11.2.6.2 Lab – Use Device Manager

Instructor Note: Red font color or gray highlights indicate text that appears in the Instructor copy only.

Introduction

In this lab, you will open Device Manager to display devices listed on your computer. You will also display the monitor settings.

Recommended Equipment

• A computer running Windows

Instructor Note: The students will be accessing sensitive settings during this lab. Stress the importance of following instructions.

Instructions

Step 1: Open Device Manager

a. Log on to the computer as an administrator.

b. Click Control Panel. In the Small icons view, select Device Manager.

Questions

What information is listed in the Device Manager window? Why would you use it?

Device Manager lists all the hardware devices installed on your computer. Use the Device Manager to view and change the properties of any device.

Browse through the menus displayed at the top of the Device Manager window. Ho would you install driver software for an older device that may not be automatically recognized by the Windows operating system?

Device Manager > Action tab > Add legacy hardware.

Step 2: Display the monitor settings on your computer.

As an administrator, there are times when you will need to resolve hardware issues on a computer. Device Manager makes it easy to locate and install new drivers for your devices. You will use Device Manager to review the device driver information for your computer’s monitor and to review driver options available to you.

Note: Check with your instructor before making any device changes on the computer.

a. Click the arrow to the left of Monitors.

b. Right-click the device, Generic Non-PnP Monitor in the example, and select Properties from the dropdown menu.

c. In the Generic Non-PnP Monitor Properties window, select the Driver tab. This window displays the software driver information that is currently installed for this monitor.

Question:

What additional information does Driver Details provide?

Answers will vary. Additional information provides the filename of the driver and where it is located on the hard disk.

d. Click Update Driver.

Question:

What two options do you have for updating the driver?

You can search automatically, which will search the computer and internet for the latest driver software, or you can browse the computer’s file folders for a driver.

e. From the Update Driver Software window, click Cancel to return to the Monitor Properties window.

Questions:

What does the Roll Back Driver button do? The Roll Back Driver can be grayed out on your computer, why would it be grayed out?

It allows you to uninstall newly installed driver software and revert back to the driver that was used prior to a driver upgrade. The button is grayed out because a new driver has not been installed.

What are the other available options?

The other options are disable device and uninstall devices.

f. Close all open windows.