Windows - operativsystemet har i^{(Windows operating system)} øjeblikket en markedsandel på 96% i verden af ​​personlige computere. For at udnytte denne mulighed forsøger hardwareproducenter at skabe produkter, der tilføjer en masse funktioner til de eksisterende computerbygninger.

Men intet af dette er standardiseret. Hver producent arbejder med sine egne softwarefunktioner, som er lukkede kilder for at adskille sig fra deres konkurrenter.

Hvis hver hardware er forskellig, hvordan vil operativsystemet så vide, hvordan man bruger hardwaren?

Dette varetages af enhedsdriverne. Da Windows ikke kan bygge support til alle hardwareenheder på planeten, overlod de det til hardwareproducenterne at udvikle kompatible drivere.

Windows - operativsystemet^{(Windows Operating System)} tilbyder os kun en grænseflade til at interagere med de installerede enheder og drivere på systemet. Denne grænseflade kaldes Enhedshåndtering.^{(Device Manager.)}

Hvad er en enhedshåndtering?^{(What is a Device Manager?)}

Det er en softwarekomponent i Microsoft Windows -operativsystemet, som er som et kommandocenter for alle de perifere hardware, der er tilsluttet systemet. Måden det fungerer på er ved at give os et kort og organiseret overblik over alle de Windows-godkendte hardwareenheder, der er i drift i computeren.

Dette kan være elektroniske komponenter såsom tastatur, mus, skærme, harddiske, processorer osv. Det er et administrativt værktøj, der er en del af Microsoft Management Console .

Enhedshåndtering^{(Device Manager)} leveres forudindlæst med operativsystemet, men der er andre tredjepartsprogrammer tilgængelige på markedet, som kan bruges til at opnå de samme ønskede resultater, men det opfordres til ikke at installere disse tredjepartsapplikationer på grund af de iboende sikkerhedsrisici de besidder.

Microsoft begyndte at samle dette værktøj med operativsystemet med introduktionen af ​​Windows 95 . Oprindeligt var det kun designet til at vise og interagere med allerede eksisterende hardware. I løbet af de næste par revisioner blev hot-plugging-funktionen tilføjet, som gør det muligt for kernen at underrette enhedsadministratoren om alle nye hardware-relaterede ændringer, der finder sted. Såsom tilslutning af et USB -drev, indsættelse af et nyt netværkskabel osv.

Enhedshåndtering hjælper os med at:^{(Device Manager helps us to:)}

• Rediger hardwarekonfiguration.
• Skift og hent hardwaredrivere.
• Registrering af konflikter mellem de hardwareenheder, der er tilsluttet systemet.
• Identificer^(Identify) problematiske drivere og deaktiver dem.
• Vis hardwareoplysninger såsom enhedsproducent, modelnummer, klassifikationsenhed og mere.

Hvorfor har vi brug for en enhedsadministrator?

Der er mange grunde til, at vi muligvis har brug for en enhedshåndtering, men den vigtigste grund til, at vi har brug for enhedshåndteringen, er softwaredrivere.

En softwaredriver er som Microsoft definerer software, der tillader din computer at kommunikere med hardware eller enheder. Men hvorfor har vi brug for det, så lad os sige, at du har et lydkort, du skal bare kunne tilslutte det uden drivere, og din musikafspiller skal generere et digitalt signal, som lydkortet skal lave.

Det er i bund og grund sådan, det ville have fungeret, hvis der kun fandtes ét lydkort. Men det virkelige problem er, at der bogstaveligt talt er tusindvis af lydenheder, og at de alle vil fungere helt anderledes end hinanden.

Og for at alt skal fungere korrekt, skal softwareproducenterne omskrive deres software med specialiseret signalering til dit lydkort sammen med hvert kort, der nogensinde har eksisteret, og hvert kort, der nogensinde vil eksistere.

Så en softwaredriver fungerer som et abstraktionslag eller oversætter på en måde, hvor softwareprogrammerne kun skal interagere med din hardware på ét standardiseret sprog, og driveren klarer resten.

