Thread: Manage Devices the Easy Way with Device Stage in Windows 7

In Vista how it was an annoying chore getting it to identify external devices such as printers, phones, and digital cameras. Now in Windows 7 there is a cool feature known as Device Stage that permits you to simply see and run all your external devices from one spot.

Using Device Stage

To test digital devices you have attached to your PC go to Start and Devices and Printers.



This shows a visual display of all of the devices attached to PC.



When you first start it observe that you can tick on the message about getting device information from Internet. This will maintain devices updated with latest information and drivers.



The main thing is that when you first plug in a device Windows 7 will install the drivers immediately.

After plugging in the device you can notice it in the Taskbar where you can hover over it to get a good looking image of it and some restricted information. For instance I plugged in a Creative Zen and can see how much battery life is left and the amount of space left on it. You can also right click on the device and access certain controls as well.



Now when you tick on the device you will present with a simple to navigate control panel of sorts that permits you to run the settings and characteristics of the device.



Here is a shot of a printer attached and you observe that there are a lot of options for managing it.



It depends on Hardware Company to decide if their device will be well-suited with Device Stage. The way to decide this is to just plug in the device and notice if Device Stage opens up. All of the newer devices I plugged in were accepted, some with more features to run them than others, again this depends on company and the firmware installed. This new characteristic is a way to obtain your devices working without installing drivers.