tailieunhanh - Registry and Plug and Play Subsystem

Registry and Plug and Play Subsystem At the end of Chapter 1, there was a simple example providing a general understanding of the process used by the system to install new devices and resolve hardware conflicts. | Registry and Plug and Play Subsystem At the end of Chapter 1 there was a simple example providing a general understanding of the process used by the system to install new devices and resolve hardware conflicts. However this example was overly simplistic and more importantly covered the process of hardware installation only from the user s point of view. But what actually happens when the system installs new hardware What components are required to accomplish this task How should we configure hardware and resolve hardware conflicts These are clearly topics of great interest to anyone who is initiating full-scale support for Windows XP and Windows Server 2003. With the release of Windows 95 Microsoft introduced a new concept for simplifying PC usage Plug and Play or PnP . What is Plug and Play A standard a specification or a concept Actually Plug and Play is a combination of the general approach to designing PCs and a set of specifications describing the hardware architecture. Strictly speaking it is a combination of the system BIOS hardware devices system resources device drivers and the operating-system software. All Plug and Play components have the same purpose to facilitate the automatic functioning of the PC peripheral devices and their drivers with a minimum of intervention from the user. Users working with systems that meet all Plug and Play requirements don t have to spend time wondering if a newly installed device will create hardware conflicts with another device. The registry provides the basis for developing such a system. The HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE HARDWARE registry key contains a description of the system hardware and the relationship between hardware devices and their drivers. Before we go any further you should note that this key is volatile and that all of the information it contains is re-created every time the operating system is booted. The hardware recognizer collects information related to system hardware and the OS kernel stores the .