You use Device
Manager to view and configure hardware devices. You’ll spend a lot of
time working with this tool, so you should get to know it before
working with devices.
To access Device Manager and obtain a detailed list of all the
hardware devices installed on a system, complete the following steps:
-
In Control Panel, tap or click System And Security, tap or click
Administrative Tools, and then double-tap or double-click Computer
Management.
Note
To work with a remote computer, press and hold or right-click the
Computer Management entry in the console tree, and then tap or click
Connect To Another Computer. Choose Another Computer, and then type the
fully qualified name of the computer you want to work with, or tap or
click Browse to search for the computer you want to work with. Tap or
click OK.
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In the Computer Management console, expand the System Tools node and then select Device Manager. As shown in Figure 1,
you should see a complete list of devices installed on the system. By
default, this list is organized by device type, showing an alphabetical
list sorted by device class. Using options on the View menu, you also
can organize devices by connection, resources by type, or resources by
connection.
-
Expand the device type to see a list of the specific instances of that device type. Select a device to work with it.
Once you open Device
Manager, you can work with any of the installed devices. If you press
and hold or right-click a device entry, a shortcut menu is displayed.
The options available depend on the device type, but they include the
following:
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Properties Displays the Properties dialog box for the device
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Uninstall Uninstalls the device and its drivers
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Disable Disables the device but doesn’t uninstall it
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Enable Enables a device if it’s disabled
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Update Driver Software Starts the Hardware Update Wizard, which you can use to update the device driver
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Scan For Hardware Changes Tells Windows 8 to check the hardware configuration and determine whether there are any changes
Tip
The device list shows warning symbols if there are problems with a
device. A yellow warning symbol with an exclamation point indicates a
problem with a device. A red X indicates a device that was improperly
installed. A white circle with a down arrow indicates a device disabled
by the user or an administrator for some reason.
You can use the options on the View menu in the Computer Management
console to change the default settings for which types of devices are
displayed and how the devices are listed. The options are as follows:
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Devices By Type
Displays devices by the type of device installed, such as disk drive or
printer. The device name is listed below the type. This is the default
view.
-
Devices By Connection Displays devices by connection type, such as devices connected to a computer’s Peripheral Component Interconnect (PCI) bus.
-
Resources By Type Displays the status of allocated resources by the type of device
using the resource. Resource types are direct memory access (DMA)
channels, I/O ports, interrupt requests (IRQs), and memory addresses.
-
Resources By Connection
Displays the status of all allocated resources by connection type
rather than device type. This view would allow you, for example, to
trace resources according to their connection to the PCI bus, root
ports, and so on.
-
Show Hidden Devices
Adds hidden devices to the standard views. This displays non–Plug and
Play devices, as well as devices that have been physically removed from
the computer but haven’t had their drivers uninstalled.
