Hardware Profiles

[powder21]

My biggest issue with Vista is (and always has been) the removal of the Hardware Profiles feature that is present in XP. Now MS says that hardware profiles are still present in Vista and you can...blah blah, but everybody knows that's a load of crap. (Unless this has changed since the release of SP2 which I haven't worked with yet)

I'm about to install the Win7 RC (I know, I'm behind, but I'm not shelling out 200 bucks for an upgrade until I've had a chance to try it out), but before I do, I would very much like to know if MS finally decided to put this feature back in as per the millions of suggestions posted by people such as myself. I've tried searching for this answer, but I can't even seem to find the question. Maybe I'm just inept at searching. Anyways... If anybody can answer this for me I would really appreciate it. Thanks in advance.

-powder

 

[Zidane24]

I just peered around and indeed the feature was not added back

Sorry

Chris

 

[powder21]

Damnit!!! Does anybody know if anything at least equivalent to this feature is present?

P.S. Thanks Chris Sorry to start off the reply with such a negative attitude.

 

[johngalt]

I suppose the equivalence would be to make a / multiple VHD(s) of your install and in the VHD(s) disable the hardware you don't want to use, and install the hardware that you do want to use.

Not anywhere nearly as easy as HPs in XP, but it could quite possibly become a workaround....

Come to think of it, that would be a great way to game in 7....

 

[DeaconFrost]

What would you need a hardware profile for, in this day and age? I remember setting them up in NT 4.0 for docked and undocked status on a laptop. I haven't seen a need for doing so since those days.

 

[powder21]

johngalt...I actually have a boot manager which i use to run two seperate physical systems for the purposes of gaming. But physical or virtual, it's too much work just to be able to enable/disable certain hardware at startup.

DeaconFrost...There are certain peices of hardware that I like to have disabled when hooked up to the docking station...for instance, I have an external sound card that I like to use and I'd rather not have my internal sound card enabled when using the external. It gets kind of annoying to have to disable it every time I start up. There are other reasons too which I won't get into. I guess I just don't trust windows when it comes to potentially conflicting hardware.

 

[DeaconFrost]

Having two sound cards has been a pain for end users in Windows, and basd on your comments, that doesn't seem to be fixed.

 

[johngalt]

What would you need a hardware profile for, in this day and age? I remember setting them up in NT 4.0 for docked and undocked status on a laptop. I haven't seen a need for doing so since those days.

It's not just for docking and undocking. When you have extra hardware device drivers loading into memory for use with the OS, it is occupying memory that you can use for other things.

johngalt...I actually have a boot manager which i use to run two seperate physical systems for the purposes of gaming. But physical or virtual, it's too much work just to be able to enable/disable certain hardware at startup.

DeaconFrost...There are certain peices of hardware that I like to have disabled when hooked up to the docking station...for instance, I have an external sound card that I like to use and I'd rather not have my internal sound card enabled when using the external. It gets kind of annoying to have to disable it every time I start up. There are other reasons too which I won't get into. I guess I just don't trust windows when it comes to potentially conflicting hardware.

I didn't mean disable at startup. I meant disable the hardware permanently in the VHD - so, if you want devices xyz in one boot but not int the other, in the VHD you disable them permanently - the next time you boot into that VHD they are still disabled - effectively becoming a customized hardware profile instead of just another VHD. Once you get it set up there is no need for any further configuration - just pick the install you want to boot into and away you go.

Having two sound cards has been a pain for end users in Windows, and basd on your comments, that doesn't seem to be fixed.

Not easily, no - but using my suggestion you could then have multiple boots without having to install W7 multiple times, and in each different boot you could use a different sound card.

 

[DeaconFrost]

It's not just for docking and undocking. When you have extra hardware device drivers loading into memory for use with the OS, it is occupying memory that you can use for other things.

While you are technically correct, those drivers are hardly taking up a lot of memory, especially in these days where 2 GB is pretty much the bare minimum you'll find an a computer used by a reader of an enthusiasts forum.

 

[Antman]

DeaconFrost and JohnGalt are describing fruit from different tress. johngalts excellent suggestion addresses the OPs concern about HW profiles. DeaconFrost points out the virtual lack of any real need for the tactic.

If the tactic is deployed, johngalts method is valid - but a flaw in the logic of applying it is overlooked. The OP wants maximum performance once partially afforded by HW profiles. Unless the host system has a ton of RAM, the guest will suffer from a lack of it. If the host has a ton of RAM, what is the point?

johngalt and I share a trait - we like to ask and answer questions. The question and the answer have a value that may or may not have a practical or common application.

Bottom line - HW profiles were useful in their day. Not useful enough anymore to include them in modern Windows design. There are better ways to skin the cat.

 

[johngalt]

One thing though - HPs were not about guests and hosts - they were the same OS using different profiles, enabling and disabling hardware items. My method will do the same using multiple booting OSs - not rel host and guest, in the sense that only one OS is running at any given time.

However, Antman is right - I answered the question without really addressing the practicality of the solution. In this case I can understand the OPs concern as to why this was removed, and have thought more than once that it would be nice to make one for gaming exclusively - some of the hardware on my machine is not gaming related, and when you're playing games fully maxed out in settings for a stunning visual presentation, every little bit helps.

