So my friend has tried installing several wireless USB receivers on his computer, none of which seem to do anything at all. The drivers install just fine, but when it gets to the point where you plug in the device and the Found New Hardware wizard appears, the new hardware is not properly detected and Windoze cannot install the device. He booted an Ubuntu LiveCD and says the wireless device works just fine (Hooray for Linux), unfortunately he requires a Windows platform.
I've tried fiddling with it such as uninstalling the device in Device Manager and uninstalling (via uninstallers) the old wireless utilities, but I think there is either too many random drivers he's tried or his computer just hates us. Do the experts of SEN have any suggestions or advice?

I've heard that clean uninstalls can help.
Boot in safe mode and then uninstall. Then try to find all entries in the registry and delete them manually.
Then reboot and try again.

Also it might be important not to plug in the adapter until the correct driver has been installed.

I've tried uninstalling/re-installing in safe-mode, but it doesn't let me finish until I'm out of safe-mode. Haven't tried deleting registry values.

Yes, this is what the installation manual said to do.

He installed another copy of WinXP (dual-boot the same operating system? I have no idea why.). I think he said it didn't work on that either. ;o