How not to tidy up your computer...

I was trundling through the settings on my computer to tidy things up, and while I was removing left-over bits of hardware definitions (e.g. for a non-existant monitor) I came across something labelled as Unknown, with a question mark for it's icon. This wasn't in device manager - I was using the Add/Remove Hardware Wizard thingy. So, in typical suicidal style I tried to uninstall it.

And guess what? It was part of the core devices! So not only couldn't I uninstall it, it also took out everything else in the process of trying to remove it. I now have somewhat less in the hardware list (and still all the junk). Notably, there does not appear to be a hard disk, graphics card or sound card. I am dreading the restart, and am currently praising whoever at Microsoft thought up "Last Known Good". At least the modem's back so I can post this!