14 DAY TRIAL // Installing an Operating System can prove to many PC users, but not only, to be a pain in the neck. And that is because in this neverending upgrade of hardware your OS, mostly if it is older, might lack information about your recently installed hardware. After completing the installation of your hardware, your OS will show in system tray a small icon that pops a menu about identifying this new device. If the device is known the OS will automatically install the driver for you (if you set it to do so), but if not, you will find yourself having to install the driver on your own. If you know what it is and mostly if you have an installation CD (that usually came with the device), it is very easy to solve this problem.
But a bigger problem appears when clean installing your OS and, as it usually happens with Windows, you have several Unknown devices and you just cannot tell which one is which. You might try installing the drivers by chance but it is wrong first because that device will surely not work properly and second because you cannot always rely on a perfect Roll Back or Uninstall and this is because, as in most software situations, you will be stuck with some Registry leftovers and after eventually installing the right driver, that device still might not work properly. So in this unfortunate situation it is definitely best to reinstall your operating system all over again.
You might ask what should you do to handle this situation by the book. As Windows doesn't provide a satisfying solution to this problem there are three more options left. First one is to attach each device at a time, but this surely takes time and in our speeding world "time is money". Second option is to run the installation CD that comes with each device (at least it should), and hope it will be able to find and install the Unknown device but this is risky too because in the case of the "wow" OS (Windows Vista), some applications are not supported and you have to look (most probably) over the Internet to find a driver that suits your needs. But how to search if you don't know for what. So the third most reliable option is here to help you with all this hard time.
Unknown Devices is an application that can solve this real issue by providing the name or/and type of device that your OS was unable to recognize. The good thing about this program is that it doesn't need to be installed on your computer, so it can successfully work from any removable devices (if they are previously installed) or from a CD/DVD disk. You will easily get used to its main window because it looks just like Device Manager but with only one difference and that is you won't find any Unknown Device phrase except for the Tile Bar.
The application proves to have answers for a lot of devices of all types starting from the usual Ethernet hardware, which we all know this is the only door to the Internet, Display adapters, the "pass cards" to our video entertainment, Audio devices which link the audio files to our ears, to TV tuners, our cable to PC connection and Wireless adapters which provide us safety and mobility.
This handy software comes with a large database of more than 20000 names of devices and the best part is that it was built with information from the common users. The application is able to recognize several types of devices such as PCI (Peripheral Component Interconnect), AGP (Accelerated Graphics Port), PCI Express (an improved technology that replaces PCI and AGP slots), and SLI (Scan Line Interleave - Voodoo, Scalable Link Interface - NVIDIA) capable graphic cards.
The program has also some other options that will help you through solving the device problems and you can choose between Show All/Unknown present Only form the List menu, the Search Web For Device and it will Google search the selected device, it can Lookup Hardware ID in the Tools menu and Redetect in Debug mode.
The application doesn't support ISA(Industry Standard Architecture) based devices used on older motherboards (Windows Vista supports only, but not as default, ISA Plug'n'Play) and PCMCIA (Personal Computer Memory Card International Association) cards that are older versions of ExpressCards used for laptops. The newer generation of laptops come equipped only for USB and Firewire connection devices.
The Good
Unknown Devices is a helpful application which comes to replace the sometimes incapable Device Manager and provide you essential information about an unrecognized device. It has a large database that can easily be updated from the developers web site.
The Bad
The application lacks the knowledge for ISA and PCMCIA devices and because it searches the registries for the unknown hardware it is possible to find some devices that are no longer attached to your computer.
The Truth
It's a reliable application, with a large database filled with hardware names and it helps which helps you with finding unknown devices and drivers for them so you can fully benefit from your hardware configuration.
Here are some snapshots of the application in action:
