Devices such as printers, game controllers, monitors and other peripheral devices can be controlled using this feature in Windows 7 available in the Control Panel inside the Start Menu.
The section opens up and we see a very user-friendly way to manage our hardware.
The icons given in the picture above represent certain specific hardware.
The first icon under Devices represents an external USB Drive. Second represents a Generic Monitor. Third represents a keyboard adapter and so on till the last icon in the category which represents the actual computer itself.
Below these icons, under the Printers and Faxes category, the first icon represents a Generic Windows Fax Machine and second icon, the XPS Windows Writer. The green tick on the XPS Windows Writer suggests that it is the default printer.
The devices that Windows does not recognise are given below the recognised devices and are represented by the white icons under the category- Unspecified.
We can perform some common actions for these peripherals by right-clicking on the respective icons which opens a drop-down menu. For instance on right-clicking on the Cruzer USB Drive, we can select any of the given options to perform the required action.
This window is also used for troubleshooting purposes. It shows a warning sign on the icons of devices which potentially have a problem. The last two items in the “Unspecified” category show the warning symbol suggesting some problem. However, these signs are not always accurate.
For solving the problem with the device showing a warning sign, we right click on its icon and click on troubleshoot as shown below.
Windows then attempts to resolve the problem and gives probable solutions which can be applied directly from the Troubleshoot pop-up box itself.
From here, we can either choose the solution given (re-installing the device) or continue to look for other solutions.
