Chapter 13

Managing hardware and devices

• Adding, configuring, and removing hardware devices

• Setting up Bluetooth devices

• Managing USB devices

• Updating and uninstalling drivers

• Printers and print queues

• Configuring displays and graphics adapters

• Speakers, microphones, and headsets

It’s probably only a slight exaggeration to say that no two computers are alike. Motherboards, storage devices and controllers, video and network adapters, and peripherals of all shapes and sizes combine to create a nearly infinite number of possible computer configurations.

The good news for anyone using Windows 11 is that most of these devices should just work. For most common hardware upgrades, Windows detects the device automatically and installs a driver so that you can use the device and its full array of features. This chapter covers those installations as well as devices that need to be added manually and those that have optional configuration steps.

This chapter covers a feature called Swift Pair, which simplifies the experience of setting up some Bluetooth devices. It also offers advice on how to work with display-related improvements such as support for high-DPI hardware configurations, typically found in high-end, business-class notebooks, and the Night Light feature that makes portable computing easier on the eyes.

In this chapter, we cover the traditional nerve center of hardware, Device Manager, as well as the newer hardware configuration options in Settings. We explain how drivers work (and how to work with drivers). We also offer hints on the best ways to set up specific device configurations, including multiple monitors, Bluetooth adapters, and printers.

Adding, configuring, and removing hardware devices

Since its introduction in Windows 95, Plug and Play technology has evolved tremendously. Early implementations of this technology were somewhat unreliable, leading some users to dismiss the feature as “plug and pray.” As this now-mature technology passes the quarter-century mark, however, hardware and software standards have converged to make most device configuration tasks completely automatic.

Any computer that was certified as compatible with Windows 7 or later supports the Plug and Play device standard, which handles virtually all the work of configuring computer hardware and attached devices. A Plug and Play device sends a unique identifier to Windows; that identifier helps Windows discover its required resources (including drivers) and allows software to configure it.

Plug and Play devices can interact with the operating system, with both sides of the conversation responding to device notification and power management events. A Plug and Play driver can load automatically when Windows detects that a device has been plugged in, and it can suspend operations when the system sleeps and resume smoothly when the system wakes.

Note

Although you still can find older devices that require non–Plug and Play inputs—such as scanners, plotters, and similar peripherals that connect to serial and parallel ports—these legacy devices are becoming increasingly rare. If you own this type of device, we recommend retiring it if possible and replacing it with a supported modern alternative. If you have no choice but to keep it around, look for a community of fellow owners of that device; they’re the most likely to be able to help you with configuration issues.

Installing a new Plug and Play device

When you install a Plug and Play device for the first time, the Plug and Play manager queries the device to determine its hardware ID and any compatible IDs. It then compares the hardware ID with a master list of corresponding tags drawn from all the Setup Information files in the %SystemRoot%\Inf folder. If it finds a signed driver with a matching tag, it installs that driver package and makes other necessary system modifications with no intervention required from you. If everything goes as expected, the only subtle indication you might see is a progress dialog (typically minimized) that displays a green bar over its taskbar button and then vanishes when its work is complete.

Note

Any user can plug in a new device and begin using it if a driver for that device is included with Windows 11 or is available via Windows Update. Installing a new driver that is downloaded from a third-party site and is digitally signed by a third party rather than by Microsoft requires an administrator’s credentials.

If Windows detects a Plug and Play device (after you’ve plugged it into a USB port, for instance) but cannot locate a digitally signed driver that matches the device ID, it looks for generic driver packages that match any compatible IDs reported by the device. If that search still doesn’t turn up a suitable driver, the Plug and Play manager installs a stub for the device and awaits the arrival of a proper driver. These partially installed devices appear in Device Manager, under the Other Devices heading, with a yellow exclamation point over the device name.

Troubleshooting

Drivers for built-in devices are missing

Device Manager might show some devices in the Other Devices category, with a yellow exclamation point indicating that the correct drivers are missing, after a clean installation of Windows 11. This usually occurs on a PC where some low-level devices built into the motherboard aren’t recognized during Windows 11 setup. (This is most likely to be an issue when installing Windows 11 on hardware that doesn’t meet the minimum requirements for the operating system.) Try checking Windows Update manually to see whether the correct drivers turn up; if that search doesn’t retrieve the desired drivers, check with the device manufacturer to see whether drivers are available for download. Pay special attention to chipset drivers, which add the necessary entries to the Windows Plug and Play database to allow the correct built-in drivers to be installed.

When Windows Update can’t find a signed driver (and, thankfully, those occasions are becoming rarer as the Windows ecosystem matures), you might need to manually download and install a device driver.

The built-in Windows drivers are perfectly adequate for many device classes. Some devices, especially complex ones like scanners and all-in-one printers, might require utility software and additional drivers to enable the full range of features for that device.

How device drivers and hardware work together

Before Windows can work with any piece of hardware, it requires a compatible, properly configured device driver. Drivers are compact control programs that hook directly into Windows and handle the essential tasks of communicating your instructions to a hardware device and then relaying data back to you. After you set up a hardware device, its driver loads automatically and runs as part of the operating system, without requiring any further intervention on your part.

Many individual technologies used in Windows 11 devices use minidriver models, where the device driver is made up of two parts. Typically, Microsoft writes a general class driver that handles tasks that are common to devices in that category. The device manufacturer can then write device-specific code to enable custom features.

Windows 11 includes a comprehensive library of class drivers that allow most devices to function properly without requiring any additional software. There are class drivers for pieces of hardware that are, these days, typically integrated into a larger system: audio devices, network adapters, webcams, and display adapters, for example. Windows 11 also includes drivers for external add-ons (wired and wireless) including printers, monitors, keyboards, scanners, mice and other pointing devices, smartphones, and removable storage devices.

This core library is copied during Windows setup to a protected system folder, %SystemRoot%\System32\DriverStore. (Driver files and associated elements are stored in the FileRepository subfolder.) Anyone who signs in to the computer has Read & Execute permissions for files that are saved in that location, but only an installation program working with authorization from a member of the Administrators group can create or modify files and folders there.

You can add new drivers to the driver store in a variety of ways, including the following:

• Windows Update offers drivers when it detects that you’re running a device that’s compatible with that driver but is currently using an older version. (You can also search for the most recent driver via Windows Update when installing a new device.)

• A Windows quality or feature update can refresh the driver store with new and updated drivers.