Læs også: ^{(Also Read:)} Hvad er fragmentering og defragmentering^{(What is Fragmentation and Defragmentation)}

Hvorfor forårsager drivere så mange problemer?

Vores hardwareenheder kommer med en masse muligheder, som systemet har brug for for at interagere på en bestemt måde. Selvom der findes standarder for at hjælpe hardwareproducenterne med at lave den perfekte driver. Der er andre enheder og andre stykker software, der kan forårsage konflikter. Der er også separate drivere, der skal vedligeholdes til flere operativsystemer som Linux , Windows og andre.

Hver med sit eget universelle sprog, som chaufføren skal oversætte til det. Dette giver masser af plads til, at en af ​​varianterne af en driver til et bestemt stykke hardware kan have en ufuldkommenhed eller to.

Hvordan får man adgang til Enhedshåndtering?

Der er forskellige måder, hvorpå vi kan få adgang til enhedshåndteringen, i de fleste versioner af Microsoft Windows kan vi åbne enhedshåndteringen fra kommandoprompten, kontrolpanelet, fra kørselsværktøjet, højreklik på startmenuen osv.

Metode 1: Fra startmenuen^{(Method 1: From the start menu)}

Gå til den nederste venstre side af skrivebordet, højreklik^{(Right-click)} på startmenuen, en enorm liste over forskellige administrative genveje vises, find og klik på "enhedshåndtering".

Metode 2: Hurtig adgangsmenu^{(Method 2: Quick Access Menu)}

Bliv ved med at holde Windows -tasten nede på skrivebordet, mens du trykker på 'X', og vælg derefter enhedshåndteringen fra de forududfyldte administrative værktøjer.

Metode 3: Fra kontrolpanelet^{(Method 3: From the Control Panel)}

Åbn kontrolpanelet^{(Control Panel)} , klik på Hardware og lyd^(Sound) , under Enheder^(Devices) og printere^(Printers) , vælg Enhedshåndtering^{(Device Manager)} .

Metode 4: Via Kør^{(Method 4: Via Run)}

Tryk på Windows -tasten + R for at åbne kørselsdialogboksen, og skriv derefter " devmgmt.msc " i dialogboksen udover Åbn^(Open) , og tryk på OK.

Metode 5: Brug af Windows-søgefeltet^{(Method 5: Using the Windows search box)}

Udover vinduesikonet på skrivebordet er der et ikon med et forstørrelsesglas, tryk på det for at udvide søgefeltet, skriv "Enhedshåndtering" i søgefeltet og tryk på Enter . Du vil begynde at se resultaterne udfylde, klik på det første resultat, der vises i sektionen med bedste match^{(Best Match Section)} .

Metode 6: Fra kommandoprompten^{(Method 6: From the Command Prompt)}

Åbn dialogboksen Kør^(Run) ved hjælp af Windows+R -genvejstaster, indtast 'cmd' og tryk på OK. Derefter skulle du være i stand til at se kommandopromptvinduet. Indtast nu '^{(Enter ‘)} start devmgmt.msc' i kommandoprompten^{(Command Prompt)} ( uden anførselstegn) og tryk på Enter .

Metode 7: Åbn Enhedshåndtering via Windows PowerShell^{(Method 7: Open Device Manager through Windows PowerShell)}

Powershell er en mere avanceret form for kommandoprompt, som bruges til at køre eksterne programmer samt automatisere en række systemadministrationsopgaver, der ikke er tilgængelige for kommandoprompten.

For at åbne enhedshåndteringen i Windows Powershell , skal du åbne startmenuen^(Access) , rulle ned i listen over alle applikationer, indtil du når Windows PowerShell -prompten. Når du har åbnet, skriv ' devmgmt.msc ' og tryk på Enter.

Dette er nogle af måderne vi kan få adgang til enhedshåndteringen, der er masser af andre unikke måder vi kan få adgang til enhedshåndteringen afhængigt af hvilken version af Windows-operativsystemet du kører, men for nemheds skyld begrænser vi os til ovennævnte metoder.

