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Viewing printer properties in Windows 8?

I recently upgraded to windows 8 but noticed that there is no longer a Device Manager application, thus no way for me to view the status of my devices. After a couple of minutes of playing around I found a list of all of my installed devices, but nothing that would indicate the status of those devices such as current ink level, amount of paper etc. How can I view these things?

Vista laptop keeps waking up a minute after I put it to sleep

I have used the command

powercfg -lastwake

to determine what is waking up my computer. Here is what it produces in prompt

Wake History Count - 1
Wake History [0]
  Wake Source Count - 1
  Wake Source [0]
    Type: Fixed Feature
    Timer Expired (RTC)

Next to Type: it says Fixed Feature. I assume that means something internal. Also when I run the command

powercfg devicequery wake_armed

nothing is printed out in prompt which further reinforces that idea that something inside the laptop is waking the laptop. I have a battery that holds a charge for no longer than a 30 seconds to a minute but I am leaving the laptop plugged in after putting it to sleep.

I have also looked into my Device Manager and made sure that "Allow this device to wake the computer" was unchecked on every device that has a Power Management tab.

Another thing I did was go into Power Options > Advanced settings > Multimedia settings > When sharing media > Plugged in: and changed that option to "Allow the computer to sleep"

How to know if my mouse is installed?

I caught a cab to work this morning and I'm not sure if i left my mouse inside. I can remote into my home machine from work but I'm not sure how to ascertain whether my mouse is still plugged in. I had it charging just before I left via one of the USB ports.

So not sure if I just took off without it or took it and left it in the taxi. I was rummaging around in my bag and think I remember taking something out while in the cab.

Monday mornings aey?

I can see 3 HID compliant mouse under mice and keyboard but none of them are identified as Logitech G700s, they are all listed as Microsoft drivers... which might makes sense sense it was plug and play.

How do I query machine for make and model of attached pointing devices to be sure my Logitech mouse is installed?

Update Driver Software from command prompt

I'm looking for a way to automatically install missing drivers on newly installed machines. All the machines are the same brand and model, so I created a shared folder that hass all the drivers in it. On the machine, I edit the following registry key:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\DevicePath

By default, this value is %SystemRoot%\inf, but I changed this to %SystemRoot%\inf;\\SERVER\drvstr to also include my driver share.

Now, after the installation of Windows, A few drivers are missing as you can see in the picture. Weird, because it must search the drivers in my driver share (right?).

To try and fix this, I click Action, Scan for hardware changes. After a few seconds, I get the following information

it can't find my drivers. However, When I right click a missing device, and click on Update Driver Software, the driver gets installed. I Don't browse for the driver, I choose Search automatically for updated driver software and I'm doing this WITHOUT internet connection. So I'm pretty sure it's getting the driver from my driver share, right?

When I check the installed driver, it's indeed the driver from the share.

• Why isn't the driver installed automatically?
• Why doesn't device manager find the driver when I use 'Scan for hardware changes?'
• Is there a way to automate this problem?

I've tried devcon.exe /rescan, but this doesn't even try to install the drivers. It does nothing so far I can see. I'm also not looking for third party software like Driver Genius. I Want to install the drivers, automatically, from the driver share that I maintain.

Thank you

Is there a way of scripting the "Roll Back Driver" feature of Window's Device Manager?

I need to roll back my graphic cards drivers once in a while(It's a long story.) and I have tried scripts using devmanview which worked great for disabling and enabling my drivers(and uninstalling it) but I need the "Roll Back Driver" feature.

Is there a way to script the "Roll Back Driver" features for the Device Manager?

Find unknown device vendor info (so I can locate drivers)

I'm trying to connect to a payment terminal to upload the program. But googling for the driver didn't provide any answers.

The device:

• Name: PAX
• Model: s58

I want to connect via USB and make a connection.

In Windows I see 1 "unknown device" and 1 "livio_connect" for which I/it can't find drivers.

Usually I could find the vendor and device ID by checking:

Properties -> Details -> Device instance id

Here I could read which vendor and device so I could search easier.

Where is this option in Windows 10?

