However, I’ve always found that the stock Device Manager that comes with the Windows OS is a bit lacking. The one thing I like about it is the fact that it’s easy to navigate, as the main screen has all devices nicely categorized, but that’s the extent of anything good I have to say about it. To find information or properties about the devices, you have to click around through various screens, and there’s no simple or straightforward way to export information outside of the device manager if you want to save information about the system.

This is why a free utility like Device Manager View (DevManView) from NirSoft is useful. It gives you fast access to everything you need to know about all of your devices and it provides both GUI and scripting reporting of device information. When it comes to looking for driver information, you can either use the resources Saikat wrote about previously, or just use this software and instantly search for new drivers on Google.

Quickly View Device Information

There’s no installation required when you download the DevManView system device manager. All you have to do is run the executable. When you do, you’ll see a listing of all of your system device drives, along with more information about them than you probably even knew was available. Be sure to scroll to the right because there are a lot of columns filled with data on each driver.

You have a list of actions you can take for any driver with just a few clicks of the mouse. Right click on any device and you can instantly enable or disable it. Select several devices at once and press F6 or F7 to enable or disable all of them. Here, you can also quickly access the device INF file, view settings in the registry, or even click on “Google Search” to do an instant web search for that particular driver.

Click on “Properties” to see the information that you’d have to dig through the stock Windows Manager for. With DevManview, you’ve got the Manufacturer, flags, service and a host of other information in a single view.

While the main view isn’t quite as organized as the stock Windows Manager, you can filter which devices are displayed under “Options“.

If you’ve enabled the firewall on a remote computer to allow it, you can even access and modify device drivers on a remote system as well. This is a pretty slick way to manage all of the devices on the various computers in your house from a single computer.

Reporting Device Information To File

The main reason that I prefer DevManView over the standard Windows Device Manager is the fact that it’s so much easier to export all device information. The standard Windows Device Manager doesn’t provide any simple way to save your device information, but the DevManView program offers a whole list of formats that you can export all of your device information to, including text, tab or comma delimited or even HTML.

If you only want to save information about a few devices, rather than the entire list, just select a few using CTRL-click and under “View” you can export those select items to an HTML file. The program saves the report to a local HTML file in the DevManView directory and opens up the report in your default browser.

Accessing Device Information Through Scripting

If you prefer scripting over using a GUI, DevManView has you covered. From the command prompt, you can perform a whole list of commands on your devices, or you can use the program to produce device reports from script. For example, you can use the /stext, /scomma or /shtml parameters to choose an export format for your device information.

Additional parameters you can set in command mode are things like /LoadFrom to load device information from remote computers, /ComputerName to specific a network computer name to perform device commands on, or /ShowOnlyConnected to output only those drivers that are currently connected. You can even enable or disable devices from script using the /enable or /disable parameters. You can see all of the command parameters in the readme.txt file that comes with the download.

The nice thing about exporting your entire list of device information to something like a CSV file is that in a text or Excel format you can turn the information into a useful report. You can use this to take an accurate snapshot of your system at any point in time.

Using Windows utilities like DevManView lets you see information about your system devices that you’d otherwise have to dig through the system device manager for. When it comes to managing many computer systems and keeping an inventory of what hardware is installed on those machines, the report generating features of DevManView are a godsend. Give this useful Windows utility a try and let us know what you think.

Have you tried any other free NirSoft utilities? Share your thoughts about DevManView and other NirSoft Windows utilities in the comments section below.

Image Credit: Majoros Attila

Back when you bought that printer, Windows Vista was probably still called Longhorn and no one expected Windows 7 to follow so quickly. Quite expectantly, the manufacturer didn’t deliver a driver compatible with the new Windows fleet. It becomes worse, when Windows doesn’t recognize your device because the respective driver is not included. Is that the end?

Definitely not. There are several sources to turn to for Windows Vista and Windows 7 printer drivers. The respective hardware manufacturer should be number one on your list, followed by the sites that I introduce below. Only if an extended online search for a compatible driver yields no result should you consider to give up your prematurely antiqued printer and invest in a new one.

Windows 7 Compatibility Center

If you haven’t upgraded to Windows 7, yet, visit the Compatibility Center to see whether your printer is compatible with Windows 7. Switch to the > Hardware tab, mouse-over > Printers & Scanners, and start clicking through to the right category. You will find a list of compatible printers sorted by manufacturer.

USB Printers

Are you trying to install a USB printer on Windows 7? Always try to connect the printer to the computer, regardless of what the manufacturer’s instructions say. Once the device is connected via USB, Windows 7 will detect the hardware and attempt to install it. That’s when you will see whether or not Windows is able to find the driver on its own.

