CHAPTER ELEVEN: MANAGING WINDOWS Flashcards
(36 cards)
Device Manager (devmgmt.msc)
A tool in Windows that shows you a list of all the hardware (like your mouse, keyboard, display, USB ports, etc.) connected to your computer.
What can you do with device manager
What you can do with it:
View and edit hardware settings: You can look at the properties (details) of each piece of hardware.
Update drivers: A driver is like a translator between the hardware and Windows. If it’s outdated, the hardware might not work right. You can install a newer one.
Disable or remove devices: If a device is acting weird or not needed, you can either turn it off (disable) or uninstall its software (driver).
Disk Management Console (diskmgmt.msc)
A tool that shows all your computer’s drives (like the main storage drive, USB drives, etc.) and lets you organize how they store data
what can you do with disk management
Initialize Disks: When you plug in a brand-new hard drive or USB, Windows might ask you to initialize it. That just means setting it up with a system it understands—either MBR (Master Boot Record) or GPT (GUID Partition Table). These are methods for organizing the disk.
Partitioning: Think of your drive like a pizza—you can slice it into sections (called partitions) to organize your stuff. You create a partition in empty (unpartitioned) space.
Formatting: After making a partition, you need to put a file system on it (like NTFS or FAT32) so Windows knows how to store files there.
- NTFS is modern and secure, used for your main drive.
- FAT32 is older and simpler, often used for USB sticks.
Repartitioning: You can shrink or expand partitions to change how space is used.
Dynamic Disks: If you have more than one physical drive, you can set them up to work together for safety or speed. For example, mirroring makes copies of your data on both drives in case one fails (a type of RAID, or Redundant Array of Independent Disks).
fragmentation
Fragmentation: Over time, your files get split into pieces and scattered around the drive. That makes the drive work harder. A tool called Disk Defragmenter (usually automatic now) rearranges files to speed things up.
capacity
Capacity: If your main drive (called the boot volume) fills up—especially if there’s less than 20% free space—your computer slows down. If it gets under 200 MB, Windows shows a Low Disk Space warning.
damage to disk
Damage: Hard drives have moving parts, so things like sudden power cuts can physically hurt them. SSDs don’t have moving parts, but they can still wear out or break due to electrical issues or impact.
symbols in device management
Yellow Exclamation Mark (!) = There’s a problem with that device.
Down Arrow (↓) = The device is disabled (turned off, but still installed).
Disk Defragmenter / Optimize Drives (dfrgui.exe)
Think of your hard drive (HDD) like a big filing cabinet. Over time, when files get saved, moved, or deleted, the pieces of each file can end up scattered all over the place. So, when your computer wants to open a file, it has to jump around looking for all the pieces. This slows things down. Defragmenting is like organizing that filing cabinet so all the pieces of each file are next to each other. That way, the computer doesn’t waste time searching. This makes HDDs (traditional hard drives) work faster.
wear-leveling
for SSDs (Solid State Drives)—they’re different. They’re more like giant USB sticks. There’s no physical movement, and the controller inside the SSD decides where to put data to keep things working smoothly and prevent parts from wearing out. This is called wear-leveling
TRIM
When you “optimize” an SSD, the computer mostly runs a command called TRIM. TRIM tells the SSD, “Hey, this stuff was deleted, feel free to reuse these spaces.” That helps the SSD stay fast and healthy.
Even though SSD defragmentation usually isn’t needed, Windows might still do a light version of it—especially if:
The SSD has Windows installed
And Volume Shadow Copy is turned on (a system backup feature)
Disk Clean-up (cleanmgr.exe)
This is a tool that clears out junk files on your computer.
Task Scheduler (tasksch.msc)
Think of Task Scheduler like a super-smart alarm clock for your computer.You can set it to:
Run a program at a certain time or date
Run a script (a list of commands)
Do something automatically every day, week, or month
Each task can have multiple actions (like open a program AND send an email). Windows already has a bunch of these tasks set up, but you can create your own too.
Local Users and Groups (lusrmgr.msc)
This is like the User Control Panel on steroids.
You can:
Create, edit, or delete user accounts
Reset passwords
Disable accounts (without deleting them)
Organize users into Security Groups
security group
A security group is just a way to say, “These people all get the same permissions.” For example, maybe only the “Editors” group can change files in a certain folder.
Some default groups include:
Administrators (full control)
Users (standard permissions)
Guests (very limited access)
Certificate Manager (certmgr.msc)
Certificate Manager is where you can see all the certificates your system has.
There are a few important folders in there:
- Personal – These are your personal certificates. They can be used for:
Logging into a network
Encrypting files or emails
Adding digital signatures (which show that something came from you) - Trusted Root Certification Authorities – These are the organizations (like Microsoft or your company’s IT team) that your computer trusts to issue certificates. Think of it like a VIP list of bouncers who are allowed to vouch for someone’s identity.
Third-party Root Certification Authorities – This is basically the same idea, but for certificate authorities that aren’t Microsoft or your company’s internal ones. Maybe your antivirus or a website uses one.
digital certificate
A digital certificate is like an ID card for your computer or user account. It proves that someone or something is who they say they are.
Group Policy Editor (gpedit.msc)
It’s a tool in Windows that lets you change how your computer works behind the scenes. Think of it as a “control panel for pros.”
Why use it instead of Settings or Control Panel?
Settings and Control Panel are simple, but they don’t let you change everything. The Group Policy Editor can access a lot more options.
Why is it useful?
It saves time when managing many computers (like in an office). Instead of changing settings on each PC, you can use this tool to set rules that apply to all of them.
Registry Editor (regedit.exe)
The registry is like a giant database that stores all the settings and options for your computer, software, devices, and user accounts.
What’s the Registry Editor?
It’s a tool that lets you manually view or change those registry settings. But be careful—it’s powerful, and the wrong changes can mess things up!
Registry Keys and Hives
The registry has 5 root keys (main folders) where all the data is kept:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE (HKLM): Settings that affect the whole system.
HKEY_USERS: Settings for each user account on the computer.
HKEY_CURRENT_USER: Just the settings for the person currently logged in.
What’s a hive?
A hive is just the name for the actual file where these settings are saved. Each hive has a couple of helper files like .LOG, .SAV, or .ALT to back things up.
Example: Your personal settings are saved in a file called NTUSER.DAT in your user folder.
Editing the Registry
The registry is like a big tree:
Root keys are like main folders.
Subkeys are like subfolders.
Value entries are like individual settings (like files).
Microsoft Management Console (MMC)
It’s a framework—a sort of blank shell—that can hold different tools (called snap-ins).
Examples of snap-ins:
Device Manager (shows hardware),
Disk Management (manages drives),
Group Policy Editor, etc.
System Information (msinfo32.exe)
This is a tool that gives you a full report about your computer.
It shows details like:
What hardware you have,
What version of Windows you’re running,
What drivers are installed,
Network info, etc.
