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File | Add/Remove Snap-in (Console |Add/Remove Snap-in in Windows 2000). Here you will see a list of available snap-ins in Windows Vista (Figure 4.84). (Click the Add button in 2000/XP to open a similar screen.) Select Device Manager, and click the Add button to open a dialog box that prompts you to choose the local or a remote PC for the snap-in to work with. Choose Local Computer for this exercise, and click the Finish button. Click the Close button to close the Add Standalone Snap-in dialog box, and then click OK to close the Add/Remove Snap-in dialog box.

You should see Device Manager listed in the console. Click it. Hey, that looks kind of familiar, doesn’t it (see Figure 4-85)?

Figure 4-84 Available snap-ins

Figure 4-85 Device Manager as a snap-in

Once you’ve added the snap-ins you want, just save the console under any name, anywhere you want. I’ll save this console as Device Manager, for example, and drop it on my desktop (see Figure 4-86). I’m now just a double-click away from the Device Manager.

Figure 4-86 The Device Manager shortcut on the desktop

Administrative Tools

Windows combines the most popular snap-ins into an applet in the Control Panel called Administrative Tools. Open the Control Panel and open Administrative Tools (Figure 4-87).

Figure 4-87 Administrative Tools

Administrative Tools is really just a folder that stores a number of pre-made consoles. As you poke through these, notice that many of the consoles share some of the same snap-ins—nothing wrong with that. Of the consoles in a standard Administrative Tools collection, the ones you’ll spend the most time with are Computer Management, Event Viewer, Reliability and Performance (or just Performance in Windows 2000/XP), and Services.

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EXAM TIP The CompTIA A+ certification exams have little interest in some of these snap-ins, so this book won’t cover them all. If I don’t mention it, it’s almost certainly not on the test!

Computer Management

The Computer Management applet is a tech’s best buddy, or at least a place where you’ll spend a lot of time when building or maintaining a system (Figure 4-88). You’ve already spent considerable time with two of its components: System Tools and Storage. Depending on the version of Windows, System Tools also offers System Information, Performance Logs and Alerts, Reliability and Performance, Device Manager, and more. Storage is where you’ll find Disk Management.

Figure 4-88 Computer Management applet

Event Viewer

Event Viewer shows you at a glance what has happened in the last day, week, or more, including when people logged in and when the PC had problems (Figure 4-89). You’ll see more of Event Viewer in Chapter 26, “Securing Computers.”

Performance (Windows 2000/XP)

The Performance console consists of two snap-ins: System Monitor and Performance Logs and Alerts. You can use these for reading logs—files that record information over time. The System Monitor can also monitor real-time data (Figure 4-90).

Suppose you are adding a new cable modem and you want to know just how fast you can download data. Click the plus sign (+) on the toolbar to add a counter. Click the Use local computer counters radio button, and then choose Network Interface from the Performance Object pull-down menu. Make sure the Select counters from list radio button is selected. Last, select Bytes Received/sec. The dialog box should look like Figure 4-91.

Figure 4-89 Event Viewer reporting system errors

Figure 4-90 System Monitor in action

Figure 4-91 Setting up a throughput test

Click Add, and then click Close; probably not much is happening. Go to a Web site, preferably one where you can download a huge file. Start downloading and watch the chart jump; that’s the real throughput (Figure 4-92).

Figure 4-92 Downloading with blazing speed

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NOTE You’ll learn more about the Performance console in Chapter 17, “Maintaining and Troubleshooting Windows.”

Reliability and Performance Monitor (Windows Vista)

The Reliability and Performance Monitor in Windows