Hardware Profiles

[OppfinnarJocke]

The point with HW profiles is that certain HW does not play well with some reasonable uses of a computer. For instance, the way some Dell laptops implement ACPI battery control and WLAN breaks real-time audio recording and streaming. For such a laptop to be useful for real-time audio recording, these HWs must be disabled. In XP this is simply implemented with HW profiles invoked when the computer is started up for the audio recording task. When wanting to surf, the computer is retstarted with a HW profile that enables the WLAN.

That HW profiles have been removed is unfortunate.

PS These types of tools illustrate what I'm talking about DPC Latency Checker

 

[TheWalL]

I was using different hardware profiles for different locations. I'd use the docked profile with features such as wireless and bluetooth turned off when I docked my laptop at work where I do have a dock. On my undocked profile, I'd turn off ethernet network adapter and turn on wireless adapter which I use when I'm working from any location thats not my office.

Now, with Win7, I dont see a way to achieve the same result.

 

[fla2]

If hardware profiles don't exist in Windows 7, how else can I have the same IP address for the machine as I repeadedly dock/undock it? In XP, the wired NIC and the wireless NIC had the same fixed IP address but existed in separate HW profiles so there was no conflict. I need the same IP address for port forwarding and for accessing servers from other systems on the LAN.

 

[fla2]

I hate to have to install extra software to do something basic that XP has been doing for almost a decade but bridgechecker seems to work around the Windows 7 limitation. Have not tried it but it sounds promising for anyone reading this thread.

BridgeChecker v1.2 Available for Download at WLAN Book.com

 

[intelliboy]

With Win XP hardware profiles there were a number of things that i was able to do that i cannot do now in Win 7. Here is my current setup. My primary OS is Ubuntu and i have both VMWare and VirtualBox installed. My WinXP used to run inside either VMWare or VirtualBox depending on whatever i wanted to run it with. I had two HP's in WinXP, one for VMWare and one for VirtualBox and this was NECESSARY since the virtualized hardware exposed by both is quite different. I could happily use the same instance of WinXP from both the softwares. Now i i cannot do that with Win 7 since every time i switch from VMWare to VirtualBox or vice versa, Win 7 thinks this a totally different computer and goes thru a whole bunch of reconfiguration.

I understand that my use case is a very corner case and most people would not be doing that but the point here is that having HP allows you to do these things are now not possible.

 

[zamar21]

Could you guys clarify a few things. I have 2 PCI satellite cards installed in Win 7, and there drivers conflict. Is there a way, I can disable one selectively at system startup, similar to HP feature in XP? Another thing is, when selecting a certain HP in XP with one card disabled, would it mean to shut down voltage to its PCI port? Or it will remain fully powered, but merely without drivers loaded? What's the point to have it powered then?

 

[Blue for Black]

Hi All,

I just found something interesting related to Hardware Profiles in another SevenForums thread:

http://www.sevenforums.com/windows-...date-problem-error-80246008-a.html#post661022

The Microsoft copy refers to "every hardware profile that is listed", which would seem to indicate that there could be more than one. Does anyone have any additional information on this?

Either way, I have a crying need for Hardware Profiles or the equivalent in Windows 7. I'm using a dedicated computer for recording digital audio, and I don't need the vast majority of services that run in the background when I'm recording. I do need them, however, when I'm doing routine tasks, such as restore/backup procedures, activating software, etc. Any ideas as to how I could have two Hardware Profiles, or the equivalent, would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,
Sam

 

[OppfinnarJocke]

Either way, I have a crying need for Hardware Profiles or the equivalent in Windows 7. I'm using a dedicated computer for recording digital audio, and I don't need the vast majority of services that run in the background when I'm recording. I do need them, however, when I'm doing routine tasks, such as restore/backup procedures, activating software, etc. Any ideas as to how I could have two Hardware Profiles, or the equivalent, would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,
Sam

Same thing here. What I do (on my laptop, not necessary on the desktop) is I use devcon.exe with a script to disable stuff before starting the DAW, and then enable that stuff afterwards. It works, but getting your hands on the devcon.exe utility (it's from MS) is not entirely simple, unless you DL the entire driver SDK. There is a post somewhere on the web about how to use Universal Extractor to get only devcon.exe without having to install the entire 700 MB (or something) driver SDK. Sorry, I cannot find it right away just now, just google.

