Lesson 4: Supporting Hardware Profiles


A hardware profile is a collection of configuration information about the hardware that is installed on your computer. Within a profile, you can enable or disable each piece of hardware (such as networking adapters, ports, monitors, and so on) or provide specific configuration information. You can have many hardware profiles on a computer and switch between different profiles when booting into Windows XP. As a DST, you may decide to configure additional hardware profiles for users who need them or be asked to troubleshoot hardware on a computer that has multiple hardware profiles.

After this lesson, you will be able to

  • Create a hardware profile.

  • Manage profiles in Windows XP.

  • Configure hardware devices within a profile.

Estimated lesson time: 20 minutes

Creating a Hardware Profile

Hardware profiles provide a way to configure a single computer for different situations. Within a profile, you can enable or disable specific hardware devices and configure those devices differently. As an example, assume that you have a user with a portable computer. When the user is at home, the computer is connected to an external monitor, keyboard, mouse, and printer. When the user takes the computer away from home, none of these devices is connected. You could set the user’s computer up with two hardware profiles: one in which those devices were enabled, and one in which they were disabled. Whenever the computer starts, the user would choose the hardware profile to use, preventing the user from having to make configuration changes or be notified of missing devices.

By default, one hardware profile is created during the installation of Windows XP: Profile 1. To create an additional hardware profile, perform the following steps:

  1. From the Start menu, select Control Panel.

  2. In the Control Panel window, select Performance And Maintenance.

  3. In the Performance And Maintenance window, select System.

  4. In the System Properties dialog box, on the Hardware tab, click Hardware Profiles.

  5. In the Hardware Profiles dialog box, shown in Figure 6-18, select Profile 1 (Current) and then click Copy. You cannot create a new profile directly; you must copy an existing profile and then modify the copy.

    click to expand
    Figure 6-18: Copy and modify an existing hardware profile.

  6. In the Copy Profile dialog box, type a name for the new profile and then click OK.

  7. In the Hardware Profiles dialog box, select the new profile you just named and then click Properties.

  8. In the Properties dialog box for the profile, shown in Figure 6-19, you can configure two options:

    • Select This Is A Portable Computer if the computer is a portable computer that uses a docking station (and if that docking station is one that Windows XP supports). When a supported docking station is used, Windows XP can determine whether a portable computer is docked or undocked and then apply the correct profile automatically. If you do not use a docking station (or just prefer to set up and control your own profiles), leave this option deselected.

    • Select Always Include This Profile As An Option When Windows Starts if you want the profile to appear on the boot menu as a selectable profile.


      Figure 6-19: Configure properties for the hardware profile.

  9. In the Properties dialog box for the profile, click OK to return to the Hardware Profiles dialog box.

  10. Click OK to return to the System Properties dialog box and then click OK again to return to Windows.

Managing Hardware Profiles

After you have created a profile, you can control generally how Windows XP treats profiles by using the Hardware Profiles dialog box shown in Figure 6-20. (Open the System Properties dialog box, switch to the Hardware tab, and then click Hardware Profiles to access the dialog box.)

First, you can specify how Windows uses hardware profiles during startup. You have the following options:

  • Have Windows wait until you select a hardware profile before it continues booting.

  • Have Windows automatically select the first hardware profile on the list and continue booting after a specified amount of time. If you select this option, you can specify how long Windows should wait before going on without you. The default is 30 seconds.

    click to expand
    Figure 6-20: Manage hardware profiles using the Hardware Profiles dialog box.

You can also specify the order in which hardware profiles appear on the list during startup. The order is important, mostly because it is the first profile on the list that Windows will boot if you configure Windows to select a profile automatically. Select any profile on the list and use the up or down buttons on the right to move the profile around.

Configuring Hardware Settings for a Profile

After you have created the necessary profiles and configured Windows to display and start them the correct way, the next step is to configure hardware settings for each profile. To configure hardware for a profile, you must start the computer by using that profile. After you have started Windows by using a profile, use Device Manager to enable, disable, and configure individual devices. The settings you make will affect the currently loaded profile.

The only tricky part of setting up hardware devices in profiles is actually remembering which profile you are currently using because neither Device Manager nor a device’s Properties dialog box provides information on the current profile. You can always switch back to the System Properties dialog box and open the Hardware Profiles window to determine your current profile.

Selecting a Profile During Startup

After you create and configure hardware profiles, using them is easy. Whenever you start your computer, Windows displays a menu early in the boot process that looks like the one in Figure 6-21.

click to expand
Figure 6-21: Choose a hardware profile during Windows startup.

By default, if you do not select a profile within 30 seconds, Windows loads the first profile on the list. If you configured Windows not to start a profile automatically, you will not see the timer at the bottom of the screen. Use the arrow keys to select a profile and press Enter to start the computer.

Lesson Review

The following question is intended to reinforce key information presented in this lesson. If you are unable to answer the question, review the lesson materials and try the question again. You can find answers to the question in the "Questions and Answers" section at the end of this chapter.

  1. You are helping a user who has recently configured a second hardware profile on her computer. She tells you that by following a friend’s instructions, she copied an existing profile and then renamed it. She then restarted her computer so that she could configure her hardware for the new profile, but Windows did not display a menu that allowed her to select the new profile. What do you suspect is the problem?

Lesson Summary

  • A hardware profile is a collection of configuration information about the hardware on your computer. Within a profile, you can enable or disable each piece of hardware (such as networking adapters, ports, monitors, and so on) or provide specific configuration information.

  • To create a hardware profile, you must copy and then modify an existing profile.

  • To configure hardware devices for use with profiles, you must start Windows by using a particular profile and then use Device Manager to enable, disable, and configure devices within that profile.




MCDST Self-Paced Training Exam 70-271(c) Supporting Users and Troubleshooting a Micro[... ]ystem
MCDST Self-Paced Training Exam 70-271(c) Supporting Users and Troubleshooting a Micro[... ]ystem
ISBN: N/A
EAN: N/A
Year: 2006
Pages: 195

flylib.com © 2008-2017.
If you may any questions please contact us: flylib@qtcs.net