98-349 Microsoft Windows Operating System Fundamentals – Managing Devices and Backups Part 2

3. System Devices

Understand system devices. We go back to windows ten. We start with audio and video. We go for sound and over here we can go for a device that we want to use to play our video and audio clips. We’ve added a Bluetooth speaker so you can always right click. You can configure. You can test a device as well. From here you can make this device your default device if you want to use it for all videos and audio files, recording options.

If you have a dedicated microphone then you will find it. Over here you can always go for properties and adjust levels and make this microphone more sensitive. Sounds you can change default sounds. Over here you have some basic sounds that you can tweak and communication. I am pretty sure you’ve seen these options already, but please remember, if you go for your exam, Microsoft can ask you okay, what can you find? If you go for properties, you have to be okay to name all these tabs and make sure you know that for instance in advance you have an option to give exclusive mode application priority and it is under the stub. I know it sounds crazy, but Microsoft has made the MDA exam really difficult now.

So you can expect a lot of pretty difficult questions and you have to know everything in detail. When we go here again, we can troubleshoot sound problems. So this is a way for you to tell my Microsoft Windows, okay, I have a problem with my audio devices, can you fix them for me please? Can you do something about it, because I’m not sure what’s going on. You can specify what you want to troubleshoot and Windows to try and fix it for you. Please remember that we have our device Manager. That is the first place you should visit if you face any problems with your audio or video devices. Here you can troubleshoot drivers.

When you go to properties, you can make sure that you have the latest driver. You can update it from here. You can disable and enable your device. You can roll back driver. If you add a new driver, something goes wrong, you can roll back and tell Microsoft Windows okay, listen, I want to go back, okay, I’m not really sure what has happened. I want to go back. And it makes sense to verify details, events to make sure that nothing has been changed. Of course, in most cases when something goes wrong, you will see a yellow icon here saying that a device is not up and running in a way it should be when it comes to microphone, the same. You can go for properties and specify your driver.

Please remember you can update your driver. You can go online or specify a driver, a file that has been downloaded and is available on your hard disk. One of the things that we want to verify is your graphics cards and you want to make sure you have the latest drivers as well because you want to take advantage of options that are available for you. I show you what I have here. So if I go to my local device manager because it will be much easier. This is a virtual machine, really limited when it comes to features. You will see, first of all, Bluetooth. This means I can use enable Bluetooth devices. Here I have an intel graphics card. Again, I can go and update the driver. Okay, here one additional device that I can use. If you’re after a remote control, if you want to have a tablet, if you want to add a device, this is the first place you go and verify that you have all drivers in place. What else? Pointing devices. Just a mouse. Nothing fancy here. Anything else? Just audio.

Where is my here we go. Okay, I have my microphone, the one that I’m using at the moment. It has a dedicated driver and a real tech high definition audio driver as well for my speakers and of course microphone as well. Please remember you can right click here and you can scan for hardware changes. If something goes wrong with a piece of hardware, you can always remove it. You can rightclick and say just get rid of it. Remove this device and then you can rightclick here scan for hardware changes. And this device should be discovered automatically because it’s plug and play. This means that it will be identified by Microsoft Windows and all drivers will be added for you automatically.

You can go online and download a dedicated driver for a device that you’re after. Please remember you can disable a device as well if you don’t want to use it. For example, when you go for network cards, you have a really long list of cards that you can use and you say, no, I don’t want to use wireless. I am having some issues with my wireless card at the moment. I want to disable it for the time being. Here we go. Please make sure I encourage you to go to your own PC open Device Manager. Make sure that you have all drivers in place and he understands, will understand what’s inside.

