Fig 1.0 Double click on the DEVICE MANAGER icon to continue
Fig 1.1 Click on the CONTINUE button to continue
| DEVICE MANAGER |
Device Manager, as the name suggests, is a control panel that manages your hardware devices. More precisely,
it allows you to disable/enable hardware devices, install and update hardware device drivers and so on.
To use the Device Manager control panel go to the Control Panel
and then double click on the DEVICE MANAGER icon. Doing so will bring up a UAC (User Account Control)
Security Requester (Fig 1.1). Simply click on its CONTINUE button to then bring up the Device Manager
window (Fig 1.2).
User Account Control (UAC) is a feature of Windows Vista that helps to prevent unauthorized changes to
the computer, such as deleting a system file or disabling a hardware device. When attempting to manage
a hardware device the UAC security requester above automatically blocks you off, because it wants to
know if you are the one attempting to manage that hardware device and not a piece of malicious software
for example. In the above case simply click on the CONTINUE button to continue.
After clicking on the CONTINUE button the Device Manager window will appear. You can also bring up the
Device Manager window by first clicking on the SYSTEM icon in the control panel and then clicking on
the Device Manager tasks link (not shown/exampled here).
When the Device Manager window appears what you are looking for is a perfect set of + signs. The + signs are the same as those found in a file requester. They mean you can expand the folder-view to see what is inside the folder (i.e. sub-folders and files). In device manager's case clicking on a + sign means you want to see what hardware devices are associated with a certain hardware category. For example. If I click on the + sign next to the category Network Adapters the hardware-view will expand to show me what Network Adapters are inside my computer.
Fig 1.3 above shows that I have two Network Adapters inside my computer. One is a Wireless Adapter and the other is an Ethernet Adapter. From here I can Disable a network adapter, Uninstall its Driver software (the software that communicates between it and Windows Vista) or I can Update its driver software. These actions are all possible by right-clicking on a network adapter's name, to bring up its Options menu, and then left-clicking on a menu-item to carry out its action (Fig 1.4 below).
When you disable a hardware device and then restart the computer, upon restarting the computer Windows Vista no longer loads that hardware device's driver software. Therefore Windows Vista will not be able to, and will not be allowed to, run that hardware device - At least not until you enable that hardware device again. The disabled hardware device will also have a White Cirlce/Down Arrow mark on its icon in Device Manager.
If you want to enable a hardware device you do the reverse action from above. You right-click on the hardware device's name, to bring up the Options window, and then left-click on the ENABLE menu-item.
One reason for disabling a hardware device could be because you do not use it. For example. I do not use my Ethernet Adapter to connect to another computer. So by having it disabled Windows Vista does not load its driver software at start-up time, which means some resource (memory and so on) usuage is saved.
| UPDATING (INSTALLING) AUTOMATICALLY |
As said in the paragraph after Fig 1.2 above, you are looking for a straight set of + signs in the hardware-view when you first enter device manager. If you see a hardware device with a White Circle/Down Arrow mark on its icon it means that hardware device is disabled (as explained above) and if you see a hardware device with a Yellow ! (Exclamation) mark on its icon it means that hardware device's driver software is missing/not installed.
Fig 1.8 above shows a hardware device with its driver software missing/not installed. To re-install its driver software I need to right-click on the hardware device's name, to bring up its Options menu, and then left-click on the UPDATE DRIVER SOFTWARE menu-item. This will launch the Hardware Update Wizard.
When the Hardware Update Wizard appears it asks me whether or not I want to SEARCH AUTOMATICALLY... or BROWSE MY COMPUTER manually for the missing driver software. SEARCH AUTOMATICALLY... will search both the internet (if its available/connected of course) and my computer for the missing driver software, as this next example shows.
If I did not have an internet connection SEARCH AUTOMATICALLY... would of looked on my computer, but if no driver software could be found I would of got the following message.
| UPDATING (INSTALLING) MANUALLY |
If driver software cannot be found automatically, using the SEARCH AUTOMATICALLY option, you then have to use the BROWSE MY COMPUTER manually option which is split into two sub-options. The first option allows you to pick from a list of already installed (Windows Vista installed) software drivers, so that you can try and install generic driver software or driver software that closely matches your own hardware device's driver software. And the second option allows you to manually browse through your computer looking for software drivers. This option is good if you know where the software drivers are located (i.e. in a particular folder) or would like to search an obvious place such as the DVD drive. In this next example I used the BROWSE button to select my DVD folder (D:\SWSetup\Audio).
If all else fails (i.e. you cannot find software drivers for your hardware device) you may be forced to use a pre-installed (Windows Vista) software driver that is generic and/or closely matches your own hardware device's original driver software.
When using LET ME PICK FROM A LIST... untick the optiion called SHOW COMPATIBLE HARDWARE in order to
see the list of general Manufacturers and Model names. That way you may be able to find a compatible
software driver using a different manufacturer. Having the SHOW COMPATIBLE HARDWARE option ticked makes
Windows Vista play safe by listing only showing you truely compatible software drivers, if any are available.
If driver software cannot be found the only solution may be to download the driver software from the
manufacturer's website.....if they have a website, with the driver software on it. But how would you
know who the manufacturer is? The hardware device is listed as Multimedia Auidio Controller only - no
manufacturer's name is mentioned. The answer would be to right-click on the hardware device's name, to
bring up its Options menu, and then left-click on the PROPERTIES menu-item. This would allow you to
find out more about the hardware device - possibly more about its manufacturer and/or driver software.
You could also search Windows for other clues to the hardware device's identity, as well as physically
look at the hardware device itself, but these methods are normally used as a last resort. Modern hardware
tends to have Windows Vista support and Manufacturer's support, meaning Windows Vista can normally
identify the hardware device by name and its manufacturer normally has a website where you can download
the hardware device's driver software. This is one reason why you should pay for Quality, Brand Named,
hardware.....because you get support for it.
Microsoft product screen shot(s) reprinted with permission from Microsoft Corporation. As stated here by the Microsoft Corporation.
All HTM files in the yoingco.com folder and its sub-folders are (c) John White, August 3rd 2005 - 2008. All Rights Reserved. FREE Vista Helpline: Contact John