Note that you can often use Windows Vista drivers on Windows 7 since the two operating systems are based on the same ‘architecture’.

Manufacturer Websites

If your printer isn’t listed as compatible with Windows 7 and if the plug-and-play install didn’t work, you should turn to the manufacturer. Here is a list of the most popular printer manufacturers with a link to their drivers download page, where possible:

• Hewlett Packard - Enter the product name / number. Be sure to check the additional information, like how to install the driver or troubleshooting guides.
• Canon - Pick your geographical location from the map, then click the > Support & Drivers link in the top right and click your way through to the product your own. Once you’re there, you can select your operating system from a drop-down menu.
• Epson - Select your location from the map, find the > Drivers & Support link in the top menu, enter the product name into the > Product Finder field or visually browse by category and device.
• Lexmark - Click on > Select Your Product and visually scroll through the category and devices or directly enter the product name.
• Brother - > Select Product Group then > Select Model and click > View to see available drivers and information.
• Dell - Select your location from the top left drop-down menu. Then selet your support category and navigate your way to your product. Note the > Drivers and Downloads category in the left-hand menu. Click on > Drivers Home and > Select Model to proceed to the printer category and a list of devices.

Finding a driver isn’t rocket science. However, Windows isn’t Linux, so if the manufacturer’s website doesn’t provide a compatible driver, chances are low that you will find the driver somewhere else. It’s still worth looking, though. The last resort for finding a compatible driver are the following two sites and a plain old Google search.

Driver Guide

On this website you can search for the device model name and number to find available drivers. You can also browse by manufacturer or device to quickly get to the source. It’s a great tool not only for finding printer drivers, but also for updating all hardware drivers on your system.

A major drawback is that many drivers are not free. However, at least you will know that a driver is out there. And if a valid driver exists, chances are good that you can get it for free somewhere.

NoDevice.com

Like the previous resource, this site will find your drivers for all sorts of hardware. You can browse their index by category or company. Below is an example for a driver search result after passing the CAPTCHA test. Downloads from this site are generally free.

Finally, if none of the above resources knew about a Windows 7 driver for your printer, you can still search Google and hope for a small miracle. I do hope, however, that you found the driver you were looking for and are now wondering how to install it. In case you’re stuck with, this Windows 7 Printer Drivers resource from iYogi should help.

Are you new to Windows 7? Want to know more? Have a look at the following related resources:

• The Most Common Windows 7 Compatibility Issues by Matt
• How To Easily Remove Old Drivers from Windows by Matt
• 4 Common Windows 7 Problems And Fixes by Karl

Were any of the above resources helpful? How did you solve your Windows 7 printer driver dilemma? Where did you find your driver?

One of the reasons why Windows 7 has gone over better than Vista is compatibility. Windows 7 is a less drastic departure from Vista than Vista was from XP, and this has resulted in fewer growing pains. Users are much less likely to run into programs that won’t run in Windows 7 because of compatibility problems.

However, there are still some Windows 7 compatibility issues which you may run into. These problems are somewhat unavoidable.

A new operating system is always going to make some changes which don’t agree with older software. The changes are usually improvements in the long term, but cause short term compatibility problems. So, let’s take a look at three common Windows 7 compatibility issues and what can be done to fix them.

32 bit vs. 64 bit Compatibility Issues

The rise of 64 bit operating systems is inevitable. Many OEM copies of Windows 7 which come with pre-built systems are the 64-bit version, and most Microsoft Windows 7 licenses sold at retail now come with two disks – one for installing the 32 bit operating system and one for installing the 64 bit operating system. If you’re confused about the differences between the two, check out our article discussing them.

If you have the 32-bit version of Windows 7 you’re fine. Most past versions of Windows XP and Windows Vista were 32-bit versions, and most programs were created for them. If you have installed the 64-bit version of Windows 7, however, you might run into some problems. This usually manifests itself in the form of programs which refuse to run at all – they’ll crash out instantly.

Unfortunately, there is not a lot that you can do about this issue. The difference between a 32-bit and 64-bit operating system reaches deep into Windows 7′s most basic code, so there is no compatibility mode which can resolve this problem. There are, however, two possible courses of action.

One is to see if a new version of the program exists. Most new software will be capable of running under 32-bit or 64-bit Windows 7. The second is to create a disk partition and install a second, 32-bit copy of Windows 7 on your computer. This is a tough fix for this compatibility issue, and certainly not very convenient, but if you have an older program which is no longer receiving support this may be your only way to work around this Windows 7 compatibility issue.

