Windows 7 Administration Training Instructor: Scott Lowe

Managing Drivers and Hardware Devices

Windows 7 Administration Training

Managing Drivers and Hardware Devices

In This Lesson:

Using the Device Manager tool

Viewing device information with the System Information Tool

Understanding drivers

Driver installation methods

Managing installed drivers

The Driver Verifier utility

Managing hardware installation policies

Staging drivers with pnputil.exe

Adding device drivers to the driver store

Monitoring USB devices

Windows 7 Administration Training

Managing Drivers and Hardware Devices

Globomantics has an array of computing needs

There is no single desktop hardware configuration

Marketing: High end graphics adapters

Other users: Mainstream configuration

Make device installation seamless by pre-staging device drivers lower TCO

Help users get their work done by making sure that their necessary hardware devices work well and are well maintained

Scenario

Windows 7 Administration Training

Managing Drivers and Hardware Devices

Viewing device and driver information

View device resources

Displaying hidden devices

Using Device Manager

Windows 7 Administration Training

Managing Drivers and Hardware Devices

Using the System Information utility

Much greater level of detail about system devices and resources

Read-only

Using the System Information Utility

Windows 7 Administration Training

Managing Drivers and Hardware Devices

Device drivers enable communication between the operating system and hardware devices

Driver facts

Drivers are just software

Not all drivers are created equal

Driver issues are a major support hassle

Drivers can create system instability

Understanding Drivers

Driver

Windows 7 Administration Training

Managing Drivers and Hardware Devices

Windows Update

New device drivers come right from Windows Update

Disable this behavior to improve security and control what devices are installed

Hardware installation disc

Pre-staging drivers

Globomantics will pre-deploy drivers for high-end graphics adapters to ease deployment

Result: Better end-user experience

Lower TCO

Driver Installation Methods

Windows 7 Administration Training

Managing Drivers and Hardware Devices

Device and driver security

Driver software runs with full system rights

Signed vs. unsigned drivers

Identify unsigned drivers with sigverif.exe

Updating drivers

Rolling back drivers

Managing Installed Drivers

Windows 7 Administration Training

Managing Drivers and Hardware Devices

Driver verifier

Helps to determine root cause for driver-related issues including problems related to:

Drivers that experience memory-based issues

Poorly written drivers

Requires a system restart

The Driver Verifier Utility

Windows 7 Administration Training

Managing Drivers and Hardware Devices

Via Group Policy

Allow and disallow installation of specific devices based on device ID

Disable the installation of removable devices

Create custom error messages to be displayed for users that attempt to install hardware

Provide an administrative back door to allow IT staff to install any new hardware and drivers

Managing Hardware Installation Policies

Windows 7 Administration Training

Managing Drivers and Hardware Devices

Use the pnputil.exe tool to manage the driver store

Add a driver to the store using the -a parameter

Download the driver package first

Combine with -i to install the driver, too

Show all third party drivers using the -e parameter

Delete a driver from the store with the -d parameter

Combine with the -f parameter to force deletion

Adding Device Drivers to the Driver Store

Windows 7 Administration Training

Managing Drivers and Hardware Devices

USB hub types

Self-powered

Bus-powered

USB bandwidth

Bandwidth-related error messages

USB controller bandwidth exceeded

USB bandwidth

USB 1.0/1.1: 12 Mbps

USB 2.0: 480 Mbps

USB 3.0: 5 Gbps

Gauging bandwidth use is a best effort task

Not all devices report bandwidth back to Windows

Monitoring USB Devices

Windows 7 Administration Training

Managing Drivers and Hardware Devices

What We Covered

Using the Device Manager tool

Viewing device information with the System Information Tool

Understanding drivers

Driver installation methods

Managing installed drivers

The Driver Verifier utility

Managing hardware installation policies

Staging drivers with pnputil.exe

Adding device drivers to the driver store

Monitoring USB devices

Drag the red check boxes over the box bullet point of your choice. To edit or reorder the animations, go to the Animations Tab in the Ribbon Click Custom Animation and use the Custom Animation task pane to edit the animations.

Windows 7 Administration Training

Managing Drivers and Hardware Devices

My Favorite Supporting Resources

1. Using Driver Verifier to identify issues with Windows drivers for advanced users

2. What are basic and dynamic disks?

3. Windows and GPT FAQ

Windows 7 Administration Training

Managing Drivers and Hardware Devices

Key Terms You Should Know

DriverSoftware that provides a link from a computer operating system to a hardware device

Driver storeThe location at which Windows stores device driver files, typically C:\Windows\System32\Drivers or C:\Windows\SysWOW64\Drivers

Signed driverA digitally signed driver is from a traceable source

Unsigned driverAn unsigned driver can come from anywhere and may prove to be a system risk