EDIT: Found it http://social.answers.microsoft.com...e/thread/9abcc12c-d7db-4249-aec4-fc4ff0ea6ee8

 

[Aphelion]

Same thing here. What I do (on my laptop, not necessary on the desktop) is I use devcon.exe with a script to disable stuff before starting the DAW, and then enable that stuff afterwards. It works, but getting your hands on the devcon.exe utility (it's from MS) is not entirely simple, unless you DL the entire driver SDK. There is a post somewhere on the web about how to use Universal Extractor to get only devcon.exe without having to install the entire 700 MB (or something) driver SDK. Sorry, I cannot find it right away just now, just google.

EDIT: Found it Devcon not working correctly in Windows 7

Difficult to believe MS removed such a useful feature... (well, maybe not so difficult).

I can't use Win-7 on my Laptop as one of the HW setup's is for mobile recording, easy to disable wireless, ACPI Battery Control and a couple of other devices that interfere with consistent real-time operation. I've used it this way for a year now, can record 8-12 tracks of uninterrupted audio for 2 or more hours if required.

Oh well, XP is lighter on resources anyway.

Ap

 

[Blue for Black]

Same thing here. What I do (on my laptop, not necessary on the desktop) is I use devcon.exe with a script to disable stuff before starting the DAW, and then enable that stuff afterwards. It works, but getting your hands on the devcon.exe utility (it's from MS) is not entirely simple, unless you DL the entire driver SDK. There is a post somewhere on the web about how to use Universal Extractor to get only devcon.exe without having to install the entire 700 MB (or something) driver SDK. Sorry, I cannot find it right away just now, just google.

EDIT: Found it Devcon not working correctly in Windows 7

Thanks very much! This is the first promising lead I've had in months of searching. I'm reticent to admit, however, that some of this solution is over my head. I was able to successfully extract and run devcon.exe from a command prompt, and here's what happened:

Microsoft Windows [Version 6.1.7600]
Copyright (c) 2009 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

C:\Users\Sam>c:\users\sam\downloads\devcon.exe
devcon.exe Usage: devcon.exe [-r] [-m:\\<machine>] <command> [<arg>...]
For more information, type: devcon.exe help

C:\Users\Sam>

Please let me know if I'm missing something, doing something wrong, etc. If you need more info to determine it, just let me know.

Thanks,
Sam

 

[OppfinnarJocke]

Microsoft Windows [Version 6.1.7600]
Copyright (c) 2009 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

C:\Users\Sam>c:\users\sam\downloads\devcon.exe
devcon.exe Usage: devcon.exe [-r] [-m:\\<machine>] <command> [<arg>...]
For more information, type: devcon.exe help

C:\Users\Sam>

Please let me know if I'm missing something, doing something wrong, etc. If you need more info to determine it, just let me know.

Thanks,
Sam

Two things:
1. You must run devcon as an administrator
2. Run "devcon help" and you'll get help for the commands.

Basically, what I did, I had devcon list the hw for me and put the list in a file:
devcon hwids * > hwids.txt
Then I opened that file in a text editor and looked for the HW-ID of the battery controller and the wi-fi.

Then I created a bat-file with the following commands
devcon disable "PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_4235"
devcon disable "ACPI\PNP0C0A"
The first disables the wi-fi, the second disables the battery controller.

Then a corresponding bat-file to enable those devices
devcon enable "PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_4235"
devcon enable "ACPI\PNP0C0A"

Once I had these bat-files, I had to make a shortcuts to them, so that they could be run as administrator. This is a must. Always use the shortcuts.

