Insider Power Techniques for Microsoft® Windows® XP

Managing Hardware Profiles

In most cases, your hardware configuration will remain relatively static. You might add the odd new device or remove a device, but these are permanent changes. Windows XP merely updates its current hardware configuration to compensate.

In some situations, however, you might need to switch between hardware configurations regularly. A good example is a notebook computer with a docking station. When the computer is undocked, it uses its built-in keyboard, mouse, and display; when the computer is docked, however, it uses a separate keyboard, mouse, and display. To make it easier to switch between these different configurations, Windows XP lets you set up a hardware profile for each setup. It then becomes a simple matter of ...