This KB applies to Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008 up to Windows 8 and Windows Server 2012. There’s no mention of Hyper-V, but considering that hosts have lots of NICs, it seemed relevant to me. The scenario is when duplicate friendly names of network adapters are displayed in Windows.
Symptoms
Consider the following scenario:
- You have one or more network adapters installed on a computer that is running one of the following operating systems:
- Windows Vista
- Windows Server 2008
- Windows 7
- Windows Server 2008 R2
- Windows 8
- Windows Server 2012
- The display names of the network adapters are changed. For example, the device driver is updated.
- You add new network adapters to the computer. The new network adapters are of the same make and model as the original network adapters.
In this scenario, duplicate friendly names of the original network adapters are displayed in Device Manager.
For example, you have two network adapters installed on a computer. Before you update the driver, Device Manager shows the following:
- <Network adapter name>
- <Network adapter name> #2
After the driver is updated, the names of the network adapters are changed to the following in Device Manager:
- <Network adapter new name>
- <Network adapter new name> #2
After you add new network adapters that are of the same make and model, Device Manager shows the following:
- <Network adapter new name>
- <Network adapter new name> #2
- <Network adapter new name> #3
- <Network adapter new name> #4
- <Network adapter new name> #5
- <Network adapter new name> #6
- <Network adapter new name>
- <Network adapter new name> #2
In this scenario, Device Manager displays duplicate friendly names of the original network adapters.
A hotfix is available to resolve this issue.