Device Manager in Windows 7 and 8. How do I access the Device Manager?

The use of computers in work, study and everyday life forces people to gain new knowledge and skills in their exploitation. Many users of the Windows operating system from Microsoft face a number of problems related to the built-in and peripheral devices of the computer / laptop. It happens that one of the devices just "fell off" and refuses to work, or when the new device is connected to the computer via USB or any other ports it is not recognized by the computer and does not work. Also, many users are faced with such a reality that installing the operating system on the computer is only half the battle, and still need to put the drivers. In order to understand all this, you need to understand what a device manager in Windows 7 or 8 is and what it is needed for. This knowledge will enable us to find the problem ourselves and solve it selectively and point-wise. Before you learn how to enter the device manager, it is necessary to understand in more detail what it is.

What is Device Manager?

This is a list of all devices installed on the computer, indicating the resources allocated to them.

Why do I need a device manager in Windows 7, 8 or XP? And it is necessary for the user to see the entire list of equipment connected to the computer and make their own adjustments.

Depending on the version of the operating system, the application data interface is slightly different, but basically looks like this:

• A small window opens and can be expanded.
• At the top of it there is a menu bar and additional function buttons, among them: go forward / backward, hide the console on the left, export a list of devices, help and hide the panel to the right.
• In the left pane is a list of standard tools for administering the operating system.
• The main window displays the name of the computer, and the devices themselves are displayed as a hierarchical list.
• These devices can be a hard disk drive, a drive for disks, a video card, a sound card, a network card, a mouse, a keyboard, game devices, webcam, printers and scanners, external storage devices (external hard disk or flash memory), other devices.
• When there are several such devices, they are grouped and displayed as an icon with collapsed content.
• When you select any equipment icon in the list of additional buttons under the menu, a button "Search for Plug and Play devices" (or update the hardware configuration) appears.

Opening the device manager in Windows 7, 8 or XP, the user can configure the selected equipment. To do this, double-click the left mouse button on the device icon in the list. Next, in the open window, you can change the following settings for the item:

• Update the driver.
• Roll back the driver to an earlier version.
• Remove the driver (and the device itself).
• Or just turn off the device.

Also, in the open dialog box, you can view the necessary information about the hardware, including the identification number, the driver or firmware version, the release date, the manufacturer, and so on.

How to open the Device Manager

How do I log into Device Manager? Yes, it's very simple. To do this, go to the control panel and when you see the items with small icons open the "Administration" section. In the dialog box, you need to find the "Computer Management" item. After that, in the appeared window in the left panel, find and click once on the "Device Manager".

It is also possible to reduce the number of actions. To do this, on the "My Computer" icon (on the desktop), right-click once and select "Control", which opens the "Computer Management" window above. Well, then as in the first version.

Windows 7 Device Manager

The device manager in Windows 7 does not have any significant differences from other versions of this family, starting with Windows XP and higher. Therefore, the above description is the same.

If necessary, in the task manager, the user can turn off the device or change the driver both automatically and manually, with a specific configuration file.

The Device Manager on the 7 "Windows" is a very important and necessary element for monitoring and setting up the entire computer hardware system.

Windows Device Manager 8

With the arrival of a new operating system from the American company Microsoft - Windows 8 - new functions were added and the unnecessary old ones were eliminated, and the interface of the system also changed. It is noteworthy that the Windows 8 device manager has not changed much and has for the most part exactly the same functions as in the above Windows 7.

What to do if it does not start

In a well-configured operating system, everything works quickly and without interruption. But what if you do not see the Device Manager? Causes and ways of solving them can be:

1. The limitation in the rights of the Windows account. In this case, the system administrator serving the computer, specifically restricted access, so that the user could not change anything. It is usually accompanied by pop-up information about accessing the system administrator of the device. So it should be done.
2. The operating system was attacked by malicious programs and the element responsible for the operation of the task manager was corrupted. This will help restore the system to an earlier reference point, or manually restore the structure of the system elements (only for advanced users who can work with the registry).
3. A temporary failure of one of the Windows services. It is treated by restarting the computer.
4. Using a pirated version of the operating system, the user must be prepared for the fact that an element such as the task manager can be removed initially, so it is better to use the license.

Helpful Tips

Windows Device Manager 8, 7, or XP lets you see and understand which device is running, which is disabled and for which the driver is not installed.

If there is an inscription "Unknown device" in the device list and its icon has a yellow exclamation mark, then for this equipment it is necessary to install the driver. To understand what kind of device it is, you need to find the identification number of the device in the "Information" tab and search the information on it on the Internet. Having found out what kind of device it is, you either need to download and install the driver from the official site for it, or install it from the disk.

If the device icon is gray and has an icon with the down arrow, then this element is disabled and you can use it manually. If the device has a regular icon without additional characters, then it works and performs its function.