@Jason Aspinall
http://www.robvanderwoude.com/devcon.html
Seek and ye shall find. I discovered this gem after getting put through the USB driver mangle a while back where a device simply failed to work due to all the dull USB refs somewhere in the OS.
One of Rob's scripts on the website seems to be exactly what you want, where you can remove all USB devices. You can even get the devcon exe reboot your PC.
On the subject of knowing which way to insert a USB device correctly and the right way up - I simply make sure the seam where the metal plug casing meets up is on the underside when I plug it in - et voila !
Regards