Hvordan bruger du enhedshåndteringen?

I det øjeblik, vi åbner enhedshåndteringsværktøjet, bliver vi mødt med en liste over alle hardwarekomponenter og deres softwaredrivere, der i øjeblikket er installeret i systemet. Disse omfatter lydindgange^(Audio) og -udgange, Bluetooth -enheder, skærmadaptere, diskdrev^{(Disk Drives)} , skærme^(Display) , netværksadaptere ^(Monitors)og^{(Network Adapter)} mere, disse er adskilt af forskellige kategorier af ydre enheder, som kan udvides til at vise alle de hardwareenheder, der i øjeblikket er tilsluttet under den kategori .

For at foretage ændringer eller for at ændre en bestemt enhed skal du fra hardwarelisten vælge den kategori, den falder ind under, og derefter vælge den ønskede hardwareenhed fra de viste komponenter.

Når du har valgt enheden, vises en uafhængig dialogboks, denne boks viser enhedens egenskaber.

Afhængigt af den valgte type enhed eller hardwarekomponent, vil vi se faner såsom Generelt^(General) , Driver , Detaljer^(Details) , Hændelser^(Events) og Ressourcer^(Resources) .

Lad os nu se, hvad hver af disse faner kan bruges til,

Generel^(General)

Dette afsnit giver en kort oversigt over den valgte hardware, der viser navnet på den valgte komponent, den type enhed det er, producenten^{(Manufacturer)} af ​​den hardwareenhed, den fysiske placering af enheden i systemet, der er i forhold til den og enhedens status.

Chauffør^(Driver)

Dette er det afsnit, der viser softwaredriveren for den valgte hardwarekomponent. Vi får at se udvikleren af ​​driveren, datoen den blev frigivet, driverversionen og den digitale verifikation af driverudvikleren. I dette afsnit kommer vi også til at se andre driver-relaterede knapper såsom:

• Driverdetaljer: Dette viser detaljerne om de driverfiler, der er blevet installeret, den placering, hvor de er blevet gemt, og forskellige afhængige filnavne.
• Opdater driver: Denne knap hjælper os med at opdatere driveren manuelt ved enten at søge efter driveropdateringen online eller driver, der er blevet downloadet fra internettet.
• Roll Back Driver : Nogle gange er visse nye driveropdateringer ikke kompatible med vores nuværende system, eller der er visse nye funktioner, som ikke er nødvendige, og som er blevet bundtet med driveren. I disse situationer kan vi have en grund til at gå tilbage til en tidligere fungerende version af driveren. Ved at vælge denne knap vil vi være i stand til at gøre det.
• Deaktiver driver: Når vi køber et nyt system, leveres det forudindlæst med visse drivere, som producenten anser for nødvendige. Men da en individuel bruger muligvis ikke kan se kravet om visse drivere på grund af en række årsager til at sige privatliv, så kan vi deaktivere webkameraet ved at trykke på denne knap.
• Afinstaller enhed: Vi kan bruge dette til fuldstændigt at fjerne de nødvendige drivere for at komponenten kan fungere eller endda systemet til at genkende eksistensen af ​​hardwarekomponenten. Dette er en avanceret mulighed, som bør bruges med forsigtighed, da afinstallation af visse drivere kan føre til total fejl i operativsystemet .^{(Operating System)}

detaljer^(Details)

Hvis vi ønsker at kontrollere individuelle egenskaber for en hardware-driver, kan vi gøre det i dette afsnit, her kommer vi til at vælge mellem forskellige egenskaber for driveren og en tilsvarende værdi for en bestemt egenskab. Disse kan senere ændres baseret på kravet.

Begivenheder^(Events)

Når disse softwaredrivere installeres, instruerer de systemet i at køre et væld af opgaver med jævne mellemrum. Disse tidsindstillede opgaver kaldes hændelser. Dette afsnit viser tidsstemplet, beskrivelsen og informationen forbundet med føreren. Bemærk, at alle disse begivenheder også kan tilgås via begivenhedsvisningsværktøjet.

