Device Manager


Device Manager displays all devices installed in the system as shown in Figure 9-1. The devices shown in Device Manager represent the computer s hardware configuration information. The Device Manager display is recreated each time the computer is started, or whenever a dynamic change to the computer configuration occurs, such as addition of a new device while the system is running. You can use Device Manager to enable or disable devices, troubleshoot devices, update drivers, use driver rollback, and change resources such as interrupt requests (IRQs) assigned to devices.

You can open Device Manager as follows:

  • On the Start menu, right-click My Computer, select Manage, and then select Device Manager under System Tools.

    or

  • In Control Panel, click Performance and Maintenance, and then click System. On the Hardware tab, click Device Manager.

To view the property sheet for a device in Device Manager, double-click the device type. Right click the individual device and select Properties. The following types of information are shown for the device type:

  • Driver name, vendor, date, version, and digital signature information.

  • System resources allocated to the device, such as interrupt request (IRQ) lines, memory ranges, and I/O address ranges.

  • Options to update the driver, roll back the driver, and uninstall the driver.

    Figure 9-1 shows a Device Manager listing of system devices.

    click to expand
    Figure 9-1: System devices in Device Manager

From the View menu in Device Manager you can select one of four views of system devices.

Devices by type

This is the default device tree view for Device Manager. Device types include hardware such as disk drives, keyboards, Human Interface Devices (HIDs), or system devices. Double-clicking on a device type displays a list of the devices of that type on the system.

Devices by connection

This view shows how devices are connected to each other. This might be useful, for example, when you connect devices to a USB hub, and then connect other devices to the devices on the hub. You can see where each device fits into the chain of connection.

Resources by type

This view shows the four default resource types (and any others that are configured on your system). The four default system resource types are direct memory access (DMA), input/output (IO), interrupt request (IRQ), and reserved memory. Double-clicking on a resource type displays a list of the devices that are using a resource of that type.

Resources by connection

This view shows the four default resource types (and any others that are configured on your system). Double-clicking on the system resource type shows the device types that are using a resource of that type, and how they are connected. This view might be particularly useful when you need to see whether a child device requires more memory resources than are available to a parent device.

Specific icons in Device Manager indicate device types and indicate any device problems, such as resource conflicts, or whether a device is disabled. The icons that denote device problems or disabled status are:

  • A yellow exclamation point, which means that the device has a problem.

  • A red X, which means that the device is disabled.

  • A blue i for information, which means that the device has forced resource configurations. This icon is seen only in the two resource views.

Error codes that describe the type of problem a device might be experiencing are also displayed on the Properties pages of the device. For a list of these error codes, see Device Manager Error Codes, an appendix in this book.

To update the driver for the device, disable or uninstall the device, scan for hardware changes, or view the device properties, right-click the device, and then make your selection on a menu.

Administrators can use Group Policy settings to prevent user access to Device Manager. For more information about Group Policy, see Managing Desktops in this book.

For information about using Device Manager to configure devices, see Configuring Device Settings later in this chapter.

Viewing Hidden Devices

Two types of devices are hidden by default in Device Manager. Non Plug and Play drivers, printers, and other classes of devices that are not typically useful in configuring or troubleshooting hardware issues are hidden. Also hidden are devices that were previously attached but are not connected to the computer at the present time, also known as non-present devices. Typically you will not need to view hidden devices unless you need to configure or troubleshoot hardware. Each category of hidden device requires a different procedure for Device Manager to display the devices in that category.

To view currently attached non Plug and Play drivers, printers, and other devices

  • In Device Manager, on the View menu, select Show hidden devices.

The following procedure shows non-present devices for this instance of Device Manager only.

To view a list of previously attached (non-present) devices

  1. At the command prompt, type:

    Devmgmt.msc set DEVMGR_SHOW_NONPRESENT_DEVICES=1 
  2. In Device Manager, on the View menu, select Show hidden devices.

The following procedure sets the option in Device Manager to show non-present devices whenever Device Manager is run.

To set Device Manager to always show previously attached (non-present) devices

To view the list of non-present devices Device Manager, you must select Show hidden devices in Device Manager, as described earlier.

  1. In Control Panel, click Performance and Maintenance, and then click System.

  2. Click the Advanced tab.

  3. Click Environment Variables.

    The Environment Variables dialog box contains two sections, User variables and System variables. The changes made by adding a variable in the User variables section apply only to a specific user. If another user logs on to this computer, this variable will not be set for them. If you want this variable to apply to all users that log on to this computer, add it to System variables instead.

  4. In the User variables or System variables dialog box, click New.

  5. In the New User Variable or New System Variable dialog box, in Variable Name, type the following (including the underscores):

    DEVMGR_SHOW_NONPRESENT_DEVICES

  6. In Variable Value, enter 1.

  7. Click OK, and then in the Environment Variables dialog box, click OK to apply this change.

For more information about environment variables, see Troubleshooting Startup in this book. For more information about using Device Manager, see Windows XP Professional Help and Support Center.




Microsoft Windows XP Professional Resource Kit 2003
Microsoft Windows XP Professional Resource Kit 2003
ISBN: N/A
EAN: N/A
Year: 2005
Pages: 338

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