How To Find Device Manager On Windows 10

Device Manager is easy to find in Windows 10. You can access it by either clicking on ‘Start’ and typing ‘Device Manager’, then opening the App, or right clicking on ‘Start’ and clicking on ‘Device Manager’

Device Manager can be used to see if there are any devices detected but in an errored state, missing drivers, or to update drivers.

Applies To: Windows 10

Device Manager has been around for a long time, and is still a handy tool. When you first launch Device Manager, see if there’s any devices that have a yellow exclamation mark next to them – they should stand out very clearly, and it means there’s an issue.

To try and fix a problem with a device, there’s a few things you can try:

Right click on the device and ‘uninstall device’. Then, click the ‘scan for hardware changes’ button which is a blue computer screen with a magnifying glass over it. This should rediscover the device and may use a better driver at time of setting up.

If that doesn’t work, right click on the device and choose ‘Update driver’. Then choose ‘Search automatically for drivers’. Usually this doesn’t find anything new, but you can then choose the ‘Search for updated drivers on Windows Update’ option which will take you to Windows Update in Settings, where you can click ‘check for updates’. Some driver updates are available through this method. If that doesn’t work, go to the manufacturer’s website of the device and look for drivers to download there – they usually are bundled with an installer that you can run.

If all that fails, you’ve got a bit of a problem. For USB connected devices, try a different port, different cable or even a different computer – if you can prove it works on another computer, then you know the device itself is OK. If it doesn’t work elsewhere, it could be an old device not supported on Windows 10 (particularly if you’re now running a 64 bit Operating System) and the manufacturer only ever created 32 bit drivers.

Otherwise, start searching on Google or Bing with details of your problem and the device in question, and see if anyone’s got a suggestion specific to that bit of hardware.

Howtogeek has a great detailed article if you’d like to dive deeper into Device Manager.

CPU Usage, Cores, and Other Information

There’s a really easy way to see what your CPU is doing in Windows 10

1. Press Start
2. Type ‘Task Manager’ and select the App to launch it.
3. If you see ‘More Details’ in the bottom left, click it. If you see ‘Fewer Details’, skip this step.
4. Click on the ‘Performance’ tab.
5. Click ‘CPU’ in the left options.
6. The Base speed, Sockets, Cores, and Logical Processors will be listed.

Applies To: Windows 10

Windows 10’s Task Manager is hugely improved over older operating systems. You can see much more information about the components of your computer, including how long it’s been on for (the Up time):

If your computer feels like it’s running slow, it’s worth checking the CPU, Memory and Disks to see if they’re running high (90% or more), and then go into the details tab to work out what process is causing the high usage.

Windows Central have a great detailed guide on how to do this.

Copying and Pasting information is a quick way to manipulate data to however you want it. Often you’ll find a right click menu option to ‘Copy’ or ‘Paste’ data, but if you learn to use the keyboard shortcuts you’ll find it’s much quicker to do.

When the Clipboard is referenced, it means the temporary area your data is stored, ready to be pasted. Traditionally, this data wasn’t visible and you’d need to paste to see what was there, and any other copy would overwrite old information. Newer versions of Windows 10 however, have a Clipboard History option you can turn on under settings:

Once on, you can use Winkey + V to bring up a window showing the history of what you’ve put in the clipboard.

If you’re just learning to use keyboard shortcuts, remember that you don’t have to press both keys at the same time instantly – you can hold down Ctrl, then tap the letter ‘C’ while still holding Ctrl to copy, then release both keys.

There’s also more you can do than the simple Copy (Ctrl + C) and Paste (Ctrl + V):

Ctrl + X will Cut rather than Copy, meaning it will remove the highlighted data and move it to the clipboard.

Ctrl + Shift + V will paste text copied without formatting – for example it won’t use the font of the source data.

If for some reason you can’t use or don’t like Ctrl + C and Ctrl + V, you can instead use ‘Ctrl + Insert’ to Copy, and ‘Shift + Insert’ to paste.

Looking for more shortcuts? Check out Microsoft’s full list here.

Although you can still use the Print Screen button to take a screenshot of everything you can see across all monitors, or Alt + Print Screen to take a screenshot, this will purely add that image to the clipboard. You’ll then need to paste it somewhere to have a copy of it to work with and save.

Originally, Windows 10 had the Snipping Tool (and at the time of writing, it’s still there), but for a while, Snipping Tool has has this notice advising that it will be replaced by Snip & Sketch. If you have Windows 10 1607 or later, you have Snip & Sketch.

Once you’ve taken a screenshot, it will immediately be available on the clipboard too, so you’re able to paste it straight into a document, email or anywhere else that will accept clipboard images.

You can also just launch Skip & Sketch to then use the ‘New’ button, or the drop down arrow to trigger a delayed snip in 3 or 10 seconds time.

Also, if you’re wondering – is it ‘Screen Shot’ or ‘Screenshot’ – both are acceptable according to dictionary.com.