How to Configure Computer Management in Windows 8 on your Dell Computer

Affected Operating Systems

• Windows 8

Table of Contents:

1. What is the Windows 8 Computer Management Utility?
2. How to open and use the Computer Management Utility
3. Using Snap-ins
4. Using System Tools
5. Working with Storage
6. Using Services and Applications

Not Applicable

What is the Windows Vista Computer Management Utility?

Computer Management is a Microsoft Windows utility that enables you to access the system tools and lets you into more direct management of your computer.

In windows 8 the Microsoft Management Console (MMC) gathers and shows the administrative tools for your computer.

These tools are called snap-ins and they are used for managing the hardware, software, and network components of the Operating System (operating system). Several of the tools in the Administrative Tools folder such as Computer Management are MMC snap-ins.

Administrative Tools:

• System Tools
• Storage
• Services and Applications

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How to open and use the Computer Management Utility

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Using Snap-ins

Some MMC snap-ins require administrator rights to function properly. The Snap-ins are the same across Windows 7 and 8. Open MMC with admin rights by following these steps:

1. Open a Command Prompt by pressing the Win+X keys together and select Command Prompt from the menu that appears.

2. Right-click Command Prompt and select Run as administrator from the menu

3. In the Command Prompt type mmc.exe

4. When MMC opens click on File, then click Add/Remove Snap-in and select from the list of available snap-ins

Useful Snap-in Tools:

• ActiveX Control
• Authorization Manager
• Certificates
• Component Services
• Computer Management
• Device Manager
• Disk Management
• Event Viewer
• Group Policy Management
• Group Policy Object Editor
• IP Security Monitor
• IP Security Policy Management
• Link to Web Address
• Local Users and Groups
• NAP Client Configuration
• Performance Diagnostics
• Print Management
• Reliability Monitor
• Resultant Set of Policy
• Routing and Remote Access
• Security Configuration and Analysis
• Security Templates
• Services
• Shared Folders
• Task Scheduler
• TPM Management
• Windows Firewall with Advanced Security on Local Computer
• WMI Control

More MMC snap-ins may be available once you have installed certain additional features, such as Removable Storage and Network File System. You can install additional features using the Control Panel.

The specific additional MMC snap-ins that are available as part of Windows Features may vary. They depend on the edition of the version of Windows that you are using. Some Snap-ins that may be available include the following:

• Indexing Service
• Internet Information Services (IIS) 6.0 Manager
• Services for NFS
• Removable Storage

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Using System Tools

Task Scheduler 

Windows runs a lot of scheduled tasks in the background. For instance, it runs disk defragmentation at scheduled times, whenever possible, to ensure that the disk space stays in a healthy state. In the same way, the operating system checks and if available, it installs the system updates at regular intervals. Along with such computer scheduled tasks, you can schedule your tasks. Task Scheduler manages all these tasks.

Event Viewer 

Operating Systems have a habit of logging information whenever any issue shows up. These logged issues are termed events. Events are logged if there is a system crash, a security issue, a malfunctioning application, and so on This gives you the option of viewing the details of these events using this tool. Event Viewer is an overload of information. Many things start happening in the background at the same moment when you turn your computer on. It would be an overload if the operating system started throwing up alerts for all kind of non-trivial things. Instead, the operating system logs these alerts as information that you can see using the Event Viewer at any time.

Shared Folders 

It is common to share data between computers in a network. If you are looking forward to listening to some music stored on some networked computer, then you are likely to ask its user to share the music folder, instead of taking the trouble of going to the computer and then copying it onto a pen drive. You can manage shared items using this tool. It lists down not only the shared drives and folders but also shared sessions. You can add a new item for sharing or stop sharing an item that already exists. You can set access permissions to the folder for all or specific user and groups. In the same way, you can start a new session or abolish an existing one.