Ressourcer^(Resources)

Denne fane viser forskellige ressourcer og deres indstillinger og den konfiguration indstillingerne er baseret på. Hvis der er enhedskonflikter på grund af visse ressourceindstillinger, vil det også blive vist her.

Vi kan også automatisk scanne for hardwareændringer ved at højreklikke på en af ​​enhedskategorierne, der vises sammen med egenskaberne for den pågældende kategori.

Derudover kan vi også få adgang til nogle af de generelle enhedsindstillinger såsom opdatering af driver, deaktiver driver, afinstaller enheder, scan for hardwareændringer og enhedsegenskaber ved at højreklikke på den enkelte enhed vist i den udvidede kategoriliste.

Enhedshåndteringsværktøjets^(Device) vindue har også ikoner, der vises øverst. Disse ikoner svarer til de tidligere enhedshandlinger, som vi allerede har diskuteret tidligere.

Læs også: ^{(Also Read:)} Hvad er administrative værktøjer i Windows 10?^{(What are Administrative Tools in Windows 10?)}

Identifikation af forskellige fejlikoner og koder

Hvis du skulle tage nogen information fra denne artikel med dig, ville dette være den vigtigste takeaway for dig. Forståelse og identifikation af forskellige fejlikoner vil gøre det nemmere at finde ud af enhedskonflikter, problemer med hardwarekomponenter og fejlfungerende enheder. Her er en liste over disse ikoner:

Hardware ikke genkendt^{(Hardware not recognized)}

Hver gang vi tilføjer en ny hardware , uden en understøttende softwaredriver, eller når enheden er forkert tilsluttet eller tilsluttet, vil vi ende med at se dette ikon, som er angivet med et gult spørgsmålstegn over enhedsikonet.

Hardwaren fungerer ikke korrekt^{(Hardware not working properly)}

Hardwareenheder^(Hardware) har nogle gange en tendens til at fejle, det er ret svært at vide, hvornår en enhed er holdt op med at fungere, som den skal. Vi ved det måske ikke, før vi begynder at bruge den enhed. Windows vil dog forsøge at kontrollere, om en enhed fungerer eller ej, mens systemet starter. Hvis Windows genkender problemet, som den tilsluttede enhed har, viser det et sort udråbstegn på et gult trekantikon.

Deaktiveret enhed^{(Disabled device)}

Vi kan muligvis se dette ikon, som er angivet med en grå pil, der peger ned i den nederste højre side af enheden. En enhed kan automatisk blive deaktiveret af IT-administratoren, af en bruger eller måske ved en fejl

Det meste af tiden viser enhedsadministratoren fejlkoden sammen med den tilsvarende enhed, for at gøre det nemmere for os at forstå, hvad systemet tænker på, hvad der kunne gå galt. Følgende er fejlkoden sammen med forklaringen.