• As an administrator, you can add signed third-party drivers to the driver store by running an installer app. All drivers added to the driver store in this fashion are saved in their own subfolder (with a cryptic folder name that ends in a 16-character unique identification string) within the FileRepository folder, along with some supporting files created by Windows that allow the drivers to be reinstalled if necessary.

Any driver that has been added to this store is considered to be trusted and can be installed without prompts or administrator credentials. All drivers, new or updated, that are downloaded from the Windows Update service are certified to be fully compatible with Windows 11 and are digitally signed by Microsoft.

Inside OUT

Copy the FileRepository folder before a clean reinstall

If you’re planning a clean reinstall of Windows 11 using bootable installation media rather than using the Reset function, consider copying the FileRepository folder from %SystemRoot%\System32\DriverStore to removable media, such as a USB flash drive. After your clean install is complete, you can quickly reinstall any custom drivers by using the Update Driver option from Device Manager and specifying that saved folder as the location for the new driver files.

A Windows hardware driver package must include a Setup Information file (with the extension .inf). This is a text file that contains detailed information about the device to be installed, including the names of its driver files, the locations where they are to be installed, any required registry settings, and version information. All devices with drivers in the DriverStore folder include Setup Information files in the %SystemRoot%\Inf folder.

Although the Setup Information file is a crucial part of the driver installation process, you don’t work with it directly. Instead, this file supplies instructions that the operating system uses during Plug and Play detection, when you use an installer app to set up a device or when you manually install a driver update.

Caution

The syntax of Setup Information files is complex, and the intricacies of .inf files can trip up even experienced software developers. If you find that a driver setup routine isn’t working properly, you might be tempted to try editing the Setup Information file to work around the hang-up. Trust us: That approach is almost certain to fail. In fact, by tinkering with .inf files to install a driver that’s not certified to be compatible with your hardware, you run the risk of corrupting registry settings and making your system unstable.

When Windows completes installation of a driver package, it performs the tasks specified by the Setup Information file and copies the driver files to %SystemRoot%\System32\Drivers.

Inside OUT

For Windows 11, signed drivers only

For all editions of Windows 11, all kernel-mode drivers must be submitted to Microsoft and digitally signed by the Windows Hardware Dev Center Dashboard portal. (Kernel-mode drivers run at the same level of privilege as Windows itself, as opposed to user-mode drivers, which run in the context of the currently signed-in user and cannot cause the system to crash.) In addition, any drivers submitted to Microsoft must be signed by a valid Extended Validation Code Signing Certificate—a higher-cost option that provides extra assurance about the identity of a software publisher.

The net effect of these requirements is to make it extremely difficult for malware to be delivered as part of a driver update.

Driver signing establishes an initial threshold of trust, but by itself it’s not necessarily an indicator of quality. For that, you need to look at the signature a little more closely.

The highest level of quality is found with drivers that have passed compatibility and reliability tests for that category of device, as defined in Microsoft’s Hardware Lab Kit. Those devices earn the right to use the Windows logo and can be included on Microsoft’s Certified Products List.

Hardware developers who simply want to deliver a signed driver to their customers can submit the driver to Microsoft and “attest” to its quality rather than submitting actual test results. The Attested Signing Service signature is different from the one for a logo-certified device, but Windows 11 treats them the same, allowing either type of signed driver to be installed by any user with no prompts.

Getting useful information from Device Manager

The more you know about individual hardware devices and their associated driver software, the more likely you are to make short work of troubleshooting problems or configuring advanced features for a device. In every case, your starting point is Device Manager, a graphical utility that provides detailed information about all installed hardware, along with controls you can use to configure devices, assign resources, and set advanced options.

Note

In Windows 11, Device Manager also includes categories that don’t represent actual hardware—print queues, for example, or anything under the Software Devices heading. In this section, we focus only on physical hardware devices and their associated drivers.

The easiest way to open Device Manager (Devmgmt.msc) is to right-click the Start button (or press Windows key + X) and then click the Device Manager shortcut on the Quick Link menu. Alternatively, type device in the search box and then click the Device Manager entry from the top of the results list. (Device Manager is also available as a snap-in under the System Tools heading in the fully stocked Computer Management console.)

As Figure 13-1 shows, Device Manager is organized as a hierarchical list that inventories every piece of hardware within or connected to your computer. The default view shows devices by type.

Figure 13-1 Click the arrow to the left of any category in Device Manager to expand or collapse the list of individual devices within that category.

To view information about a specific device, double-click its entry in Device Manager’s list of installed devices. Each device has its own multitabbed properties dialog. Most hardware devices include a selection of tabs, including General and Driver. The General tab lists basic facts about the device, including the device name and type, the name of its manufacturer, and its current status, as in the example in Figure 13-2.

Figure 13-2 The General tab supplies basic information about a device and indicates whether it’s currently functioning properly.

The Driver tab, shown in Figure 13-3, lists version information about the currently installed driver for the selected device. Although the information shown here is sparse, it covers the essentials. You can tell at a glance who supplied the driver, and you can see who digitally signed it; you can also determine the date and version number of the driver, which is important when considering whether you should download and install an available update.

Figure 13-3 The Driver tab, which is available for every installed device, offers valuable information and tools for managing installed drivers.

Clicking the Driver Details button on the Driver tab leads to another dialog that lists the names and locations of all files associated with that device and its drivers. Selecting any file name from this list displays details for that file in the lower portion of the dialog. (We get to the other buttons in the next section.)

Click the Details tab for a potentially overwhelming amount of additional information, arranged in a dialog in which you can see one property and its associated values at a time. To see the full list of properties available for inspection, click the arrow to the right of the current entry in the Property box; Figure 13-4 shows the typically dense result.

Figure 13-4 Most device properties you can select from this list return obscure details, but a few are useful for troubleshooting purposes.

Choosing a property tucks the list away and displays the value or values associated with that property, as in the example shown in Figure 13-5, which lists the Plug and Play Hardware IDs associated with the selected device.

Figure 13-5 Digging deep into the properties dialog for a device reveals these hardware IDs. This information can be helpful when tracking down drivers for an unknown device.

Troubleshooting

Device Manager shows an unknown device

Most modern hardware built for Windows 7 or later just works with Windows 11. But occasionally you might find mysterious entries under the Other Devices heading in Device Manager, with few or no details, no associated drivers, and no clue about what to do next. This problem is most likely to appear after you perform a clean install of Windows 11 on a device originally designed for an earlier Windows version, but the issue can also occur with older external hardware.