Local Users and Groups 

Though there is a Control Panel applet to customize user accounts, this MMC tool happens to be an advanced tool that helps you to manage all users and groups of your computer. You can create a new user or delete an existing user. Apart from basic settings, for example, renaming accounts or changing user passwords, this tool shows up with advanced customization settings, they include things like disabling the account, setting password expiration, authorizing, or revoking membership to a group, setting location to store user profile settings, customizing the users log in by setting a script to it, setting home folder path - perhaps to a network drive, so on This tool also allows you to create new or manage already existing groups. You can rename or delete an existing group. You may also add or remove users from a group.

Performance 

If the computer runs slow, you might want to check the performance of the computer’s components so that you could find out what is causing the problem. This tool enables you to look after the performance of your computer. You can see real-time performance statistics, and you can also access its past performance records. Performance Monitor keeps a check on the health of your computer by monitoring the individual computer components. That is the hard disk, CPU, memory, so on If you want to monitor something it takes multiple performance counters into account, such as CPU Idle Time, CPU Busy Time, Hard disk read speed, Hard disk read time, Hard disk write time, Memory idle space, Memory used space, so on

Device Manager 

Device Manager gives you a graphical tree view of the hardware that is installed on your computer. Whenever you connect a device to your computer, your operating system installs the device drivers for that device so that the device gets identified. This makes the device eligible to be accessed using the computer. Even if the device gets removed from the computer, its drivers stay installed in the computer so that the operating system does not have to re-install the device when it gets connected again. The Device Manager lists all such installed devices, and the devices that are fed in the computer. That is speakers. The list gets categorized based on the function of the device. That is the sound devices are listed under the "Audio Inputs and Outputs" category. Similarly, all monitors are listed under Display Adapters. For every device, you get the option to update its software drivers. You can view the properties of the device. That is current drivers, history of the device so on You can uninstall a device too, by simply removing its software drivers.

This means you can use Device Manager to:

• Determine whether the hardware on your computer is working properly
• Change hardware configuration settings
• Identify the device drivers that are loaded for each device, and obtain information about each device driver
• Change advanced settings and properties for devices. Install updated device drivers
• Enable, disable, and uninstall devices
• Roll back to the previous version of a driver
• View the devices based on their type, by their connection to the computer, or by the resources they use
• Show or hide hidden devices that are not critical to view, but might be necessary for advanced troubleshooting

Device Manager is used to check the status of your hardware and update device drivers on your computer.

If you are more experienced, you might also use Device Manager's diagnostic features to resolve device conflicts and change resource settings.

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Working with Storage

Disk Management 

This is a system utility for managing the Hard disks and the volumes or partitions that the Hard disks contain. With Disk Management you can initialize disks, create volumes and format volumes with the File Allocation Table (FAT), File Allocation Table 32 bit (FAT32), or New Technology File System (NTFS) file systems. Disk Management enables you to perform most disk-related tasks without restarting the computer or interrupting users. Many of the configuration changes take effect immediately. Windows 8 Disk Management provides the same features from earlier versions. It allows you to manage logical partitions of data storage devices. That is hard disks, flash drives, optical drives, and so on You can create or delete partitions on a drive, or if needed, you can format the whole drive. You can customize a drive using tasks that range from changing drive letters to resizing the partitions. It is a useful tool.

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Using Services and Applications

Services 

This tool contains the list of all the services that you can run in the operating system. You can manually start a halted service. You can pause, suspend, or stop a faulty or annoying service. You can pull up the properties of a service, for instance specifying whether it should start automatically or manually, what account should it use to log in the computer, so on

WMI Control 

The Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI) Control is a tool that enables you to configure WMI settings on a remote or local computer.

Using WMI Control, you can perform the following tasks:

To back up the repository

You can configure the WMI Control to back up your WMI repository on a regular schedule, or you can back up the repository manually at any time. The repository is the database of objects that you can access through WMI. You can also restore a previous version of the repository

To change the default namespace for scripting

You can change the default namespace that is targeted in WMI scripts

To authorize users or groups and set permission levels

You can authorize a user or group to access WMI. For each user or group you authorize, you can set their permission level for specific namespaces

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