	Reason with error code
1	This device is not configured correctly. (Error Code 1)
2	The driver for this device might be corrupted, or your system may be running low on memory or other resources. (Error Code 3)
3	This device cannot start. (Error Code 10)
4	This device cannot find enough free resources that it can use. If you want to use this device, you will need to disable one of the other devices on this system. (Error Code 12)
5	This device cannot work properly until you restart your computer. (Error Code 14)
6	Windows cannot identify all the resources this device uses. (Error Code 16)
7	Reinstall the drivers for this device. (Error Code 18)
8	Windows cannot start this hardware device because its configuration information (in the registry) is incomplete or damaged. To fix this problem you should uninstall and then reinstall the hardware device. (Error Code 19)
9	Windows is removing this device. (Error Code 21)
10	This device is disabled. (Error Code 22)
11	This device is not present, is not working properly, or does not have all its drivers installed. (Error Code 24)
12	The drivers for this device are not installed. (Error Code 28)
13	This device is disabled because the firmware of the device did not give it the required resources. (Error Code 29)
14	This device is not working properly because Windows cannot load the drivers required for this device. (Error Code 31)
15	A driver (service) for this device has been disabled. An alternate driver may be providing this functionality. (Error Code 32)
16	Windows cannot determine which resources are required for this device. (Error Code 33)
17	Windows cannot determine the settings for this device. Consult the documentation that came with this device and use the Resource tab to set the configuration. (Error Code 34)
18	Your computer’s system firmware does not include enough information to properly configure and use this device. To use this device, contact your computer manufacturer to obtain a firmware or BIOS update. (Error Code 35)
19	This device is requesting a PCI interrupt but is configured for an ISA interrupt (or vice versa). Please use the computer’s system setup program to reconfigure the interrupt for this device. (Error Code 36)
20	Windows cannot initialize the device driver for this hardware. (Error Code 37)
21	Windows cannot load the device driver for this hardware because a previous instance of the device driver is still in memory. (Error Code 38)
22	Windows cannot load the device driver for this hardware. The driver may be corrupted or missing. (Error Code 39)
23	Windows cannot access this hardware because its service key information in the registry is missing or recorded incorrectly. (Error Code 40)
24	Windows successfully loaded the device driver for this hardware but cannot find the hardware device. (Error Code 41)
25	Windows cannot load the device driver for this hardware because there is a duplicate device already running in the system. (Error Code 42)
26	Windows has stopped this device because it has reported problems. (Error Code 43)
27	An application or service has shut down this hardware device. (Error Code 44)
28	Currently, this hardware device is not connected to the computer. (Error Code 45)
29	Windows cannot gain access to this hardware device because the operating system is in the process of shutting down. (Error Code 46)
30	Windows cannot use this hardware device because it has been prepared for safe removal, but it has not been removed from the computer. (Error Code 47)
31	The software for this device has been blocked from starting because it is known to have problems with Windows. Contact the hardware vendor for a new driver. (Error Code 48)
32	Windows cannot start new hardware devices because the system hive is too large (exceeds the Registry Size Limit). (Error Code 49)
33	Windows cannot verify the digital signature for the drivers required for this device. A recent hardware or software change might have installed a file that is signed incorrectly or damaged, or that might be malicious software from an unknown source. (Error Code 52)

How to Switch to OpenDNS or Google DNS on Windows

Konklusion

Da teknologierne i operativsystemerne blev ved med at forbedres, blev det vigtigt for en enkelt kilde til enhedsadministration. Enhedshåndteringen^(Device) er udviklet for at gøre styresystemet opmærksom på de fysiske ændringer og holde styr på de mas, de finder sted, efterhånden som flere og flere perifere enheder bliver tilføjet. At vide, hvornår hardwaren ikke fungerer og kræver øjeblikkelig opmærksomhed, vil hjælpe både enkeltpersoner og institutioner på kort såvel som lang sigt.

What is Device Manager? [EXPLAINED]

Thе Windows operating system currently holds a 96% market share in the world of personal computers. To capitalize on this opportunity, hardware manufacturers try and create products that add a lot of features to the existing computer builds.

But none of this is standardized. Every manufacturer works with its own software features which are closed source to distinguish themselves from their competitors.

If every hardware is different, how will the operating system know how to use the hardware?

This is taken care of by the device drivers. Since Windows cannot build support for all the hardware devices on the planet, they left it up to the hardware manufacturers to develop compatible drivers.

The Windows Operating System only offers us an interface to interact with the installed devices and drivers on the system. This interface is called the Device Manager.

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.

And for everything to work correctly software makers would need to rewrite their software with specialized signaling for your sound card along with every card that ever existed and every card that ever will exist.

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.

Also Read: What is Fragmentation and Defragmentation

Why do drivers cause so many issues?

Our hardware devices come with a lot of capabilities that the system needs to interact in a particular way. Even though standards exist to help the hardware manufacturers to make the perfect driver. There are other devices and other pieces of software that can cause conflicts. Also, there are separate drivers that need to be maintained for multiple operating systems like Linux, Windows, and others.

Each with its own universal language that the driver needs to translate to it. This leaves plenty of room for one of the variants of a driver for a particular piece of hardware to have an imperfection or two.