You can often get important clues by opening the properties dialog for the device and looking on the Details tab. The Hardware IDs property, in particular, can be invaluable. The first three characters, followed by a backslash, identify the bus to which the device is connected: USB or PCI, for example. The string VID_ followed by a number is a Vendor ID code; PID_ is a Product ID code; REV_ is the revision code. Use your favorite search engine, entering the first value as a search term, to identify the vendor that made the device, which might help to narrow your search; search for a combination of the first two values to identify a specific device.

In addition to this basic information, the Properties dialog for a given device can include any number of custom tabs. The wireless network adapter in the laptop PC shown in Figure 13-6, for example, adds a custom tab (Advanced) that you can use to configure the device at the hardware level—such as setting allowed wireless modes.

By design, the information displayed in Device Manager is dynamic. When you add, remove, or reconfigure a device, the information shown here changes as well.

Figure 13-6 You can configure advanced properties for some devices, such as the allowed wireless modes for this network adapter, using Device Manager.

Enabling and disabling devices

You can temporarily disable any device listed in Device Manager. You might choose this option if you’re certain you won’t need an installed device under normal conditions, but you want to keep it available just in case. On a desktop PC with a permanent wired Ethernet connection, for example, you can keep a Wi-Fi adapter installed but disabled. That configuration gives you the option to enable the device and use the wireless adapter to connect to a hotspot on a mobile device if the wired network is temporarily unavailable.

Right-click any active entry in Device Manager to see a shortcut menu with a Disable Device command. To identify any device that’s currently disabled, look for the black, downward-pointing arrow over its icon in Device Manager, as shown in Figure 13-7. To turn a disabled device back on, right-click its entry in Device Manager and then click Enable Device.

Figure 13-7 Use this shortcut menu in Device Manager to temporarily disable a device and then enable it the next time it’s needed.

Adjusting advanced device settings

As we mentioned earlier, some devices include specialized tabs in the properties dialog available from Device Manager. You use the controls on these additional tabs to change advanced settings and properties for devices. For example:

• Network cards, modems, input devices, and USB hubs often include a Power Management tab you can use to control whether the device can force the computer to wake up from Sleep mode. This option is useful if you have fax capabilities enabled for a modem (yes, some businesses still use faxes and modems) or if you use the Remote Desktop feature over the internet on a machine that isn’t always running at full power. On both portable and desktop computers, you can also use this option to allow Windows to turn off a device to save power.

• The Volumes tab for a disk drive contains no information when you first display the properties dialog for that device. Click the Populate button to read the volume information for the selected disk, as shown in Figure 13-8, and click the Properties button to check the disk for errors, run the Defrag utility, or perform other maintenance tasks. Although you can perform these same tasks by right-clicking a drive icon in File Explorer, this option might be useful in situations where you have multiple hard disks installed and you suspect that one of those disks is having mechanical problems. Using this option, you can quickly see which physical disk a given volume is stored on.

  Caution

  DVD drives offer an option to change the DVD region, which controls which discs can be played on that drive. The DVD Region setting actually increments a counter on the physical drive itself, and that counter can be changed only a limited number of times. Be extremely careful with this setting, or you might end up losing the capability to play any regionally encoded DVDs in your collection on that device.

  

  Figure 13-8 After you click the Populate button, the Volumes tab lists volumes on the selected drive. Select any volume and click Properties for full access to troubleshooting and maintenance tools.

• When working with network cards, you can often choose from multiple performance-related settings on an Advanced tab. Randomly tinkering with these settings is almost always counterproductive; however, you might be able to solve specific performance or connectivity problems by adjusting settings as directed by the device manufacturer or a Microsoft Support article.

Setting up Bluetooth devices

Bluetooth is one of those rare standards that passes the “it just works” test consistently. These days, virtually every portable device supports Bluetooth for wirelessly connecting headsets and pairing fitness devices.

Most desktop PCs include Bluetooth support, making it possible to connect wireless keyboards and mice. Bluetooth technology also works with the Phone Link app on Windows 11, which enables you to make and receive calls through an Android smartphone using your PC’s audio hardware.

Recent feature updates have added a bevy of new features designed to make Windows 11 devices work better with Bluetooth LE devices such as fitness monitors. In Settings, the Bluetooth & Devices page provides a single interface, from which you can manage Bluetooth accessories, wireless docks, Xbox wireless controllers, and media devices.

You use the Bluetooth & Devices page in Settings to manage your Bluetooth devices, as displayed in Figure 13-9.

Figure 13-9 Use the Bluetooth & Devices page in Settings to pair new devices and manage connections to previously paired devices.

The Bluetooth & Devices page provides a good deal of information about your devices. For example, you can check the current battery charge of powered devices, as shown in Figure 13-9. From this page, you can perform the following tasks:

• Review paired devices and their current status

• Add or remove devices

• Enable or disable the Bluetooth adapter

• Access links for connected peripherals, such as printers and scanners, cameras, touchpad, mice, and other devices

• Access and configure Phone Link for your Android phone

• Select the View More Devices link

When you select View More Devices, Windows displays all your paired and connected devices by category: Input, Audio, and Other Devices. There are also sections for Device Settings and Related Settings:

• Device Settings provides options to enable or disable notifications for connections using Swift Pair, and to enable or disable the option to download software and drivers over metered connections.

• Under Related Settings, you can access your computer’s sound settings and display settings, send or receive files using Bluetooth, access more Bluetooth settings (such as discovery and alert notifications), and open devices and printer settings.

Before you can use one Bluetooth device with another, you have to pair them, a process that generally involves making the external device discoverable (typically, by pressing and holding a pairing button for a few seconds or going into the settings menu on the device) and switching to the Bluetooth & Devices page in Settings. Windows 11 includes support for a feature called Swift Pair for Bluetooth that makes this process nearly effortless. If the device supports Swift Pair, making that device discoverable prompts Windows to display a notification. You can then click Connect to complete the pairing process.

To pair a device that doesn’t support this feature, first make sure Bluetooth is turned on; then click Add Device, select Bluetooth, and then select your device. Tap the device name to complete the connection and make the device usable with Windows 11.

