Device Manager

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Screenshot of the Device Manager tool under Windows Vista.
Screenshot of the Device Manager tool under Windows Vista.

The Device Manager is a Control Panel applet included with Microsoft Windows operating systems that allows the user to display and control the hardware attached to the computer. When a piece of hardware is not working, the offending hardware is highlighted where the user can deal with it. The list of hardware can be sorted by various criteria.

For each device in the list, users can:

  • Supply device drivers to the hardware
  • Enable or disable devices
  • Tell Windows to ignore malfunctioning devices
  • View other technical properties

Device Manager was introduced with Windows 95 and later added to Windows 2000. In NT-based versions, it is included as an MMC snap-in.

Contents

[edit] Invoking the Device Manager

Windows 95/98/Me:

  • Right-click My Computer then select Properties
  • Select the Device Manager tab

Windows 2000 and Windows XP:

  • Right-click My Computer then select Properties
  • Select the Hardware tab
  • Click the Device Manager button
  • Alternative solution: invoke devmgmt.msc

Windows Vista:

  • Open the Start menu, right-click on Computer, select Manage
  • Click on "Device Manager" in the left-hand tree

[edit] See also

[edit] External links

[edit] Windows-specific articles

NB: not all articles apply to all Windows versions

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