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 2: Quick Access Menu

On the desktop, keep holding the Windows key while you press ‘X’, then select the device manager from the pre-populated administrative tools.

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 5: Using the Windows search box

Besides the windows icon in the desktop, there is an icon with a magnifying glass, press that to expand the search box, in the search box type “Device Manager” and hit Enter. You will start to see the results populate, click on the first result that is displayed in the Best Match Section.

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.

How do you put the device manager to use?

The moment we open the device manager tool we are greeted with a list of all the hardware components and their software drivers that are currently installed in the system. These include Audio inputs and outputs, Bluetooth devices, Display adapters, Disk Drives, Monitors, Network Adapter, and more, these are separated by different categories of peripherals, which can be expanded to display all the hardware devices that are currently connected under that category.

To make changes or to modify a particular device, from the hardware list select the category it falls under, then from the displayed components choose the desired hardware device.

Upon selecting the device, an independent dialog box appears, this box displays the properties of the device.

Depending on the type of device or hardware component selected, we will see tabs such as General, Driver, Details, Events, and Resources.

Now, let’s see what each of these tabs can be used for,

General

This section provides a brief overview of the hardware selected, that displays the name of the component selected, the type of device it is, the Manufacturer of that hardware device, the physical location of the device in the system that is relative to it and the status of the device.

Driver

This is the section that displays the software driver for the selected hardware component. We get to see the developer of the driver, the date it got released, the driver version, and the digital verification of the driver developer. In this section, we also get to see other driver-related buttons such as:

• Driver details: This displays the details of the driver files that have been installed, the location where they have been saved and various dependent file names.
• Update driver: This button helps us manually update the driver by either searching for the driver update online or driver that has been downloaded from the internet.
• Roll Back Driver: Sometimes, certain new driver updates are not compatible with our current system or there are certain new features that are not required that have been bundled with the driver. In these situations, we may have a reason to go back to a previously working version of the driver. By selecting this button we will be able to do so.
• Disable driver: Whenever we buy a new system, it comes preloaded with certain drivers that the manufacturer deems necessary. However, as an individual user may not see the requirement of certain drivers due to any number of reasons say privacy then we can disable the webcam by pressing this button.
• Uninstall device: We can use this to completely remove the drivers necessary for the component to function or even the system to recognize the existence of the hardware component. This is an advanced option, which should be used with caution as uninstalling certain drivers may lead to total Operating System failure.

Details

If we want to control individual properties of a hardware driver, we can do so in this section, here we get to select from various properties of the driver and a corresponding value for a particular property. These can be later modified based on the requirement.

Events

Upon installing these software drivers, they instruct the system to run a plethora of tasks periodically. These timed tasks are called events. This section displays the timestamp, description, and information associated with the driver. Do note that all of these events can also be accessed via the event viewer tool.

Resources

This tab displays various resources and their setting and the configuration the settings are based on. If there are any device conflicts due to certain resource settings that will also be displayed here.

We can also automatically scan for hardware changes by right-clicking on one of the device categories that are displayed along with the properties of that category.

Additionally, we can also access some of the general device options such as update driver, disable driver, uninstall devices, scan for hardware changes, and device properties by right-clicking on the individual device shown in the expanded category list.

The Device manager tool’s window also has icons that are displayed on the top. These icons correspond to the previous device actions that we have already discussed earlier.

Also Read: What are Administrative Tools in Windows 10?

Identification of various error icons and codes

If you were to take any information from this article with you, this would be the most important takeaway for you. Understanding and identifying various error icons will make it easier to figure out the device conflicts, issues with hardware components, and malfunctioning devices. Here’s a list of those icons:

Hardware not recognized

Whenever we add a new Hardware peripheral, without a supporting software driver or when the device is improperly connected or plugged, we will end up seeing this icon which is denoted by a yellow question mark over the device icon.

Hardware not working properly

Hardware devices sometimes tend to malfunction, it is quite hard to know when a device has stopped functioning as it should. We may not know until we start to use that device. However, windows will try to check if a device is functioning or no, while the system is booting. If Windows recognizes the problem which the connected device has it shows a black exclamation on a yellow triangle icon.