Bluetooth connections represent a security risk—a low one, to be sure, but a risk nonetheless. That’s why pairing a keyboard, for example, requires that you use the keyboard to enter a code from the PC’s screen. Without that precaution, an attacker might be able to connect a wireless keyboard to your computer without your knowledge and then use it to steal data or run unauthorized and potentially dangerous software.

As mentioned earlier, the Bluetooth & Devices page in Settings contains an on/off switch for the Bluetooth adapter. On mobile PCs, this is a power-saving feature. On a desktop PC without a touchscreen, be careful before disabling Bluetooth, because doing so could render your wireless keyboard and mouse—and thus the entire PC—unusable. The only cure, in that case, is to plug in a wired keyboard or mouse and turn the setting back on.

Managing USB devices

Universal serial bus, more commonly known as USB, is one of the oldest and most reliable Plug and Play standards in the world. Through the years, the USB standard has progressed from version 1.1 to 2.0 to 3.2 to USB4, with the jump to USB 3.1 and beyond making a monumental difference in the speed of data transfer between USB-connected devices (up to 20 Gb/sec for USB 3.2 Gen 2x2 devices).

In an unfortunate bit of timing that has inspired some confusion, a new USB Type-C connector arrived at the same time as USB 3.1 began to appear in high-end computing equipment, including Microsoft’s Surface Laptop, Surface Pro, and Surface Go models. With the help of so-called alternate modes (and appropriate adapters), you can use a USB Type-C port to connect to devices using HDMI, DisplayPort, Thunderbolt, and Mobile High-Definition Link (MHL) connections.

One popular USB Type-C category is the multiport hub, which accepts HDMI and DisplayPort cables, RJ-45 plugs from wired networks, traditional USB Type-A cables, and even laptop-grade power supplies, transforming a portable PC into a fully connected desktop PC through a single USB Type-C input. The USB Type-C connector is reversible (no more flipping the USB plug three times until you find the right orientation). These new connectors are compatible with older USB devices but require an adapter.

Note

USB Type-C connectors and cables typically support at least USB 3.1 and can connect to older USB devices using adapters. However, because the USB Type-C specification mandates support only for the older, slower USB 2.0 standard, you have no guarantee of USB 3.1 compatibility. This is most likely to be a problem with off-brand devices that were released as part of the first wave of USB Type-C support.

All USB devices are Plug and Play compatible. Knowing the types of connectors and the highest standard supported on your device can help ensure that you avoid compatibility hassles and carry the right cables.

Updating and uninstalling drivers

If you’re having a hardware problem that you suspect is caused by a device driver, your first stop should be Device Manager. Open the Properties dialog for the device, and use the following buttons on the Driver tab to perform maintenance tasks:

• Update Driver This choice opens the Update Drivers dialog, which we describe in the next section.

• Roll Back Driver This option uninstalls the most recent manually updated driver and rolls back your system configuration to the previously installed driver. This option is available from Safe Mode if you need to remove a driver that’s causing blue-screen (Stop) errors. Unlike System Restore, this option affects only the selected device. If you have never updated the selected driver or if you updated it through Windows Update, this option is unavailable.

• Uninstall Device This button completely removes driver files and registry settings for the selected device. For driver packages you downloaded and installed separately, it also offers the option to completely remove the associated driver files. Use this capability to remove a driver that you suspect was incorrectly installed, and then reinstall the original driver or install an updated driver.

Inside OUT

Create a safety net before tinkering with drivers

When you install a new hardware driver, Windows automatically attempts to create a new System Restore checkpoint. That doesn’t mean it will be successful, especially if System Restore is turned off or if a problem with your System Restore settings has caused this utility to suspend operations temporarily. To make certain you can roll back your changes if necessary, set a new System Restore checkpoint manually before making any kind of hardware configuration change. (For more details, see “Rolling back to a previous restore point” in Chapter 15, “Troubleshooting, backup, and recovery.”)

Managing automatic driver updates

Microsoft uses the Windows Update mechanism to deliver drivers for many devices. Using this feature, you can plug in a new device with relative confidence it will work without extra effort on your part. You also can use it to automatically receive updated drivers, which typically fix reliability, stability, and compatibility problems.

In earlier versions of Windows, it was important that you considered the impact of automatically installing driver updates as part of your Windows update strategy. In fact, the recommendation was to avoid doing so, and instead, to manually update drivers only when needed.

However, updating drivers through Windows Update is now recommended. The process has become significantly more reliable, and it’s highly unlikely that you’ll experience problems with updated drivers that are installed from Windows Update.

Note

Many driver updates are marked as optional and can be reviewed in Settings > Windows Update > Advanced Options > Optional Updates> Driver Updates. In some cases, these drivers are older than the ones you currently have installed and should only be installed if the newer versions are causing problems. If you don’t want to install optional driver updates, you don’t have to. If you do, select the updates you want to install and click Download & Install.

Updating a device driver manually

Microsoft and third-party device manufacturers frequently issue upgrades to device drivers. In some cases, the updates enable new features; in other cases, the newer version swats a bug that might or might not affect you. New Microsoft-signed drivers are often (but not always) delivered through Windows Update. Other drivers are available only by downloading them from the device manufacturer’s website. Kernel-mode drivers must still be digitally signed before they can be installed.

If the new driver includes an installer, run that app to copy the necessary files to your system’s driver repository. Then start the update process by opening Device Manager, selecting the entry for the device you want to upgrade, and clicking the Update Driver button on the toolbar or the Update Driver option on the right-click shortcut menu. (You can also click Update Driver on the Driver tab of the Properties dialog for the device.)

That action opens the dialog shown in Figure 13-10.

Figure 13-10 When manually updating a driver, try the automatic option first unless you want to select a specific driver you previously downloaded.

Click Search Automatically For Drivers if you know that the driver file is available on a removable media device. Click Browse My Computer For Drivers to enter the location of a downloaded driver package or choose from a list of available drivers in the driver store folder. Clicking the Browse My Computer For Drivers option opens a dialog like the one shown in Figure 13-11, with two options for manually selecting a driver.

Figure 13-11 If you’ve downloaded a driver package that doesn’t include an installer, select its location here to allow the update to proceed.

If you’ve downloaded the driver files to a known location or copied them to removable storage, click Browse to select that location, and then click Next to continue. (If you have a copy of the FileRepository folder from a previous Windows installation on the same hardware, you can choose that location.) With the Include Subfolders option selected, as it is by default, the driver update software will do a thorough search of the specified location, looking for a Setup Information file that matches the hardware ID for the selected device; if it finds a match, it installs the specified driver software automatically.

