your hardware is Device Manager. There are a few ways to get to it, but for sake of consistency well go to the control panel:

Control Panel > Hardware and Sound > Device Manager

You'll get a UAC prompt and then a nice list of all the hardware you have installed. If you see any with a question mark-- that is an "unknown device" that needs you to supply it with the correct driver. To do so, right click the item and choose "update driver". If you see an item with a red "x" on it, the device is having trouble and you can view its properties to get a better idea of what the problem might be.

If the device you want to restore is a USB device, it is probably easiest to simply unplug it and plug it back in again. However, internal devices don't really lend themselves to this practice. If you wish to force the system to scan your system for devices, right click anywhere in the tree and choose "Scan for hardware changes". That will do a quick rescan and will hopefully expose your deleted device.

Still don't see it? Don't worry yet! There is an Add Hardware Wizard from the XP days which is still available in Vista, it is just harder to find. The easiest way is from inside the control panel type the word "hardware" in the search box at the top right. You should then see all the control panel applets that mention the word hardware including "Install drivers for older devices with Add Hardware wizard" -- click it. The wizard defaults to searching your system automatically which should be what you need to do.

Hopefully you have your device back by now! If it is an after market device and you are still having problems: you might consider shutting down, removing the device, powering back up, shutting down and installing it again, now power back up and cross your fingers!