I found that following the online installation instructions for my Uno r3 didn't work. When plugged in, it didn't show up as a com port. Instead it showed up as an "Unidentified device."
This was solved by forcing installation of the driver using the "Add Legacy Hardware" function accessed by selecting the computer name and right clicking. Just navigate to the appropriate driver file and install it.
Once I did this, the Uno showed up and worked as soon as it was plugged in.
I suspect that the anomaly may be due to the host computer's having neither serial nor parallel ports pre-existing or present in hardware.
Arduino showed up as an "Unidentified device" instead of in a COM port.
I solved it by:
-Go into Device manager through Control Pannel,
-Right Click "Unidentified device"
-Select 'Update Driver Software'
-Select 'Browse computer for driver software'
-Click Browse... find the Arduino Software file you downloaded from the Arduino website
-Open it and select the 'Drivers' folder, click OK
-A warning that the driver is not verified comes up,
-Click OK anyway...
That worked for me. Arduino then showed up in (COM6)
Every version of the Arduino IDE I have installed - 0022, 0023, 1.0, and 1.0.1, has the Arduino UNO.inf file in the drivers folder. Starting with version 0023, they also all have the Arduino Uno Rev3.inf file in the drivers folder.
My download only has setup "Notepad" files for the various Arduino versions. There are no executible drivers. I downloaded the files twice with the same results.
Here is the text (part)
I Windows USB CDC ACM Setup File
; Copyright (c) 2000 Microsoft Corporation
Those are the drivers. The UNO uses the Windows built in usbser.sys driver. All that is needed to use that driver is a .inf file to instruct Windows to use that driver with the UNO.
Thank you for explaining this. I didn't see the drivers in the folder so assumed they were not there. When I hit the button to install the drivers it worked perfectly. Now on to some projects.