Use the second option, Let Me Pick From A List Of Available Drivers On My Computer, if you know that the driver software you need is already in the local driver store. In general, choosing this option presents a single driver for you to choose. In some cases, as in the example in Figure 13-12, you can see previous versions of a driver, with the option to replace a new driver with an older one for troubleshooting purposes. If you need to install an alternative driver version that isn’t listed, clear the Show Compatible Hardware checkbox and then choose a driver from an expanded list of all matching devices in the device category.

Figure 13-12 Clear the Show Compatible Hardware checkbox only if you’re absolutely certain that Plug and Play has selected the wrong driver and you want to manually install a different driver.

Inside OUT

Make sure that update is really an update

How do you know whether a downloaded version is newer than the currently installed driver on your system? A good set of release notes should provide this information and is the preferred option for determining version information. In the absence of documentation, file dates offer some clues, but they’re not always reliable. A better indicator is to inspect the properties of the driver files themselves. After unzipping the downloaded driver files to a folder on a local or network drive, right-click any file with a .dll or .sys extension and choose Properties. On the Version tab, you should be able to find version details about the proposed driver replacement, which you can compare with the version details shown in Device Manager for the current driver.

Rolling back to a previous driver version

Unfortunately, manually updated drivers can sometimes cause new problems that are worse than the woes they were intended to fix. This is especially true if you’re experimenting with prerelease versions of new drivers. If your troubleshooting leads you to suspect that a newly installed driver is the cause of recent crashes or system instability, consider removing that driver and rolling your system configuration back to the previously installed driver.

To do this, open Device Manager and double-click the entry for the device you want to roll back. Then go to the Driver tab and click Roll Back Driver. The procedure that follows is straightforward and self-explanatory.

Note

You can also roll back a driver indirectly by performing a System Restore. Assuming system protection is enabled on your computer, you can use System Restore to apply a complete computer configuration from an earlier time. Keep in mind, though, that this rolls back the entire computer configuration rather than just the driver.

Uninstalling a driver

There are at least three circumstances under which you might want to completely remove a device driver from your system:

• You’re no longer using the device, and you want to prevent the previously installed drivers from loading or using any resources.

• You’ve determined that the drivers available for the device are not stable enough to use on your system.

• The currently installed driver is not working correctly, and you want to reinstall it from scratch.

Inside OUT

Manage Plug and Play drivers

Removing and reinstalling the driver for a removable Plug and Play device requires a little extra effort. Because these drivers are loaded and unloaded dynamically, you can remove the driver only if the device in question is plugged in. Use the Uninstall button to remove the driver before unplugging the device. To reinstall the device driver without unplugging the device, open Device Manager and choose Action, Scan For Hardware Changes.

To remove a driver permanently, open Device Manager, right-click the entry for the device, and click Uninstall Device. (If the entry for the device in question is already open, click the Driver tab and click Uninstall Device.) Click OK when prompted to confirm that you want to remove the driver, and Windows removes the files and registry settings completely. You can now unplug the device.

If you installed the driver files from a downloaded file, the Uninstall Device dialog includes a checkbox (shown in Figure 13-13) that you can select to attempt to remove the files from the driver store as well. This prevents a troublesome driver from being inadvertently reinstalled when you reinsert the device or restart the computer.

Figure 13-13 Be sure to select this checkbox to attempt to remove a troublesome driver so that it doesn’t reinstall itself automatically.

Note that you can’t delete driver software that’s included with Windows 11.

Inside OUT

What happened to the Windows Show/Hide Updates tool?

If Windows Update delivers a problematic device driver, removing it is only a temporary fix. The next time Windows checks for new updates, it downloads and installs that same driver.

Longtime Windows administrators might remember the Windows Show/Hide Updates Tool, which was designed to work around this dilemma. Delivered as a Troubleshooting Pack file with the name Wushowhide.diagcab, this utility allowed Windows administrators to explicitly exclude drivers and other updates from downloading again.

Unfortunately, this tool is no longer available on the Microsoft download website, and support articles that reference it also contain links that no longer work. Although it’s possible to discover alternative download sites for this utility, we don’t recommend looking for them.

Troubleshooting

Sporadic hardware errors

When your computer acts unpredictably, chances are good that defective hardware or a buggy device driver is at fault.

In those circumstances, using a powerful troubleshooting tool called Driver Verifier (Verifier.exe) is a terrific way to identify flawed device drivers. Instead of your computer locking up at a most inopportune time with a misleading Blue Screen of Death (BSOD), Driver Verifier stops your computer predictably at startup with a BSOD that accurately explains the true problem. Although this doesn’t sound like a huge improvement (your system still won’t work, after all), Driver Verifier performs a critical troubleshooting step: identifying the problem. You can then correct the problem by removing or replacing the offending driver. (If you’re satisfied that the driver really is okay despite Driver Verifier Manager’s warning, you can turn off Driver Verifier for all drivers or for a specific driver. Any driver that Driver Verifier chokes on should be regarded with suspicion, but some legitimate drivers bend the rules without causing problems.)

Driver Verifier works at startup to thoroughly exercise each driver. It performs many of the same tests that are run as part of the Windows certification and signing process, such as checking for the way the driver accesses memory.

Beware: If Driver Verifier finds a nonconforming driver—even one that doesn’t seem to be causing any problems—it will prevent your system from starting. Use Driver Verifier only if you’re having problems. In other words, if it ain’t broke…

To begin working with Driver Verifier, open an elevated Command Prompt window and type verifier. In the Driver Verifier Manager dialog, shown in Figure 13-14, select Create Standard Settings. (If you want to assess current conditions before proceeding, select the last option: Display Information About The Currently Verified Drivers.)

Figure 13-14 The top choice in Driver Verifier Manager creates a list of all currently installed drivers, which you can use for troubleshooting.

When you click Next, the Driver Verifier Manager displays a list of all currently installed drivers that match the conditions you specified. Note that the list might contain a mix of hardware drivers and some file-system filter drivers, such as those used by antivirus programs, backup utilities, CD- and DVD-burning apps, and other low-level system software.

At this point, you have two choices:

• Go through the list, make a note of all drivers identified, and then click Cancel. No changes are made to your system configuration; all you’ve done is gather a list of suspicious drivers, which you can then try to remove or disable manually.

