Fix My Own Computer

Sometimes a faulty device can be a real nightmare for any user. Some of the signs of a faulty device could be slowness, crashes, freezes and headaches. One of the first places I look in when users complain that they are experiencing these issues is in the Device Manager. Device manager is a control panel where all the installed hardware could be found. This is a short video how to access, remove and reinstall devices in the Device manager. Detailed instructions on how to access the device manager in other Operating Systems is after the Video.

Invoking the Device Manager

Windows 95/98/Me:
Right-click My Computer then select Properties
Select Hardware Tab
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 1: Start -> Run -> devmgmt.msc -> OK
Alternative 2: Type “devmgmt.msc” into the Command Prompt
Alternative 3: Device Manager is part of Computer Management, which also includes Event Viewer, Services Manager, Disk Management and many other things. Right-Click My Computer then select Manage to start Computer Management, or invoke compmgmt.msc, or launch it via the shortcut in Control Panel, Administrative Tools.
Alternative 4: Press and hold down the Windows key and press the Pause/Break key.
Alternative 5: Create a batch file(.bat) to run Device Manager. A one line entry of devmgmt.msc
into an ANSI text file with the extension (.bat) suffices. However you can also invoke instance settings, such as displaying non-present devices, by adding an additional first command line set devmgr_show_nonpresent_devices=1 for an overall structure like this: set devmgr_show_nonpresent_devices=1 devmgmt.msc
Alternative 6: Instead of a batch file, simply create a shortcut leading to devmgmt.msc

Windows Vista:
Click Start -> in the “Start Search” box
Type “Dev” (without pressing enter); wait for a list to show up
Click Device Manager
Alternative 1: Open the Start menu, right-click on Computer, select Manage, click on “Device Manager” in the left-hand tree
Alternative 2: run devmgmt.msc
Alternative 3: Device Manager is part of the Computer Management, which also includes Event Viewer, Services Manager, Disk Management, as well as many other things. Right-Click My Computer then select Manage to start Computer Management.

This entry was posted on Thursday, January 15th, 2009 at 9:52 am and is filed under All Tech Videos, Educational Videos, Hardware Videos, How To, OS Videos, Troubleshoot, Windows Vista, Windows XP. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.