Accessing the Device Manager

Windows 95/98/Me

1. Click Start, then select Settings -> Control Panel
2. Select System applet, then Device Manager tab.

Windows 2000 and Windows XP

1. Select the Start menu at the bottom-right of your screen.
2. Choose Control Panel (or Settings, then Control Panel on some computers).
3. In the window that opens, double-click the control panel titled System. If there is no item titled System listed in the Control Panels window, click the link in the upper-left of the window titled Switch To Classic View. The System Control Panel icon should now be visible to the right. Double-click it to open the System Properties window.
4. At the top of the System Properties window that opens, click the tab titled Hardware.
5. Then click the button labeled Device manager. You will be presented with a list of all the components installed on your computer.

• Alternative 1:
  1. Right-click My Computer then select Properties
  2. Select the Hardware tab
  3. Click the Device Manager button
• Alternative 2: Start -> Run -> devmgmt.msc -> OK
• Alternative 3: Type "devmgmt.msc" into the Command Prompt
• Alternative 4: Device Manager is part of Computer Management, which also includes Event Viewer, Services Manager, Disk Management and many other things. Right-Click My Computer then select Manage to start Computer Management, or invoke compmgmt.msc, or launch it via the shortcut in Control Panel, Administrative Tools.
• Alternative 5: Press and hold down the Windows key and press the Pause/Break key.
• Alternative 6: Create a batch file(.bat) to run Device Manager. A one line entry of devmgmt.msc into an ANSI text file with the extension (.bat) suffices. However you can also invoke instance settings, such as displaying non-present devices, by adding an additional first command line
  set devmgr_show_nonpresent_devices=1
  for an overall structure like this:
  set devmgr_show_nonpresent_devices=1
• Alternative 7: Instead of a batch file, simply create a shortcut leading to devmgmt.msc