• Click Finish to complete the wizard and restart your computer. Don’t choose this option unless you’re prepared to deal with the consequences, as explained in the remainder of this sidebar.

If you choose the second option and your computer stops with a blue screen when you next sign in, you’ve identified a problem driver. The error message includes the name of the offending driver and an error code.

To resolve the problem, boot into Safe Mode using Windows 11’s Recovery Environment and disable or uninstall the problem driver. Then check with the device vendor to get a working driver that you can install.

To disable Driver Verifier so that it no longer performs verification checks at startup, run Driver Verifier Manager again and select Delete Existing Settings in the initial dialog. Alternatively, at a command prompt, type verifier /reset. (If you haven’t yet solved the driver problem, of course, you’ll be stopped at a BSOD, unable to disable Driver Verifier. In that case, boot into Safe Mode and then disable Driver Verifier.)

You can configure Driver Verifier so that it checks only certain drivers. To do that, open Driver Verifier Manager, select Create Standard Settings, click Next, and select the last option: Select Driver Names From A List. With this option, you can exempt a particular driver from Driver Verifier’s scrutiny—such as one that Driver Verifier flags but you’re certain is not the cause of your problem.

Note

Driver Verifier has been included with every version of Windows since Windows 2000 and is included with Windows 11. For information about using Driver Verifier, see the Microsoft Support article 244617, “Using Driver Verifier to identify issues with Windows drivers for advanced users,” at https://support.microsoft.com/kb/244617.

Printers and print queues

To install a modern printer that plugs into a USB port on the PC where you plan to use it, just connect the device. Plug and Play does the rest of the work. (See “Installing a new Plug and Play device” earlier in this chapter.)

Note

Although it’s nearly certain there are still some non–Plug and Play printers out there, we don’t cover manual connection options for legacy devices in this book.

Wireless printers that connect over Wi-Fi or by using Bluetooth also support Plug and Play. Follow the manufacturer’s instructions to complete the wireless connection, or skip ahead a few pages to our explanation of the Add A Printer option.

• You can share a printer for use by other users on the same local network. Follow the instructions in “Sharing files, printers, and other resources over a local network” in Chapter 11, “Windows networking.”

To configure a printer or work with documents in a print queue, go to Settings > Bluetooth & Devices > Printers & Scanners. You can then review the available devices, as shown in Figure 13-15.

Figure 13-15 This Settings page shows installed printers and scanners. Click any item in the list to reveal more details.

To review printer options, select a printer. You can then use the following options to manage the printer:

• Open Print Queue takes you to a list of pages waiting to print.

• Print Test Page enables you to send a test page to the selected printer.

• Run The Troubleshooter forces Windows to check the printer for issues and to suggest solutions to any detected problems.

• Printer Properties enables you to review the detailed configuration of the printer, including Sharing, Ports, Device Settings, Color Management, Security, and Advanced.

• Printing Preferences lets you review or change orientation, page order, pages per sheet, and paper source—plus many other settings.

• Hardware Properties displays access to Details and Events about the printer.

• Device Information displays additional information about the selected printer, including manufacturer, model, serial number, and if network connected, useful data such as MAC address and IP address.

Printers aren’t exactly like snowflakes, but there are far too many variations in hardware and software design for us to offer more than the most general advice: Get to know your printer by inspecting these settings, and don’t be afraid to read the manual.

To make a wireless or networked printer available, go to Settings > Bluetooth & Devices > Printers & Scanners and click Add Device. If the planets are properly aligned, the autodiscovery software might locate your printer and walk you through setting it up.

If you’re not so lucky, click Add Manually next to The Printer I Want Isn’t Listed. This opens the dialog shown in Figure 13-16. In this example, we chose the Select A Shared Printer By Name option, clicked Browse, and located the shared printer on a network server.

Figure 13-16 The Add Printer Wizard offers numerous paths to connect to a printer, especially those that are available over a network.

Among the “other options” available on this page in the Add Printer Wizard is one that you can use to connect to a network printer using its Universal Naming Convention (UNC) name. The device shown in Figure 13-16, for example, is connected to a printer named Laserjet on a server named scribbler-ajw, making its UNC address \\scribbler-ajw\Laserjet. You can also use an IP address for a device that has a permanently assigned address, and you can enlist the help of a wizard to connect a wireless or Bluetooth printer.

Inside OUT

Find a printer’s TCP/IP address or host name

Often the easiest way to determine the TCP/IP address or host name for a printer is to use the printer’s control panel to print a configuration page, which usually includes this information.

One of the simplest ways to connect to a shared network printer doesn’t involve any wizards at all. Just use File Explorer to browse to the network computer (entering and saving credentials for the share, if necessary), where you should see an entry for any shared printer available to you. Double-click that icon to begin the process of connecting to that printer. Because Windows requires a local copy of the network printer’s driver, you may need an administrator’s credentials.

Inside OUT

Use a compatible driver

If you can’t find a driver that’s specifically designed for your printer, you might be able to get away with using another driver. Check the hardware documentation to find out whether the printer emulates a more popular model, such as a Hewlett-Packard LaserJet. If so, choose that printer driver, and then print some test documents after completing setup. You might lose access to some advanced features available with your model of printer, but this strategy should allow you to perform basic printing tasks.

Configuring displays and graphics adapters

On a desktop or portable PC with a single screen (and, when connecting to an external monitor, the proper cable), you shouldn’t need to do anything to configure your display. All modern display adapters deliver up-to-date drivers via Windows Update, and the display is capable of configuring itself as soon as it’s connected. In this chapter, we cover a handful of scenarios when you might need to review and adjust these settings manually.

Changing display settings

As we noted earlier, Windows typically does a good job of configuring display settings. To review them, go to Settings > System > Display. Figure 13-17 shows this Settings page, with display options for a Surface Laptop.

Figure 13-17 If you see “Recommended” after the first two options under the Scale & Layout heading, that means Windows has correctly configured your display resolution and scaling.

The Brightness settings at the top of this dialog are typically available only on a laptop PC. We discuss the Night Light settings a bit later in this section. Pay particular attention to the settings under the Scale & Layout heading:

• Scale On high-resolution monitors, you can increase or decrease the apparent size of apps and text, a process known technically as scaling. Here, too, Windows recommends a scaling factor based on the size of the display and the resolution. You might choose a larger or smaller scaling factor for your personal comfort. On a system with a single display, you can adjust the scaling by using a slider below the thumbnail of the current monitor on the Display page in Settings.

