How to Configure Computer Management in Windows 7 on your Dell PC

This article provides information on what Computer Management is and how you would use it on your Dell PC with Windows 7.

Table of Contents:

1. What is the Windows 7 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

What is the Windows 7 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 7 the Microsoft Management Console (MMC) gathers and shows the administrative tools for your PC.

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

Note: For more information, open an MMC snap-in, and then read the Help topics that come with the snap-in. Typically, you can access the Help topics by clicking the Help menu, and then clicking Help Topics.

Administrative Tools :

• System Tools
• Storage
• Services and Applications

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How to open and use the Computer Management Utility

Note: You must be logged on as Administrator or as a member of the Administrators group view and modify most properties and perform most computer-management tasks.

1. Click on the Start button and choose Control Panel from the start menu.

2. Click on the System and Security link.

Note: If you're viewing the Classic View of Control Panel, you won't see this link. Just double-click on the Administrative Tools icon and skip to Step 4.

3. In the System and Security window, click on the Administrative Tools icon located near the bottom of the window.

4. Double-click on the Computer Management icon in the Administrative Tools window.

5. When Computer Management opens, click In the console tree, expand System Tools, Storage, or Services and Applications to view the tools and services in each of these containers.

6. Click on the item you want - for example Disk Management, to use the tool and then view the information that is associated with it.

7. Disk Management should appear on the right side of the Computer Management window after just a few seconds of loading.

Note: If you don't see Disk Management listed, you may need to click on the < | > icon to the left of Storage.

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Using Snap-Ins

Some MMC snap-ins require administrator rights to function properly.

To open MMC with admin rights just follow these steps :

1. Click the Start button and go to All Programs

2. Open Accessories and right-click on 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

Note: Some MMC snap-ins are only available after certain additional features have been installed.

To install additional features :

1. Open Control Panel from the start menu and click on Programs

2. In Installed Programs, select Turn on or off Windows features

3. If the User Account Control dialog box appears then confirm that the action it displays is what you want and click Continue

4. Select the checkboxes for the features you want to install and clear the checkboxes for features you want to remove and click OK

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 & 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

Additional 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 Control Panel.

The specific additional MMC snap-ins that are available as part of Windows Features may vary depending on the edition of this version of Windows that you are using.

Additional 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 

The Task Scheduler helps you schedule automated tasks that perform actions at a specific time or when a certain event occurs. It maintains a library of all the scheduled tasks and provides an organized view of the tasks and a single point of access for managing them. From within the library you can run, disable, modify or delete tasks. The Task Scheduler user interface (UI) is an MMC snap-in that replaces the Scheduled Tasks Explorer extension in Windows XP, Windows Server 2003, and Windows 2000.

Event Viewer 

Event Viewer is a tool that enables you to browse and manage the event logs. It is really good tool for monitoring the health of systems and troubleshooting issues when they arise.

Event Viewer enables you to perform the following tasks :

• View events from multiple event logs
• Save useful event filters as custom views that can be re-used
• Schedule a task to run in response to an event
• Create and manage event subscriptions

Shared Folders 

You can use the Shared Folders tool to centrally manage file shares on a computer. Shared Folders enables you to create file shares and set permissions, as well as view and manage open files and users connected to file shares on the computer.

Local Users and Groups 

Use Local Users and Groups to create and manage users and groups that are stored locally on a computer.

Performance 

you can use the Performance tool to configure performance logs and alerts to monitor and collect data about your computers performance.

Device Manager 

Device Manager gives you a graphical tree view of the hardware that is installed on your computer. Every device communicates with the OS through a piece of software called a device driver. You can use Device Manager to install and update these drivers for your hardware devices. You can modify hardware settings for those devices and troubleshoot any problems.

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

You will normally use Device Manager to check the status of your hardware and update device drivers on your computer.

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

Note: Usually you will not need to change resource settings, because resources are allocated automatically by the system during hardware setup. You can only use Device Manager to manage devices on a local computer as it will work in read-only mode only on a remote computer. "Read Only" means it allows you to view, but not change the hardware configuration of that remote computer.

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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 32bit (FAT32), or New Technology File System (NTFS) file systems. Disk Management enables you to perform most disk-related tasks without restarting the system or interrupting users. Many of the configuration changes will take effect immediately.

In Windows 7 Disk Management provides the same features from earlier versions, but it also adds some new features:

Simpler partition creation

When you right-click a volume, you can choose whether to create a basic, spanned, or striped partition directly from the menu

Disk conversion options

When you add more than four partitions to a basic disk, you are prompted to convert the disk to dynamic or to the GUID partition table (GPT) partition style

Extend and shrink partitions

You can extend and shrink partitions directly from the Windows interface

Its a very useful tool.

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Using Services and Applications

Services 

You can use the Services tool to manage services that are running on local or remote computers for example, to stop or start a service. You can also manage services using the sc config command.

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 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 authorise users or groups and set permission levels

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

Note: The actual set of tools and services that is listed in Computer Management depends on the services that are installed on the host computer.

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