Device ManagerDevice Manager is a built-in Windows utility that you can use to troubleshoot or update your PC hardware. If your computer freezes up or crashes, or if one of your hardware devices stops working, it is one of the first places to look for answers.
To get to the Computer Management Console, right-click on "My Computer" and select "Manage". That will bring you to the window shown below.
From here, you can click on the plus sign next to each device description to view the actual make and model of your particular device. As shown below, I have clicked the plus sign next to the Network Adapters category. By doing that I can see that I have a Broadcom NetXtreme gigabit network card.
If I want to go even further, I can right-click on the network card description to open a small menu. From the small menu I can update the device driver, disable it, or uninstall it from the system. At the bottom of the menu I can click on "Properties" to open the window shown below. The Properties window can tell you everything you need to know about any device in your system, including whether or not the device is working properly. Advanced users can also use the diagnostic features to resolve device conflicts and change resource settings.
So, the next time you are having a problem with a piece of hardware on your computer, be sure to check Device Manager. It may give you a head start as far as diagnosing the problem. Return From Device Manager to the Tutorials page
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