Name

hardware

Synopsis

Add or remove, configure, and troubleshoot hardware devices.

Procedures

The main tools for managing hardware devices on Windows 2000 Server computers are Add/Remove Hardware in the Control Panel and Device Manager, which is part of both System in the Control Panel and Computer Management in the Administrative Tools program group.

Add New Hardware

How you add a new hardware device depends on whether your system and the device both support Plug and Play:

Plug and Play devices

When a Plug and Play device is connected to a Plug and Play system, Windows 2000 automatically detects the device and assigns it appropriate hardware resource settings (IRQ, I/O, memory, and DMA).

Legacy (non-Plug and Play) devices

Use the Add/Remove Hardware Wizard in the Control Panel to install legacy devices or to install Plug and Play devices into systems that are not fully Plug and Play. If the wizard cannot detect the device, you will have to specify its properties and settings manually. For more information see Add/Remove Hardware .

Configure Hardware

Device Manager can be used to disable, enable, reinstall, scan for changes, uninstall, update drivers for, and view or modify resource settings for hardware devices. Select the appropriate device node in Device Manager and then proceed as follows.

Disable a Device

Right-click on device Disable

This action prevents the drivers for the device from loading during startup. Therefore, the device is still present but does not function.

Enable ...

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