In addition, in the same bat-files, I disable anti-virus, and a whole bunch of services that aren't necessary once the wi-fi is disabled. This looks like
sc stop Dhcp
You have to experiment a little with your own particular setup, but it's not too hard, and all of it basically corresponds to defining a different HW-profile. You can of course have several disable/enable bat-files, one set for each HW-profile you need.

 

[RADCOMJ1]

Every now and again this thread gets resurrected with a few new ideas but HW profiles was just quick and easy. I don't want to run my huge power consuming graphics card for surfing the net, a simple surfing and gaming profile would suit me without having to resort to dual boot. Maybe I'll try hyperOS.

 

[ibanez0r]

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.

one word.... GAMING

 

[Zoltarnicus]

Wireless while docked not desired and 1/x

So, how about if I want my laptop to disable wireless adaptor while docked so that I can use the wired ethernet attached to the docking station? Vice versa, enable wireless when laptop is undocked. HW Profiles would have helped in this case. Anyone know of a way to accomplish this? For now I have a desktop icon that runs Wireless Assistant with command line parameters to manually enable/disable depending on docked status. Got to be a better way.

 

[Alain Pannetier]

Hardware Profiles were so handy to boot Windows XP In Virtual or Nativ

Same case here. I'm used to running several OS simultaneously out of one box for SW development purposes.
To do so, I run VirtualBox. I've got a powerful laptop with a dual boot with Ubuntu and W7.

Most of the time I boot out of the Ubuntu disk as host OS and boot various other OS as guests (it's a 16GB RAM laptop with i7 720QM - showing 8 CPUs).

Most guest OS live in their own dedicated VMDs, basically 50GB files on the Linux disks.
Except for the W7 partition which has its own 750GB disk, in the state it was when I purchased the laptop.
As you may know, with virtualbox, you can also, all precautions taken, boot a guest OS from a real partition (termed in this case raw disk).

However, I sometimes need to boot the native Windows partition natively rather than as a VirtualBox guest. It used to be easy with XP hardware profiles.

Not any more !!

I can still boot the native W7 inside VirtualBox as a guest. But when I try to boot it natively, W7 tries to reconfigure things and ends up displaying a grey screen (after spinning the disk for ages) thereby showing it's stuck somewhere or can't access the graphic card....
I can "repair" things but the same thing happens each time.

So now I'm using W7 only as a guest.

I can't help noticing that HW profiles have disappeared from the radar precisely when MS have tightened their anti-piracy policy and virtualization has arrived in the Wintel arena. Are we just witnessing yet another revenue protection measure ? (like when Intel would consent rebates to OEMs disabling VT in their BIOS ?).

 

[kazlady]

So I also have a legitimate use for Hardware Profiles. I am a cross platform programmer with a gamer husband. I have multiple valid licenses for my Windows 7 activations. My husband and I are very social and when I am programming, I like to be in the same room as him. He is an enthusiastic gamer so even when we are both home, he is usually logged in. The problem is, his computer is the only one in the house with virtualization so its the only one I can use to program. Mine has less RAM, less powerful Windows version, inferior processor, etc. His monitor is also the biggest in the house. He has agreed to use the inferior machine when I want to program when he's home as long as he gets the larger monitor and we can't afford to just buy another monitor. Though large real estate is nice, when I am programming, I would rather have a smaller screen and be in the same room. What I'd like to do is have both systems set up at all times and just change which monitor is the primary depending on which Windows profile I open on his computer. The other computer is irrelevant. Ideally, when he opens his, only his monitor activates, when I open mine, both monitors activate with the larger asthe primary and when I open the one for when he wants to game at the swame time, it only uses the smaller monitor. Here's another way to look at it.

Husband profile:
Computer 1 (uber) - 24" monitor
Computer 2 (inferior) - 17" monitor

Wife profile:
Computer 1 (uber) - 24" monitor and 17" monitor
Computer 2 (inferior) - off

Husband is benevolent profile:
Computer 1 (uber) - 17" monitor
Computer 2 (inferior) - 24" monitor

If anyone knows of a way that I can already do this, please let me know.

thanks
Kazlady

 

[zamar21]

That sounds like a true love story. How are your PCs and monitors wired to each other and in between?