Disabled device

We may see this icon which is denoted by a grey arrow pointing down in the lower right side of the device. A device could be automatically be disabled by the IT administrator, by a user, or maybe by mistake

Most of the time the device manager displays the error code along with the corresponding device, to make it easier for us to make sense of what does the system thinks of what could be going wrong. Following is the error code along with the explanation.

	Reason with error code
1	This device is not configured correctly. (Error Code 1)
2	The driver for this device might be corrupted, or your system may be running low on memory or other resources. (Error Code 3)
3	This device cannot start. (Error Code 10)
4	This device cannot find enough free resources that it can use. If you want to use this device, you will need to disable one of the other devices on this system. (Error Code 12)
5	This device cannot work properly until you restart your computer. (Error Code 14)
6	Windows cannot identify all the resources this device uses. (Error Code 16)
7	Reinstall the drivers for this device. (Error Code 18)
8	Windows cannot start this hardware device because its configuration information (in the registry) is incomplete or damaged. To fix this problem you should uninstall and then reinstall the hardware device. (Error Code 19)
9	Windows is removing this device. (Error Code 21)
10	This device is disabled. (Error Code 22)
11	This device is not present, is not working properly, or does not have all its drivers installed. (Error Code 24)
12	The drivers for this device are not installed. (Error Code 28)
13	This device is disabled because the firmware of the device did not give it the required resources. (Error Code 29)
14	This device is not working properly because Windows cannot load the drivers required for this device. (Error Code 31)
15	A driver (service) for this device has been disabled. An alternate driver may be providing this functionality. (Error Code 32)
16	Windows cannot determine which resources are required for this device. (Error Code 33)
17	Windows cannot determine the settings for this device. Consult the documentation that came with this device and use the Resource tab to set the configuration. (Error Code 34)
18	Your computer’s system firmware does not include enough information to properly configure and use this device. To use this device, contact your computer manufacturer to obtain a firmware or BIOS update. (Error Code 35)
19	This device is requesting a PCI interrupt but is configured for an ISA interrupt (or vice versa). Please use the computer’s system setup program to reconfigure the interrupt for this device. (Error Code 36)
20	Windows cannot initialize the device driver for this hardware. (Error Code 37)
21	Windows cannot load the device driver for this hardware because a previous instance of the device driver is still in memory. (Error Code 38)
22	Windows cannot load the device driver for this hardware. The driver may be corrupted or missing. (Error Code 39)
23	Windows cannot access this hardware because its service key information in the registry is missing or recorded incorrectly. (Error Code 40)
24	Windows successfully loaded the device driver for this hardware but cannot find the hardware device. (Error Code 41)
25	Windows cannot load the device driver for this hardware because there is a duplicate device already running in the system. (Error Code 42)
26	Windows has stopped this device because it has reported problems. (Error Code 43)
27	An application or service has shut down this hardware device. (Error Code 44)
28	Currently, this hardware device is not connected to the computer. (Error Code 45)
29	Windows cannot gain access to this hardware device because the operating system is in the process of shutting down. (Error Code 46)
30	Windows cannot use this hardware device because it has been prepared for safe removal, but it has not been removed from the computer. (Error Code 47)
31	The software for this device has been blocked from starting because it is known to have problems with Windows. Contact the hardware vendor for a new driver. (Error Code 48)
32	Windows cannot start new hardware devices because the system hive is too large (exceeds the Registry Size Limit). (Error Code 49)
33	Windows cannot verify the digital signature for the drivers required for this device. A recent hardware or software change might have installed a file that is signed incorrectly or damaged, or that might be malicious software from an unknown source. (Error Code 52)

How to Switch to OpenDNS or Google DNS on Windows

Conclusion

As the technologies of the Operating systems kept improving it became important for a singular source of device administration. The Device manager was developed to make the operating system aware of the physical changes and keep a track of the mas they take place as more and more peripherals are being added. Knowing when the hardware is malfunctioning and requiring immediate attention would help individuals and institutions alike in a short as well as long run.

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