Windows XP (& Older) Reverse Compatibility Issues

Windows 7 is very similar, under the skin, to Windows Vista. There are a lot of fundamental changes in the operating system which make Windows 7 different from Windows XP. The praise of Windows 7′s better compatibility isn’t necessarily because Windows 7 is coded better than Windows Vista. The perception of better compatibility also has to do with the fact that many compatibility fixes which were made for Vista also work for Windows 7.

Still, you may sometimes run into older Windows XP programs which don’t sit well with Windows 7. These are usually programs which were made around the time Windows XP launched. Programs this old are often no longer supported by their developers, who have moved on to other projects.

Microsoft recognizes this problem, and has created a Windows XP Mode which emulates Windows XP, making it possible to run very old programs. This mode can also, in some cases, make it possible to run programs from Windows 98, as such programs were sometimes compatible with XP. MakeUseOf has a full guide on how to use Windows XP mode to solve Windows 7 compatibility issues.

Windows 7 Driver Compatibility Issues

The final common Windows 7 compatibility problem is driver issues. Drivers are tricky because they’re very low-level code in the operating system. Changes in an operating system usually cause pre-existing drivers to become useless because the drivers will be looking to work with parts of the operating system which no longer exist. Drivers are also tricky because they affect so many parts of your computer. Everything from your printer to your video card requires drivers in order to run.

If you’re upgrading from Vista, you’ll have an easier time with driver compatibility in Windows 7. Windows 7 and Vista are similar and drivers for one will often at least work – if not optimally – for the other. However, if you’re upgrading from Windows XP you’re going to need to find new drivers for everything in your computer and most devices which connect to your computer.

Finding new drivers is, thankfully, easy. It is up to each vendor to make drivers for their products, so you merely need to go to the websites of vendors who made your hardware and download the new Windows 7 drivers. For example, you need to go with Nvidia’s website to download video drivers if you have a Nvidia video card, or you need to go to HP’s website to download printer drivers if you have an HP printer. Once you download and install the new drivers your Windows 7 compatibility issues will be resolved.

Conclusion

Windows 7 compatibility issues exist, but are minimal. These compatibility problems are inevitable, as they involve such fundamental parts of the operating system that any upgrade will cause older programs and devices to have problems functioning. Hopefully Microsoft’s next operating system, whenever it arrives, will be as painless.

On these roads, patrol officers enjoy sitting at several spots that maximize the likelihood they will clock someone speeding who has just passed the drop in speed, without realizing it. The road doesn’t change, but the speed does. It is the perfect definition of an unjust police radar speed trap. It was on this road, on a bright and sunny day, that an especially arrogant officer decided to pull me over and charge me with criminal speeding. A charge that, in the U.S, could carry a fine of up to $500, a suspended license and possible jail time.

I visited one of the best lawyers I knew, gave him the details and paid him the lawyer fee. He was able to take care of the ticket for me. However, the lesson I learned from this experience, the third or fourth speeding ticket I’ve received in this particular speed-trap town called North Berwick, is that there are occasionally those communities that are unscrupulous in collecting funds from such unfair and unjust posted speed limits. It’s for this reason that I was very pleased to discover not one or two, but six technological solutions that can give the poor, unsuspecting citizen a little bit of an advantage in these dangerous and unfair police radar speed traps.

Tools To Combat Unfair Police Radar Speed Traps

One of the first things I did when I upgraded from my Windows Mobile phone to a GPS-enabled Motorola Droid was to check what applications are available that might help protect me from such unscrupulous speed traps by local cops like the officer that pulled me over. The first online system that I discovered is also the one that I consider the absolute best one out there – Trapster. There’s an entire online system on the website that shows you all of the active speed traps. The map is constantly updating and changing as new reports come in from all across the world.

Of course, the best part of the community-driven Trapster system is that there are mobile apps for just about any mobile device out there, including Blackberry, iPhone, Android, Windows Mobile and even certain GPS systems. You can set these apps to alert you any time you come within range of a known speed trap, or a recently reported police stake-out location.

You can set the alert distance from the speed trap so that you have plenty of time to look for the sudden change in speed limit and slow down to the posted speed. Most importantly, when you spot a speed trap that wasn’t recognized or alerted by Trapster – do your part to make the system more effective by adding that speed trap into Trapster’s database.

Here, I’ve added the famous Morrell’s Mill Rd, North Berwick, Maine speed traps to Trapster’s database. Hopefully that will save a driver or two from the horrible fate of having their wallet drained into the town coffers.

