Hardware Refresh

Here's a cool way to save yourself some time. If you have any kind of external (non USB) device (like a scanner, tape backup, external zip drive, etc), they probably need to be powered on before you boot up your computer. If not, the computer doesn't recognize them and you need to turn them on and re-boot. Or do you?

For example, let's say you forgot to turn on your scanner. Now, normally you would have to turn it on and re-boot the computer. Wait - here's how to get around it.

1. Right-click My Computer and select Properties from the resulting menu.
2. Click the Device Manager tab and then the Computer item at the top. Towards the bottom of that screen, you'll see a "refresh" button. Click that.

Windows will now "refresh" it's hardware profile! Once it's done (it shouldn't take too long at all) you'll find your scanner is now part of the hardware profile and you can now use it, no re-booting required!

This will (should) work for any device that's attached to your computer and you forgot to turn on. It seems like I need to hit the refresh button twice on some computers to get this to work. Go figure.

Please note - if you forgot to attach a device to your computer, it's best to attach devices to the computer ONLY when it's off (Unless is a USB device).