Installing Hardware Devices

Device driver management in Windows XP has been vastly simplified. It now utilizes a similar interface to that of Windows 98 or Windows Me instead of that provided in prior versions of Windows NT. This simplified interface has both its good points and its bad points. On the good side is its consistency with prior versions of Windows. If you know how to manage devices there, you will know where to look to manage devices in Windows XP. On the bad side, however, is the irksome inability on ACPI (Advanced Configuration and Power Interface) compliant computers to override Windows XP's Plug and Play settings and use the BIOS, rather than the operating system, to configure devices. Windows XP will disable most ACPI BIOS settings ...

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