KIO isn’t code that we control, it’s a KDE interface that we use. So, if the problem is there (or in the Qt for windows filesystem access implementation that it in turn uses), then kdenlive (and any other KDE application using it) is going to continue to behave the same until those libraries are ‘fixed’ in some way.
But that said, it can’t not probe for drives if it’s to offer them to you to use, and it can’t guess which ones you won’t want to use at any given point in time. Blocking hard like that seems wrong - but it ultimately could even be a windows interface which is guilty of that.
I’d probably still be starting with figuring out what it leaving this dead device around and fixing that if possible.
Thank you for your explanation. I understand the libraries are outside your control.
As for the device, I have searched for the identity of the hardware id of the device but I do not own any of the devices suggested. Since it reappears once in awhile I am guessing it’s one of the USB devices I sometimes remove and re-attach to the system causing Windows 10 to reinstall the driver. This could be any of the USB storage devices I own, or a phone, or a bluetooth speaker or something else, but extensive googling and various chat-AI’s have been unhelpful to narrow it down. I have tried to uninstall it, and disable the driver but apparently it respawns itself. At least I consistently know which device to disable.