What is a Device Manager?
It
is a software component of the Microsoft Windows operating system, which is
like a command center of all the hardware peripherals connected to the system.
The way it works is by giving us a brief and organized overview of all the
windows approved hardware devices that are operating in the computer.
This could be electronic components such as keyboard, mouse, monitors, hard disk drives, processors, etc. It is an administrative tool that is a part of the Microsoft Management Console.
Device Manager comes preloaded with the operating system, however, there are other third-party programs available in the market that can be used to achieve the same desired results but it is encouraged not to install these third-party applications due to the inherent security risks they possess.
Microsoft started bundling this tool with the operating system with the introduction of Windows 95. Initially, it was just designed to display and interact with pre-existing hardware. Over the next few revisions, the hot-plugging capability was added, which enables the kernel to notify the device manager of any new hardware-related changes that are taking place. Such as plugging in a USB thumb drive, insertion of a new network cable, etc.
Device
Manager helps us to:
- Modify hardware configuration.
- Change and retrieve hardware drivers.
- Detecting conflicts between the hardware devices that are plugged into the system.
- Identify problematic drivers and disable them.
- Display the hardware information such as the device manufacturer, model number, classification device, and more.
Why
Do We Need a Device Manager?
There
are a lot of reasons why we might need a device manager, but the most important
reason we need the device manager is for software drivers.
A software driver is as Microsoft defines software that allows your computer to communicate with hardware or devices. But why do we need that, so let’s say you’ve got a sound card you should be able to just plug it in with no drivers and your music player should generate a digital signal that the sound card should make.
That’s
basically how it would have worked if there was only one sound card in
existence. But the real problem is that there are literally thousands of sound
devices and all of them will work completely differently from each other.
So
a software driver acts as an abstraction layer or translator in a way, where
the software programs only have to interact with your hardware in one
standardized language and the driver handles the rest.
How
to Access the Device Manager?
There
are various ways by which we can access the device manager, in most of the
versions of Microsoft windows we can open device manager from the command
prompt, the control panel, from the run tool, right-clicking the start menu,
etc.
Method 1: From the start menu
Go to the lower left side of the desktop, Right-click on the start menu, a huge list of various administrative shortcuts will appear, locate and click on the “device manager”.
Method 3: From the Control Panel
Open the Control Panel, click on Hardware and Sound, under the Devices and Printers, select Device Manager.
Method 4: Via Run
Press Windows key + R to open the run dialog box, then in the dialog box besides Open type “devmgmt.msc” and tap OK.
Method 6: From the Command Prompt
Open
the Run dialog using Windows+R hotkeys, enter ‘cmd’ and tap OK. After that, you
should be able to see the command prompt window. Now, in the Command Prompt,
Enter ‘start devmgmt.msc’ (without quotes) and hit Enter.
Method 7: Open Device Manager through Windows PowerShell
Powershell is a more advanced form of command prompt which is used to run any external programs as well as automate an array of system administration tasks not available to the command prompt.
To open the device manager in Windows Powershell, Access the start menu, scroll down in the all applications list till you reach Windows PowerShell prompt, Once opened type ‘devmgmt.msc‘ and press Enter.
These are some of the ways we can access the device manager, there are plenty of other unique ways we can access the device manager depending on the version of windows operating system you are running, but for the sake of convenience, we will limit ourselves to the above-mentioned methods.
Device Manager Functions
- Device Detection and Addition
- Device Deletion
- Device Allocation and
- Registration
- Detaching and Deregistration
Disabled device
A disabled device has either been manually
disabled by a user or by some way of error. In Windows 95 through XP, this is
denoted by a red X. In Windows Vista and Windows 7, this was replaced by a grey
downward pointing arrow in the lower right‐hand corner of the device's icon.
Hardware not working
properly
There are many reasons
why hardware may not work properly. If Windows recognizes a problem with a
device, it is denoted by a black exclamation point (!) on a yellow triangle in
the lower right‐hand corner of the device's icon.
Hardware not recognized
Hardware may not be recognized if it is not
installed properly or not compatible with your system. This is denoted by a
yellow question mark in place of the device's icon.
Device manually selected
A blue "i" on a white field in the
lower right‐hand corner of a Device's icon indicates that the Use automatic
settings feature is not selected for the device and that the resource was
manually selected. Note that this does not indicate a problem or disabled
state.
Error codes
Device Manager error
codes are numerical codes, each accompanied by an error message, which help
users determine what kind of issue Windows is having with a piece of hardware.