 

[kazlady]

I kind of think it is

Here's my setup:

Computer 1 (uber) - DVI out to 24" monitor DVI in, VGA out to 17" monitor
Computer 2 (inferior) - VGA out to 24" monitor VGA in (24" monitor has dual input)

It works fine, it's just annoying to have to re-setup the monitors every time I use them.

Any suggestions are greatly appreciated.

(as an unrelated side note, this is the first time I've ever used dual monitors and I kind of like having the smaller monitor for side stuff like maps while I'm gaming and Internet webpages with sample code while I'm programming. I don't get that when hubby is playing but it's nice when he's not around)

 

[glon]

Microsoft Windows [Version 6.1.7600]
Copyright (c) 2009 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

C:\Users\Sam>c:\users\sam\downloads\devcon.exe
devcon.exe Usage: devcon.exe [-r] [-m:\\<machine>] <command> [<arg>...]
For more information, type: devcon.exe help

C:\Users\Sam>

Please let me know if I'm missing something, doing something wrong, etc. If you need more info to determine it, just let me know.

Thanks,
Sam

Two things:
1. You must run devcon as an administrator
2. Run "devcon help" and you'll get help for the commands.

Basically, what I did, I had devcon list the hw for me and put the list in a file:
devcon hwids * > hwids.txt
Then I opened that file in a text editor and looked for the HW-ID of the battery controller and the wi-fi.

Then I created a bat-file with the following commands
devcon disable "PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_4235"
devcon disable "ACPI\PNP0C0A"
The first disables the wi-fi, the second disables the battery controller.

Then a corresponding bat-file to enable those devices
devcon enable "PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_4235"
devcon enable "ACPI\PNP0C0A"

Once I had these bat-files, I had to make a shortcuts to them, so that they could be run as administrator. This is a must. Always use the shortcuts.

In addition, in the same bat-files, I disable anti-virus, and a whole bunch of services that aren't necessary once the wi-fi is disabled. This looks like
sc stop Dhcp
You have to experiment a little with your own particular setup, but it's not too hard, and all of it basically corresponds to defining a different HW-profile. You can of course have several disable/enable bat-files, one set for each HW-profile you need.

First of all sorry to bump this older thread, no offense meant to anyone.

I'm trying to utilize devcon to disable my m-audio firewire soundcard.

I thought if I did "devcon disable <device>" it would disable the device right away. But it doesn't - says the device will be disabled on next reboot. Now I can disable a device manually in Device Manager without a reboot so what's up with Devcon not being able to do this itself?

E:\progstorage\Firewire410\fix>devcon disable 1394\M*
1394\M-AUDIO&FW_410\4900D100016C0D00                        : Disabled on reboot
The 1 device(s) are ready to be disabled. To disable the devices, restart the
devices or reboot the system .

"To disable the devices, restart the
devices or reboot the system" WTF? restart the devices to disable them?

So I'm wondering how you were able to disable your devices via devcon without reboot and second, if there's maybe any other way to programatically disable a device besides devcon?

Thanks!

 

[jonnyhotchkiss]

Hardware profiles

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.

one word.... GAMING

3rd post on this once active always useful forum. I (want to!) use my Dell XPS L502x to watch stuff, and develop stuff, and play with and hopefully one day develop google labs.

I would love a quick load, barebones profile, and a development profile, and maybe one to utilise the two soundcards and awesome mic... I don't know how (else) to do this except with devcon, which has been a while since I've attempted such a solution. Maybe Mcafee and Indexing and all the other little things happening constantly, and collectively, is resulting in the (lack of) performance.

Any suggestions, including ways to monitor performance (load time of OS and particular apps/suites, consumers of resources over time, particular KPIs to keep an eye on... I have TuneUp Utils which gives further insights, and it looks like there's lots more provided by MS in W7HP... I come from the land of XP )

Thanks guys really interesting and useful thread.