4. Backups and System Recovery Features

Understanding operating system maintenance, backups and recovery methods. We know backups are important. We have to make a backup. It is up to you. If you go for a cloud solution, USB device, maybe a network attached storage device, you have a lot of options. The most important thing is that you have to make a backup. We go to backup and we can use something that is called File History. The idea is to use another drive and restore files when something happens. Let’s use our test Mdrive. Do you remember we used it to create a right array at the time. Here we go, more options. And of course here we can customize what we want to copy, what we want to exclude when we want to make a backup, and so on. This is a built in tool, a very limited tool to be honest, when it comes to backups. Still, it is a good idea to start using a built in feature and then buy or use a free application that will give you more options. This option allows you to take care of your files, of your documents, downloads and so on. We have to take care of our operating system as well.

And we go to Control Panel, file History, system Image Backup and here we can configure a full Windows backup. We can create a system image or a system repair disk. Again, please note it shows Windows Seven, but I used to use it when we had Windows Seven, Windows Vista and it did work very well. I have not tested it with Windows Ten, but this is what you really need. Please remember you want to have a full backup of your files, documents and downloads. But let’s say something happens to Windows. It will take a lot of time. If you catch a virus, for instance, then well, you have to start from scratch. In many cases it is okay to recover your operating system. You can make a snapshot. Do you remember in virtual machines we can make a snapshot. Of course, if you have a laptop, this is more complicated. You can go for a piece of software to achieve the same and then you can recover your operating system. One more option that I want to show you here we go is System Restore.

This is something that allows you to go back in time again, especially if you add a piece of hardware, something goes wrong. Windows failures to work in a way you expect and well, you want to go back and remove all additions that have been made in the last couple of hours, days and so on. This option applies to your registry and all additional options that have been modified. This is how you enable it. You go for system protection and system properties. And here you can enable this option. You go for configure. You can turn it on, specify the maximum usage option and click Apply. And now you can create a new restore point. Let’s call it test one. Please note it is in place. And now I can, let’s say, install a new sound card. I can add the driver if something goes wrong. I can tell Windows, okay, let’s go back. Please note you can scan for programs that are going to be affected as well. A really good tool if you want to add a piece of hardware and you have some doubts, or a piece of software as well. Maybe you want to install Microsoft office. You know for a fact that Microsoft Office will make a lot of changes to your operating system. You can remove this application, but well, some bits and pieces will be left behind if something happens. You can always go and use the System Restore option. When you open a folder and then you go to Properties, you will see an option that is called Previous Versions that you can take advantage of if you use file history or restore points. And this is how you can recover. Windows is going to use something that is called volume shadow copies for a lot of these applications.

Because you can ask, okay, how is it possible that I will make a backup if I open a file and I use it? Yes, there is a solution that is called VSS volume shadow copies. Of course Windows is going to use a couple of solutions here. It is possible to make a backup of a file that is in use or try and see what options are available to recover Windows Ten. Go for reset. And now when you reboot, you will see that we can actually use our DVD drive, our operating system, the one that we used to install Windows Ten to repair our computer, we can troubleshoot when we go here. We can create system restore. Do you remember? We can use a system image recovery option. We can troubleshoot startup issues, we can go back to the previous version, or we can go to CMD and use some commands. Let’s check if Windows identifies our System restore option.

Here we go. We did create a snapshot of our settings. And now if your PC fails to boot up, you can always go over here and recover. How cool is that? Yeah, you don’t have to recover everything. You don’t have to start from scratch. You can always try and use these options to fix your operating system. Windows Ten offers you more option to start from scratch or enjoy your Windows Ten operating system. If you feel that your PC is very slow, I recommend you just start from scratch. Make sure you put a new solid state disk drive inside and then you can install Windows Ten.

If you really want to use a build in feature in Windows, the Fresh Start option allows you to reinstall Windows Ten and keep all your files, downloads, documents and applications. It is good if you feel that your PC is really slow. You can give it a go. If you feel that there is nothing else you can do, you can go for recovery and then you can reset your PC.

When you go over here, you will see that you have two options. Keep your files. This is very similar to the one that you saw a minute ago, but I want to talk about this option. Remove everything. You don’t have to put a USB disk and install Windows Ten. This is what Windows can do for you. Please be very careful because Windows is going to remove all your files, applications and settings. Please make sure that you have a backup before you go for this option.