• We cover scaling in “Making text easier to read” in Chapter 4, “Personalizing Windows 11.”

• Display Resolution Every display has a native resolution, one in which the number of physical pixels matches the number of pixels Windows shows. Configuring the display at something other than native resolution generally results in a subpar viewing experience, often with a blurry, stretched display. Figure 13-17 shows a Surface Laptop running at its native resolution of 2256 × 1504 pixels, as indicated by the word “Recommended” in the label. Click that value to open a full list of other supported resolutions. Why would you choose a non-native resolution? One common scenario is projecting to a large display—in a conference room, for example, or to an adapter connected to the HDMI input on a TV. If you choose the option to duplicate displays, you need to set the resolution to match the large monitor or TV, even if it looks distorted on your laptop screen.

  Troubleshooting

  Display options stop at 1920 by 1080 even though your monitor supports higher resolutions

  The most likely cause of this problem is an HDMI connection that’s incapable of handling the desired resolution. If either the display adapter or the monitor supports only the HDMI 1.3 standard, you’re limited to Full HD (1920 by 1080) resolution. If both ends of the connection support HDMI 1.4 or later, you need to use a High Speed HDMI cable (a standard HDMI cable is limited to Full HD resolution). In most cases, the best workaround is to switch to a different connection, if one is available. The DisplayPort 1.2a standard, which uses mini and full-sized connectors and also works with USB-C adapters using alternative modes, supports 4K (3840 by 2160 or 4096 by 2160) resolutions, and the HDMI 1.4 standard supports 5K displays (5120 by 2880).

• Display Orientation This setting is available on portable devices that can be used as tablets and on external displays that can be rotated 90 degrees for use in portrait mode. For a laptop or desktop computer where the orientation of the display is fixed, changing orientation would result in an odd, mostly unreadable display; thus, this setting is typically unavailable.

An increasingly popular configuration for high-powered portable PCs is the inclusion of two GPUs. Some laptop models, for example, can switch between the power-saving but still capable built-in graphics and a more powerful discrete GPU based on an Nvidia or AMD chipset. If you own a PC that includes two GPUs, Windows 11 allows you to associate a GPU with a specific app.

To configure custom per-GPU options, go to Settings > System > Display and click Graphics. That opens the Graphics page shown in Figure 13-18. As you can see, we’ve already customized this device to give an extra GPU boost to the Clipchamp video editor app.

Figure 13-18 Windows 11 allows you to configure graphics performance on a per-app basis. On high-end devices with switchable GPUs, you can assign a GPU to specific apps for better performance.

The technique to add an app to this list varies. For a legacy desktop app, choose Desktop App, and then click Browse and locate the executable file for that program. For a Windows app delivered through the Store, choose Microsoft Store App and then select the app from the resulting drop-down list.

Click Add to create a new entry on the list for your selected app, and then click Options to open the Graphics Preference dialog shown in Figure 13-19. On systems with multiple GPUs, the discrete adapter is for high performance, and the onboard graphics are for power saving. Regardless of the graphics hardware, Windows offers three options:

Figure 13-19 Normally, Windows chooses the appropriate GPU settings for an app. To override that choice, choose Power Saving or High Performance from this dialog.

• Let Windows Decide

• Power Saving

• High Performance

The Don’t Use Optimizations For Windowed Games checkbox allows you to keep games running at top speed. For older games, you might need to experiment with this option to see its effect.

If you have multiple GPUs, the GPU name appears beneath these options. In Figure 13-19, the computer, a Dell workstation, has a discrete Nvidia graphics adapter assigned for High Performance work with apps like Microsoft’s Clipchamp video editor.

At any time, you can see which GPU is in use for a given app by opening Task Manager and looking at the GPU Engine column on the Performance tab. Click the GPU Engine column heading to sort the list so that all apps currently using either GPU appear at the top of the list.

Controlling scaling on high-DPI displays

So-called high-DPI displays are typically found today on high-end portable PCs. The Microsoft Surface Pro 9, for example, has a screen size of 13 inches (measured diagonally) and a native resolution of 2880 × 1920 pixels. That translates to 267 pixels per inch (a measure sometimes referred to in casual usage as dots per inch, or DPI).

That density is far greater than (typically more than double) the density of a high-resolution desktop display or a budget-priced laptop PC with a similar display size running at a lower native resolution. If you use a high-DPI system at normal (100 percent) scaling, the icons and text will be so small as to be unreadable. That’s why, by default, the Surface Pro 9 is configured to run Windows 11 at 200 percent scaling. The result is an impressively sharp display. Everything in the Windows interface and in Windows apps is magnified at twice its normal size, using multiple physical pixels to create each effective pixel (at 200 percent scaling, each effective pixel is made from four physical pixels). The most popular classic desktop apps look great on primary high-DPI displays, as does any desktop app that was built using Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF).

Windows 11 includes display code that improves rendering for some older desktop apps that previously looked a little blurry on high-DPI displays. If you notice that a desktop app isn’t scaling properly, you can use another option to change its behavior. Find the app’s executable file, right-click to open its properties dialog, click Change High DPI Settings on the Compatibility tab, select the Override High DPI Scaling Behavior setting shown in Figure 13-20, and change it to System (Enhanced). This setting overrides the way the selected app handles DPI scaling, eliminating the use of bitmap stretching and forcing the app to be scaled by Windows:

Figure 13-20 Most Windows apps should work just fine on high DPI displays. You might need to adjust the settings shown here for software that was originally written for much older Windows versions.

Windows 11 supports scaling factors from 100 percent all the way to 450 percent, with most elements of the user interface looking crystal-clear even at the highest scaling levels. That includes Start, File Explorer, and the Windows taskbar.

In general, scaling produces a display that looks perfectly natural. In some scenarios, however, scaling issues can cause problems, including blurry text, desktop apps that appear too large or too small, or interface elements such as menus and toolbars that are clipped or overlap.

These types of scaling problems are most likely to occur when you try to change the display scaling dynamically. This can happen in a variety of scenarios: connecting a portable PC with a high-DPI internal display to a larger external monitor, for example, using a video output or a laptop dock; projecting that high-DPI display to a large TV screen; or making a Remote Desktop connection. Any of those scenarios can result in some unfortunate scaling combinations, especially when using desktop apps that weren’t written to handle scaling changes gracefully.

