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Lesson 1: Configuring Hardware Settings

You use Control Panel to configure hardware settings, manage user-specific settings, and manage settings that apply to the computer regardless of which user is currently logged on. This lesson introduces the Control Panel programs that you use to configure hardware devices or services. You configure hardware settings by creating and configuring hardware profiles.

After this lesson, you will be able to

• Manage hardware profiles.

Estimated lesson time: 10 minutes

Understanding Hardware Profiles

A hardware profile stores configuration settings for a set of devices and services.
Windows 2000 can store different hardware profiles to meet the user's different needs. For example,
a portable computer can use different hardware configurations depending on whether it is docked or undocked.
A portable-computer user can create a hardware profile for each state (docked and undocked) and choose the
appropriate profile when starting Windows 2000.

Creating or Modifying a Hardware Profile

To create or modify a hardware profile in Control Panel, double-click the System icon, and then click the Hardware tab in the System Properties dialog box. Click Hardware Profiles to view the Available Hardware Profiles list. (See Figure 4.1.)

Figure 4.1 The Available Hardware Profiles list

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To open the System Properties dialog box from the desktop, right-click My Computer,
and then click Properties.

Windows 2000 creates an initial profile during installation, which is listed as
Profile 1 (Current). You can create a new profile with the same configuration as another profile. To create a new profile, in the Hardware Profiles dialog box, in the Available Hardware Profiles list, select the profile that you want to copy, and then click Copy.

The order of the profiles in the Available Hardware Profiles list determines the default order at startup. The first profile in the list becomes the default profile. To change the order of the profiles, use the arrow buttons to the right of the list box.

Activating a Hardware Profile

If two or more profiles are available in the Available Hardware Profiles list,
Windows 2000 prompts the user to make a selection during startup. You can set the time that the computer waits before starting the default configuration. To
adjust this time delay, click the Select The First Profile Listed If I Don't Select
A Profile In option and then specify the number of seconds in the Seconds box within the Hardware Profiles Selection group. You can configure Windows 2000 to start the default profile by setting the number of seconds to 0. To override the default during startup, press the Spacebar during the system prompt.

When using hardware profiles, be careful not to disable one of the boot devices with the Devices program in Control Panel. If you disable a required boot device, Windows 2000 might not start. You should make a copy of the default profile and then make changes to the new profile. This way, you can use the default profile again if a problem occurs.

Viewing Hardware Profile Properties

To view the properties for a hardware profile, in the Available Hardware Profiles list, select a profile, and then click Properties. This displays the Properties dialog box for the profile.

If Windows 2000 identifies your computer as a portable unit, the This Is A Portable Computer check box is selected. If Windows 2000 determines that your portable computer is docked, it automatically selects the appropriate option. You can't change this docked option setting after Windows 2000 selects it.

Lesson Summary

In this lesson, you learned to use the System icon in Control Panel to configure hardware devices or services by creating and configuring hardware profiles. A hardware profile stores configuration settings for a set of devices and services. During installation, Windows 2000 automatically creates an initial profile,
but you can create additional profiles. To create a new profile, in the Hardware
Profiles dialog box, in the Available Hardware Profiles list, you select the profile that you want to copy and then click Copy. To view the properties for a hardware profile, in the Available Hardware Profiles list, you select a profile and then click Properties. This displays the Properties dialog box for the profile.

You also learned that the order of the profiles in the Available Hardware Profiles list determines the default order at startup. The first profile in the list becomes the default profile. To change the order of the profiles, you use the arrow buttons. If two or more profiles are in the Available Hardware Profiles list, Windows 2000 prompts you to make a selection during startup.