Editing Device Manager (section)

{{Short description|Component of the Microsoft Windows operating system}}
{{More citations needed|date=August 2021}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=December 2022}}
{{Infobox software
| name = Device Manager
| screenshot = Microsoft Management Console - Device Manager.png
| screenshot_size = 300px
| caption = [[Microsoft Management Console]] in [[Windows 11]] with Device Manager snap-in
| developer = [[Microsoft]]
| released = {{Start date and age|1995|08|24}}
| operating system = [[Microsoft Windows]]
| license = [[Proprietary software|Proprietary]] [[commercial software]]
}}
'''Device Manager''' is a component of the [[Microsoft Windows]] operating system. It allows users to view and control the hardware attached to the computer. When a piece of hardware is not working, the offending hardware is highlighted for the user to deal with. The list of hardware can be sorted by various criteria.<ref>{{cite web | url=http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-8/where-is-device-manager | title=Where is Device Manager? |website=Windows| publisher=[[Microsoft]] | access-date=February 8, 2015|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140125043422/http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-8/where-is-device-manager|archive-date=January 25, 2014}}</ref>

For each device, users can:
*Supply [[device driver]]s in accordance with the [[Windows Driver Model]]
*Enable or disable devices
*Tell Windows to ignore malfunctioning devices
*View other technical properties

Device Manager was introduced with [[Windows 95]] and later added to [[Windows 2000]]. On [[Windows 9x]], Device Manager is part of the System applet in [[Control Panel (Windows)|Control Panel]]. On Windows 2000 and all other [[Windows NT]]-based versions of Windows, it is a snap-in for [[Microsoft Management Console]].

The executable program behind the Device Manager is <code>devmgmt.msc</code>.