InformIT: Sams Teach Yourself Microsoft Windows XP in 24 Hours

Windows Offers Hardware Help

If you install hardware and find that Windows does not properly recognize the change, double-click the Add Hardware icon in the Control Panel window. You might have to click the option labeled Switch to Classic View to see the Add Hardware icon. Windows starts the Add Hardware Wizard, shown in Figure 15.1, which helps walk you through the installation process.

The wizard goes through a series of tests and attempts to detect the newly added hardware. Remember that Windows recognizes most plug-and-play hardware; that is, when you install a new graphics card, for example, and then restart Windows, Windows often recognizes the graphics card and configures itself for use with your new card. Nevertheless, Windows cannot automatically recognize all plug-and-play hardware.

After the Add Hardware Wizard searches for plug-and-play hardware, you can have it search for non–plug-and-play hardware, or you can select the hardware from the list of vendors and products that Windows offers. Of course, if your hardware is newer than Windows, Windows will not list your specific hardware.

Figure 15.1 The Add Hardware Wizard helps you install non–plug-and-play hardware.

Be sure to read your new hardware's installation documentation thoroughly before you begin the installation. Often the new hardware comes with updated drivers that fix minor bugs and add features to drivers that Windows already includes. Therefore, instead of letting the wizard search for the new device, and instead of selecting from the list of supported devices shown in Figure 15.2, you use a disk or CD-ROM that comes with the new hardware to add the latest hardware support for the device to Windows. Therefore, you have to click the dialog box's Have Disk button and select the hardware's disk or CD-ROM location to complete the installation.

Figure 15.2 Select from the list of known hardware or use your hardware's own installation disk.

Caution

If you add a new modem to a serial port or a printer to a parallel port, you should not run the Add Hardware Wizard. The wizard works only for hardware you physically connect to the system unit, such as a disk drive or graphics card. If you plug a modem into an existing serial port, that serial port will already be installed, so you don't need to run Add Hardware. You will, however, have to double-click the Control Panel's Modems icon and select your modem from the list of modems displayed if the modem does not automatically install.

If you have a laptop or desktop with a PC card (PC cards are sometimes called PCMCIA cards), you can plug it directly into the laptop, changing a PC card hard disk to a PC card modem, and Windows will adjust itself automatically. Hour 17, "Using Windows on the Road," explains more about mobile computing and the hardware issues you'll encounter.

Additional Hardware Support

Windows uses a Registry and hardware tree to keep track of the current and changeable hardware configuration. The Registry is a central repository of all possible hardware information for your computer. The hardware tree is a collection of hardware configurations, taken from part or the entire Registry, for your computer. In addition, your Registry holds software settings.

Luckily, you don't have to know anything about the Registry because Windows keeps track of the details for you. If, however, you want to look at the hardware tree currently in place on your computer, you can display the Control Panel, double-click the System icon, and click the Device Manager button on the Hardware page to display the Device Manager page shown in Figure 15.3. This hardware tree shows the devices currently in use.

Figure 15.3 Analyze and change your computer's hardware settings from the Device Manager window.

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