Also, consider this - nVidia drivers were 77 MB last time I checked, for my GTX 260s. The mobo driver package was at 100+, and the driver and software package for my Saitek Cyborg RumblePad v3 weighed in at 75 MB - with an additional 200 MB for the friggin software.

Even with hyper-efficient memory management, if I play a game that has no support for allowing me to use a gamepad (perish the though!) disabling that particular device could save me enough memory for a modest (5%) increase in performance - but, again, every little bit counts.

 

[powder21]

Woops...been a while since I checked back here. I like your suggestion johngalt, my only problem is that it is just more difficult than it needs to be as opposed to the HW profiles solution and, as you guys mentioned, a little less practical...especially only with 2Gigs of RAM on my system (unless I'm mistaken as to the performance of running a seperate OS on a virtual disk).

Anyways, I will probably just solve this issue the same way I squeeze every ounce of performance out of my notebook as I can for gaming....with a seperate physical system. However, before I do this I will most certainly see how Win7 reacts with the external and internal sound cards as it may not even be an issue.

On a side note, if you would like to squeeze performance out of your own computer for gaming, you might try doing what I do. I use an absolutely wonderful little gadget known as BootIt-NG which installs an 8MB partition at the front of the disk acting as it's own MBR. This then supports as many primary partitions and different OS's I would like whether they be the same OS or completely different OS's... When I was in school, I had two installs of XP (one was for gaming of course), two different distro's of Linux, an install of Server 2003, and an install of Server 2008...the last four OS's came in very handy for learning purposes. What's best about this software is that it only costs 35 bucks. It's also very easy to use once you get the hang of it, yet very powerful as well. One of the sweetest little gems that I have ever come accross. Thought you might like to know.

P.S. The software also doubles as a fully featured partition management software. It's made by Terabyte Unlimited. Here's a link...
http://www.terabyteunlimited.com/index.htm

 

[Barman58]

Following on from Antman's suggestion one other way would be Powershell which contains the functionality to check for and enable or disable the devices on the system.

This is only of any use if you have the required skills with the package but some sample code for device control is listed here ...
Powershell Script to Enable/Disable Network Connection - Software Development

If a script could be written to set the hardware active as required for the docked/undocked state, and run at start-up that would provide the functionality you had previously from HP.

Powershell is on my to do list to learn so can't be of any practical use but is is I believe a possible soloution

 

[powder21]

Thanks for the tip. Unfortunately, as you mentioned, powershell requires a certain skillset which I have not yet developed. However, I will most certainly keep it in mind. Thanks again.

 

[DeaconFrost]

On a side note, if you would like to squeeze performance out of your own computer for gaming, you might try doing what I do. I use an absolutely wonderful little gadget known as BootIt-NG which installs an 8MB partition at the front of the disk acting as it's own MBR.

All that does is over-complicate a system. Vista, and now Windows 7 didn't need all that tweaking to make it run at peak efficiency. If you know how to properly set up a system, you don't need separate physical systems to accomplish this. Why not just run the system at it's best all the time? It's true that XP needed a little help in the tweaking department, but even then, there was never a reason to setup multiple systems, multiple users, and all those other configs that led some to believe it was giving them a boost in performance.

The simple answer is, set the system up right, use common sense and common accepted best practices, and you'll be fine.

 

[logicearth]

Even with hyper-efficient memory management, if I play a game that has no support for allowing me to use a gamepad (perish the though!) disabling that particular device could save me enough memory for a modest (5%) increase in performance - but, again, every little bit counts.

There is no need to disable anything, drivers are not stuck in RAM just like applications they can be removed from RAM. Very little of the kernel has to remain in RAM, in some cases could be around 50 MB to 200 MB.

I can assure you the actual driver for your gamepad is not 75 MB, the packaging around it might be, but the actual driver is much smaller. Around 2.5 MB - 3 MB. The same for all the others you mentioned.

Btw...you would not get a 5% increase...not even on a modest system. Maybe half a frame rate point.

The image below is the two supplied versions of the gamepad drivers for x64.

 

[RADCOMJ1]

Hi my first post here. I found the site following the hardware profiles issue. I used to love hardware profiles it was great for testing different hardware setups. I currently have a very powerful current drining graphics card, it would be nice to not have it iniatilise when I just want to do some surfing. ( I could use an installed less powerful GPU) Is there any other way to do this ...in the BIOS perhaps?

 

[logicearth]

What Graphics card is it? There might be power saving features provided by the card that lowers it power consumption and heat when under little load.

 

[RADCOMJ1]

It's a GECUBE ATI RADEON 4870 x2. There may be power saving options in the catalyst driver but the card is still not eco friendly. The hardware profile used to resolve these issues .......

 

[andiih]

I think there is a very good reason for hardware profiles - namely virtualization. I have an iMac with Boot Camp which allows it to boot windows 7 natively. Fine. But in OS X I can also run THE SAME COPY of windows (my bootcamp partition) via VMWare. The problem is that it is a different virtual hardware, and a different set of drivers. So as soon as I boot one way, I cripple the other. Very annoying. I thought that good old harware profiles would help solve this - but it seems not. Any other ideas ?