When that happens, the only sure cure is to close all running apps, sign out of Windows, and then sign back in. Ironically, the same problem occurs in reverse when you disconnect from the docking station. Microsoft has dedicated some serious engineering resources to solving this annoyance in Windows 11, thankfully.

Using multiple displays

When you attach a second (or third or fourth) display to your computer, the Display page in Settings changes. Thumbnails, one for each attached display, appear in a preview pane like the one shown in Figure 13-21. You can drag the displays to either side of one another (or even move one above the other), adjusting the alignment of displays to match their actual physical alignment, with the goal of having your mouse pointer move naturally between displays without a jarring shift when crossing the bezels.

Figure 13-21 With multiple monitors, you can arrange each so that it matches the physical layout. Drag the monitor thumbnail up, down, or to either side of another display’s thumbnail.

It’s worth noting that the thumbnails have only a casual relationship to the size of the physical displays they represent. In Figure 13-21, for example, display 1 is a Surface Laptop 3 with a 13-inch screen, with a display resolution of 2256 × 1504 and scaling set to 175 percent. Display 2 and display 3 are both external 24-inch monitors. They each have a resolution of 1920 × 1080 and a scaling factor of 125 percent.

If you’re working with two or more displays and you’re not sure which is which, click the Identify button, which temporarily positions a large number on each display that corresponds to the number on its thumbnail. Note that you can drag the thumbnail for the appropriate display to represent their physical layout on your desk.

If you want to duplicate your internal display to an external display, select the dropdown adjacent to Identify, and then choose Duplicate These Displays; other options might be available, depending on how many monitors you have. Select the Multiple Displays tile to display more options. These include the following:

• Make This My Main Display Provides access to the taskbar (although you can configure the taskbar to appear on all displays) and notifications. Even if the taskbar appears on all displays, the system tray area only appears on your main display.

  Note

  You can configure this taskbar behavior by accessing Settings > Personalization > Taskbar > Taskbar Behaviors. Select Show My Taskbar On All Displays.

• Remember Window Locations Based On Monitor Connection Ensures that when you redock your computer and external monitors are reenabled, your open windows and apps are directed back to their previous displays.

• Minimize Windows When A Monitor Is Disconnected Ensures that any apps on a disconnected display are minimized, rather than being left in a space that might be inaccessible.

You can also select the Detect button to search for other attached displays, or click Connect to locate and connect to wireless displays.

Night Light

The Night Light feature is based on a relatively recent scientific discovery: Blue light suppresses the secretion of melatonin, disrupting circadian rhythms and negatively affecting your sleep. To adjust for this effect, you can turn on the Night Light feature, which favors warm colors and reduces the amount of blue light on a display.

To enable this feature, go to Settings > System > Display and, under the Brightness & Color heading, slide the Night Light switch to On. To make fine-grained adjustments in how this feature works, click Night Light, which opens the page shown in Figure 13-22.

Figure 13-22 If you regularly check your email and perform work-related tasks right before bedtime, consider scheduling Windows 11 to reduce the amount of blue light in the display at night.

The Strength slider allows you to fine-tune how the display looks by adjusting the values of red and yellow. Use the Schedule Night Light settings to automatically turn on Night Light at sunset and turn it off after sunrise, based on the current location; as an alternative, you can assign specific hours based on your sleep schedule or use the button at the top of the dialog to turn the feature on or off manually. (You might choose to ignore the schedule if you’re on a transcontinental flight in a darkened airplane cabin, for example.)

And one major caveat: Obviously, turning on the Night Light feature severely distorts the color of your display; if you’re editing photos or videos or doing any other kind of work that depends on accurate color fidelity, don’t use this feature.

Speakers, microphones, and headsets

Windows 11 supports a broad array of high-quality audio outputs that are capable of delivering multichannel surround sound to sophisticated home theater setups or just driving the tiny speakers on a laptop. That audio support also encompasses input devices, in the form of internal microphones (often designed to work with webcams) as well as external devices integrated into headphones that connect via USB and Bluetooth. As with other hardware subsystems, most of this capability is built into the Windows core drivers and doesn’t require custom drivers from hardware manufacturers. (That, of course, doesn’t prevent OEMs from including custom drivers and audio control software with their Windows 11 PCs.)

To manage audio devices, open Settings > System > Sound, which displays a list of output and input devices available on the current PC, as shown in Figure 13-23.

Figure 13-23 Use this Settings page to select default devices for playing back audio as well as for communication apps.

The system shown in Figure 13-23 illustrates a common dilemma with modern Windows PCs: You typically have a choice of multiple audio outputs, and those outputs aren’t always labeled in a way that makes it obvious what each one does. On this PC, a Surface Pro 9 laptop, available audio outputs include external speakers plugged into the headphone jack on a docking station, the internal speakers on the laptop itself, and speakers built into a large external monitor connected to that same docking station.

By default, the top two output devices are labeled with generic names: Headphones and Speakers, respectively. To change those names so that they’re more descriptive, click the entry for any device, which opens a Properties page like the one shown in Figure 13-24.

Figure 13-24 Use the controls here to give an audio output device a descriptive name and to assign it as the default.

The information block at the top of this page shows the name and icon assigned to the device, along with information about the installed driver. Click Rename to change the device name. (There’s no way to change the icon.)

The dropdown in the Set As Default Sound Device box enables you to choose which device you want to be the default audio playback device and which one you want to use as the default communication device for apps like Microsoft Teams and Zoom. You might, for example, want to use a set of high-quality external speakers for playing back music, but use the internal speakers for online meetings, so that the sound comes from the same screen where your fellow meeting participants are visible.

If Windows automatically sets up an audio output device that you never want to use, such as a pair of low-quality speakers in an external monitor, click Don’t Allow in the first box under the General heading. That removes it from the list of available output devices on the previous page and also removes it from the Quick Settings menu.

The Volume slider under the Output Settings heading does exactly the same thing as the similar control on the Quick Settings menu, which is generally more convenient to use. If you’re using external stereo speakers that are situated at unequal distances from your listening position, you might want to adjust the left and right channels to get the balance right.

And what about the Format dropdown? In general, you should accept the default choice Windows offers. Most digital audio is encoded at 48,000 Hz or below, and even if you have media files and playback equipment capable of reproducing higher rates, it’s extremely unlikely that your ears will be able to distinguish the difference.

You can go through a similar process with available input devices. Use the options under the Test Your Microphone heading to adjust the input volume to a comfortable level.