For the sake of variety, I’m going to cover the top sites out there that can give you additional insight into the police radar speed traps in your area. Unfortunately, most of the remaining online services are focused primarily within the U.S. Or course, maybe that’s because the U.S. is most plagued by such unreasonable speed traps?  CopSpy is one of these useful websites. This is more of a log of historical speed traps, with comments about particular speed trap areas that date back to 2003 and go up to today. You can really get to know the habits of local police by reading through these citizen logs.

The Bear Traps website, shown above, provides a very basic and general overview of the police trap “hot spots” along any major Interstate in the United States. The site lists all reported red light cameras as police radar speed traps that were reported by citizens for major highways and exits.

Njection, a popular automotive website and forum, offers this awesome mashup that provides a satellite overview with a layer for crashes or speed traps. This particular system doesn’t feature a whole lot of speed traps (nowhere near the number Trapster offers), but as far as crash history, the system is remarkable. You can view all crashes reported throughout the history of the system – which really offers a great oversight as to what areas are dangerous. The speed trap feature is also useful and is still getting updated, but the user base needs to grow a bit more for it to be very effective as a real-time reporting tool.

SpeedTrap labels itself as the National Speed Trap Exchange, and this is exactly the public service that the site provides for U.S. citizens. No matter what town you check, you’ll likely discover well written speed trap reports from local residents who are fed up with the unfair and unjust tactics of local police departments.

Police Traps is an excellent International resource that covers police trap sightings, red light cameras and traffic incidents all throughout the world. In the map above you can see the mashup for reports throughout Europe. This resource does have a fair user base and could rival Trapster in its usefulness.

Have you had your own experience getting caught in an unfair speed trap? Do you have any of your own favorite resources that you use to find which towns have such areas with inappropriate posted speed limits? Share your insight in the comments section below.

Even if the support helpdesk is just a dial away, knowing the innards of your computer is just as important as knowing the software you are working on. Unlike cars, computers need constant updates of both software and hardware. For the sake of efficiency, updating these should be a matter of routine. Take for example, moving up from Windows Vista to Seven”¦does your computer hardware support the new OS? Or would it do better with some drive upgrades?

These are very basic tasks and thankfully, we don’t have to consult a thick manual to see this through. Single click solutions are available which can analyze pc systems and give us a brief on our hardware and the changes that can be made.

Ma-Config is an online tool that does two jobs for us ““ it analyzes your pc and identifies the hardware and software components (also up to 10 shared PCs). Secondly, with a few clicks, one can download all the latest drivers matching the hardware configuration.

Ma-Config does all the driver detection using a downloadable ActiveX plug-in. The free service is Windows only and is certified by VeriSign. The plug-in is compatible with all the major browsers like Internet Explorer, Opera, Chrome, Firefox and Safari. The driver database is provided by TousLesDrivers.

Ma-Config makes it easy for both the starter guy and the experienced hand. There is nothing complicated to install apart from a little plug-in to start the process to analyze pc systems. Ma-Config moves the process towards the download of the newer drivers and also gives us a few more steps to consider like sharing your configuration or recording it in a PDF document.

Before starting the detection you can change a few of the settings via the Settings link given on the left hand side menu of the homepage. The settings relate to the detail of the detection. For those not comfortable with the terms, the default settings are good enough.

Click on Start the Detection to bare the large green button which tells you to run the detection. The plug-in will analyze the PC system and generates the report summary. Click on the devices list on the left menu to get the finer details. You can redetect your system anytime with a click.

If you now want to update your PC, the large green button marked with Download drivers compatible with this configuration, takes you down that path courtesy of TousLesDrivers.

As asides, you can share your configuration using a link or with an email. Or maybe take out a PDF report and mail it directly across. The PDF report comes in quite handy if you want to send it forth to a vendor or the support technician.

Ma-Config also has an offline mode whereby you can use the plug-in on a computer not connected to the internet, run the scan and save the results. The results can then be analyzed on another computer with an internet connection.

Ma-Config is a web tool and like all web based tools it prevents us from installing a bulky program. The only minus is that some parts of the website are in French. Though, the English version makes everything as easy as tea and biscuits.

Ma-Config is not the first tool we have reviewed to help us with our hardware. Some others have been ““

• Update Your Hardware Drivers For Free With Device Doctor
• Nodevice: Find and Download Drivers for Your Device
• Download Junkies, Update Your System With RadarSync

But it could be one of the simplest going around. But we would like your opinion on that. Go over to Ma-Config and do let us know.