The control panel is the entry point to access various system level resources.
Services
What is a Service
A service an individual feature of the operating system that can be enabled or disabled. A service is often passive. Once enabled, a service responds to some “event” in the system. However, some services are “active”, and they proactively initiates operations.
Impact of Services
Most services consume a certain level of processing resources like processing capacity and memory. Consequently, it is wise to review what services are enabled in the system, and see if it is really necessary.
Another impact of a service is security. This is particularly applicable to network related services. A network service usually respond to an attempt of connection from another host. And, this opens up all kinds of vulnerabilities of an operating system.
Some network services are active. Your computer can actively broadcast its existence and invite other computers to connect to it. This kind of network services is even more dangerous than the passive type.
For this reason, it is wise to turn off services that you do not need.
Accessing Services
Use the following steps to access system services:
- ˆ Click “Start”
- ˆ Click “Control Panel”
- ˆ If the upper left corner displays “Switch to Classic View”, click it.
– You only have to switch to classic view once. The system remembers the mode.
- ˆ Double click “Administrative Tools”
- ˆ Double click “Services”
After you get to the services screen, you can click a service on the right pane. The right pane displays some
information:
- ˆ Start, Stop, Pause, Resume, Restart: you can control a service with these options.
– Start: this option is presented only if a service is not started. Click here to start the selected service.
– Stop: this option is presented only if a service is already started. Click here to stop a service.
Note that once is service is stopped, it loses it state and cannot be “resumed” later.
– Pause: this option is presented only if a service is started and running. Pausing a service is not the same
as stopping it. Pausing a service means it is suspended temporarily. A paused service can be resumed
later,retaining its state at the time it was paused.
– Resume: this option is presented only if a service is started and paused.
– Restart: this option is presented only if a service is started. It is equivalent to stopping a service, then
start it again.
- ˆ Information about the service. This is a description of the service.
Network
Networking is an important resource of any modern operating system. From version 3.1, Windows has evolved its networking component from an external program to an integral part of the operating system.
Modem
A modem is a “modulator demodulator”, and it uses a regular telephone line to transmit data. Although modems are relatively slow, they are inexpensive. Furthermore, dial-up accounts are inexpensive.
Although a modem can connect a computer to another computer without any true networking, it is used more often to connect to ISPs . An ISP is an “Internet Service Provider”. Although the connection to an ISP via a modem is a “point-to-point” connection, an ISP can forward traffic to the Internet.
The protocols used to connect a computer to an ISP via a modem is either PPP (point-to-point protocol) or SLIP (serial line internet protocol).
If you plan to connect to an ISP via a modem, you probably need to install custom software distributed by the ISP.
NIC
A NIC is a “network interface card”. For most computers, a NIC is usually a ethernet card, be it a 10Mbps original ethernet, a 100Mbps etherfast, or a 1Gbps giga ethernet card. Although a NIC can use a standard other than ethernet,most NICs are ethernet cards.
Unlike a modem, a NIC is designed to connect to multiple computers in a LAN (local area network). This makes a NIC useful even if there is no connection to the Internet.
Uses of a Network
There are several uses of a network. For more information, you need to take a CISN class. However, I am presenting a short introduction here.
Windows share. This is a Microsoft protocol that allows computers share resources relatively easily. Resources that can be shared include folders, files, printers and even Internet connection.
To use Windows share, a computer needs to be configured with the following. First, it should have workgroup. Next, it should have a hostname. All computers in the same workgroup can easily share resources. A hostname uniquely identifies a computer in a workgroup.
TCP/IP.
This is an open-standard protocol that allows computers communicate with each other in various ways.
TCP/IP protocols include email, file transfer, remote command line access, hypertext transport, and etc.
To use TCP/IP, a computer needs to have several parameters configured. Most computers can be configured using DHCP (dynamic host configuration protocol).
Accessing Network Configuration
This is the “easy” way.
- ˆ Click “Start”
- ˆ Click “Control Panel”
- ˆ Double click “Network Setup Wizard”
- ˆ Let the wizard guide you through the process
- From time to time, we need to tweak parameters.
- ˆ Click “Start”
- ˆ Click “Control Panel”
- ˆ Double click “Network Connections”
- ˆ Right click on a network device, select “Properties”
You can select one of the items in the list titled “This connection uses the following items:”, and click “Properties” to find out more about it.
For example, to make sure TCP/IP is using DHCP for configuration, do the following:
- ˆ Click “Internet Protocol (TCP/IP)”
- ˆ Click “Properties”, this should open a dialog box for configuring TCP/IP properties
- ˆ In the “General” tab, select the radio button “Obtain and IP address automatically”
Peripherals
This section describes how you can view and possibly modify the “drivers” for hardware devices. Note that changing the driver of a device can, potentially, be dangerous. Most of the time, you do not need to manually change or install the driver software for a hardware device. Nonetheless, it is helpful to be able to view what Windows XP understands about the hardware devices in your computer.
How to get there:
- ˆ Click “Start”
- ˆ Click “Control Panel”
- ˆ Double click “System”
- ˆ Select the “Hardware” tab
- ˆ Click “Device Manager”
Once you get to the device manager, you can view the peripherals and other hardware in your system. You can click a square with a plus (+) symbol to expand it. On a particular device, right click, then select “Properties” to see it details.
Device Properties
Most devices have three tabs in the properties view. The “General” tab provides general information about a device,with a button titled “Troubleshoot” to guide you through a trouble shooting process for that device.
The “Advanced Settings” tab is available for some devices, such as the IDE controller. It lets you specify “parameters” for a device. This tab is missing for devices that do not have parameters to tweak.
The “Driver” tab lets you view details of a driver. This can be helpful if you want to know what files are installed for a particular device.
- ˆ The “Update Driver” button allows you to update the driver for a device. This is helpful when you download (or otherwise acquire) an updated driver for a device.
- ˆ Click “Roll Back Driver” when a updated driver does not work.
- ˆ “Uninstall” is an option for non-critical devices so that you can uninstall the driver software for a device. If you do so, Windows XP will recognize the device as “new hardware” and attempt to find the proper driver for it after a restart.
The “Details” tab is available for devices that have special properties (for viewing).
The “Resources” tab is available for devices that have the flexibility of using different I/O (input/output) location ranges and/or interrupt vectors.
A device may have other tabs in the Properties dialog box that are specific that a kind of device. For example, a DVD device has a special tab “DVD Region” for selecting the region, and also a “Volumes” tab to display information
of the disk currently in the drive.
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