Update

According to some comments I started wondering if the device id and or vendor id could/would change when not compatible (but I wouldn't think so).

How do you find out whether your disc is SATA or not?

I have a laptop and am trying to figure out if my disc drive is a SATA or not without opening it.

Is there a way to find out? I looked at Computer Management, but I can't tell if my drive is SATA or not:

Why does Windows think that my wireless keyboard is a toaster?

I've inherited an old PC from my girlfriend's dad and when setting up the printer I got a bit of a surprise:

Two questions spring to mind here:

1. Why does Windows think my wireless keyboard is a toaster?
2. Why does Windows even have an icon for a toaster in the devices menu?

Linux equivalent of Windows Device Manager / DevCon utility?

I was wondering if there is any Linux equivalent to Windows Device Manager, or the Windows DevCon utility (a command line utility with hardware management functionality).

Do drivers even work the same way in Linux?

Thanks!

R

How can I find out what chip is used in USB <-> Serial (RS232) converter from FTDI?

I have an USB <-> RS232 converter with no designation of producer on it. After plugging it into USB port on Windows Vista 64bit computer I chose an option to automatically find and install drivers from Windows Update site. Drivers (for USB Serial Converter and USB Serial Port) were successfully installed. In Device Manager, in section Universal Serial Bus controllers in context menu for USB Serial Converter in the field Manufacturer there's FTDI.

How can I find out which type of chip (I guess it's one of those listed at http://www.ftdichip.com/Products/ICs.htm) is used in my converter?

EDIT

Hardware Id is USB\VID_0403&PID_6001&REV_0400

ChipGenius reports this

Device Name: +USB Serial Converter

PnP Device ID: VID = 0403 PID = 6001 Serial Number: FTDIC6JT Revision: (Information not returned)

Device Type: Standard USB device - USB2.0 Full-Speed (USB1.1)

Chip Vendor: (No match record) Chip Part-Number: (No match record)

Product Vendor: USB Product Model: Serial Converter

Tools on Web: (N/A)

How to disable my laptop's defective keyboard?

I have an Alienware M17x R2, and after a couple years of use I started having problems with the keyboard: Intermittently, and without warning or apparent cause (even if I'm not touching the computer), the S key (and more recently the D key) will start firing incessant signals until I hit the offending key.

I've been using a USB keyboard, which is conveniently exactly the right size to fit over the built-in keyboard without touching any buttons. However, even as I type the defective keyboard will fire its stream of signals.

I have contacted Dell about this, twice in fact. The first time, I was just bluntly told that they don't ship replacement keyboards. The second time I was told that they did, but they were out of stock and they would contact me when they were in stock again. They haven't contacted me since.

I can't seem to work out which device to disable in the device manager. Here's a screenshot of what I have:

None of the keyboard devices have "Disable" in their context menus, only "Uninstall"... so you'll understand if I'm hesitant to try anything myself.

Any advice on how to fix this?

Can't change default playback device on Windows 10

I changed the default playback device from speakers to headset, but sound is still coming from speakers.

In this case, the default device is headset, but as you can see, the green indicator shows that sound is coming from speakers.

This was working in the past, but a few days ago I noticed this.

Export all contents of "Device Manager"

How could I export all the contents of Device Manager to an .xml file or any other format which can show me the hierarchy and all properties there ?

I could not find any idea except print screen .

Powershell Script to Export all Devices in Device Manager as tree or list?

With former Windows versions, it was possible to print the information from the Device Manager, but it does not seem possible to do this with Windows 7 any longer.

I am looking for a Powershell script that exports all devices that also appear in Device Manager to a text file, and optionally creating it in a tree-like Device Manager type of view if possible.

This would be so helpful in many cases, but I haven't found anything like this from what research I've done.

What exactly are device drivers and INF files?

I know that a device driver is a piece of software that enables the OS to communicate with a piece of hardware, but recently I've heard about INF files and have gotten quite confused. Some sources say that an INF file is used during driver installation, while others say that an INF file is used to provide information about the hardware. Even more recently, I came across the Intel Chipset Device Software (or INF Update Utility). What exactly does it do?