When you boot your Windows XP PC, all hardware, necessary drivers, and personal settings for sound and video, RAM (virtual memory), and services (among other things), automatically start. You may not need or want all of these things to start, especially if you want to conserve resources because you’re trying to save battery power.
Hardware Profiles
Creating hardware profiles for a laptop is probably the best use of hardware profiles, and, perhaps why profiles were created in the first place. That’s because laptops are used in a variety of ways, as they can be docked and connected to additional hardware or a network, or undocked and connected wirelessly or by modem to another network or the Internet. A docked laptop may also use a better monitor, a real mouse, a full-sized keyboard, a network printer, or a Web cam. When the computer is not docked, and you don’t have that hardware available, there’s no need to have it enabled and the drivers installed. There’s also no need for the laptop to attempt to connect to a network that isn’t there. The laptop might also be used to join a domain at work, but used to join a workgroup at home. All of these factors make creating or tweaking profiles on a laptop a necessary part of owning one. When creating or tweaking a laptop’s docked and undocked profiles, make sure you answer the following questions ahead of time, and configure the profile accordingly: * In its docked state, what hardware does the laptop connect to? * In its undocked state, what hardware does the laptop connect to? * In its docked state, what network hardware does the laptop connect to? * In its undocked state, what network hardware does the laptop connect to (assuming a wireless connection is available)? * When docked, what is the name of the workgroup or domain? * When undocked, what is the name of the workgroup or domain? * When docked, is a modem used? * When undocked, is a modem used? * When docked or undocked, is a network card used? Bluetooth? * When docked, what screen resolution do you prefer? When undocked? * When docked do you have external speakers? * When undocked do you prefer to turn off the sound? * What power settings are configured while docked? * What power settings are configure when undocked? We’re sure you can think of other things as you sit down with each configuration and really think about what you use and what you don’t. Once you know, create or enable the profiles as shown in the next section, log on to those profiles, and configure the settings that are right for you. Creating a Hardware Profile and Configuring a Default Creating a hardware profiles requires three steps. First, you create the profile in System Properties. After rebooting and selecting that profile, you configure it in Device Manager. Finally, you decide if you want a certain profile to start automatically, or, after a specific amount of time, and you make that configuration change. The three procedures are detailed in this section. First, create a hardware profile. Hardware profiles are created in the System Properties dialog box, from the Hardware tab: 1. Right-click My Computer and select Properties. 2. In the System Properties dialog box, choose the Hardware tab. 3. Click Hardware Profiles. 4. Under Available Hardware Profiles, click Profile 1 (or in the case of a laptop, Docked Profile or Undocked Profile). Click Copy. 5. In the Copy Profile dialog box, type a name for the new profile and click OK. 6. Select the new profile, and click Properties. 7. In the new profile’s Properties dialog box, check Always Include This Profiles As An Option When Windows Starts. (If this is a laptop, check This Is A Portable Computer, and choose a state - unknown, docked, or undocked.) Click OK. 8. In the Hardware Profiles dialog box, select Wait Until I Select A Hardware Profile. Click OK. 9. Click OK to close the System Properties dialog box. Next, you configure the new hardware profile. To configure the new hardware profile with hardware settings, hardware to start or disable, and any other preferences: 1. Restart the computer and choose the new profile. 2. Right-click My Computer and choose Properties. 3. Select the Hardware tab. 4. Select Device Manager. 5. In Device Manager, choose devices to enable, configure, or disable. As an example, to disable any hardware device, double-click it, choose the General tab, and under Device Usage, select Do Not Use This Device In The Current Hardware Profile (Disable). You can enable or configure devices in the same manner. 6. When finished, close Device Manager and click OK to close the System Properties dialog box. Finally, with the hardware profiles configured, you have three options for boot up. You can configure the PC so that a specific profile is automatically used each time you boot the PC, you can choose to show all of the profile choices for a specific amount of time and then have a specific one start automatically, or, you can choose to show all choices and not boot until one is selected. To set any of these configurations, follow these steps: 1. Right-click My Computer and select Properties. 2. In the System Properties dialog box, choose the Hardware tab. 3. Click Hardware Profiles. 4. In the Hardware Profiles dialog box, under Hardware Profiles Selection, make the appropriate choice. They are: a. Wait Until I Select A Hardware Profile. Check this is you don’t want the PC to boot until after you make a selection.) b. Select The First Profile Listed If I Don’t Select a Profile In _____ Seconds. (Select this if you want a profile to automatically start after a certain amount of time has passed. If you want the first profile listed to start automatically, select 0 seconds.) 5. Click OK twice to exit.