Windows 7 and Hardware Profiles

[devnulllore]

Hi,

On a slightly older PC I own with Windows 7 sp1 x64 Ultimate on it, I aqm finding I need to setup seperate

hardware profiles as we could in XP. Is this option gone in Windows 7? I do not see any way of doing this.

Perhaps thee is a way I am just not seeing?

Any help would be appreciated.

[Fraud OS 11]

Hardware profiles were removed in Windows Vista. They were designed originally for laptop use with docking stations but people found hardware profiles very useful for general use too. Unfortunately, they are gone. You can use DevCon which is the command line version of Device Manager.

[Fraud OS 11]

Edit: Btw the DevCon.exe in that article is outdated. Doesn't work properly with Windows 7, nor is there an x64 version. Download the latest Windows Driver Kit 7.1.0 to get the latest DevCon if you really need it or Google it. ;)

[devnulllore]

Ok, I will take hard look at that. While we are on the subject, is there any similar use to just making a separate profile? I did notice, however, that if I disable services in the new profile it copies over those changes to the default profile which is not acceptable for this project.

Thanks all,

[Fraud OS 11]

IMO hardware profiles were useful as long as you could select them at boot. Windows Vista removed that. Technically, they still exist. To quote from here: https://forums.virtualbox.org/viewtopic.php?t=9697,

" Although hardware profiles are still used in Vista they are hidden from the user, i.e. there is neither an option to create a new one nor the possibility to choose a hardware profile when booting. It is however possible to manually create a second profile by editing the registry.

?Creation

a.Export the active hardware profile: HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Hardware Profiles\Current

b.Open the exported .reg file with an editor and replace all occurences of \Current\ with \000X\ (where X is the next available number - check HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Hardware Profiles.) Then import the modified .reg file.

c.Export the following key for the active hardware profile: HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\IDConfigDB\AcpiAlias\000a (where a denotes the active profile - HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\IDConfigDB\CurrentConfig will tell you which one is active.)

d.Edit the exported .reg file, replacing 000a with 000X (just as above) and import the changes back.

e.Export the profile summary: HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\IDConfigDB\000a

f.Again edit and replace all occurences of 000a with 000X. Subsequently modify the last digit of HwProfileGuid in your exported .reg.

?Warning: The new HwProfileGuid has to be unique. To check this do a search for it in the registry first.

?Note: You can also change the FriendlyName value to e.g. "Native Profile".

Once this is done re-import the modified profile summary.

g.After rebooting Vista should be aware of your new profile: You can check via Services->[Any Service]->Properties->Log On which should now also show your new profile."

Is that useful to you? Like you said, they also exist in the Services.msc console but personally I don't see what one can do with this because you can no longer select a set of hardware configuration at startup.

[+BudMan MVC]

"finding I need to setup seperate hardware profiles"

What exactly are you trying to accomplish? There are always plenty was of skinning a cat, because you feel the older hardware profiles feature would accomplish what you seek. Does not mean there are not newer or alternative ways to accomplish your goal.

[devnulllore]

"finding I need to setup seperate hardware profiles"

What exactly are you trying to accomplish? There are always plenty was of skinning a cat, because you feel the older hardware profiles feature would accomplish what you seek. Does not mean there are not newer or alternative ways to accomplish your goal.

Absolutely! Exactly what I am looking for since they took hardware profiles out. My goal is to create an environment which is stripped down to absolute basics in order to run/give my games full run of the PC's resources. I cannot explain it better than that BudMan. If you remember hardware profiles you know exactly what I mean. If you know any programs or options to do this PLEASE let me know in detail. You are my savior. If you can't do it I give up!

Thanks Again!

IMO hardware profiles were useful as long as you could select them at boot. Windows Vista removed that. Technically, they still exist. To quote from here: https://forums.virtu...opic.php?t=9697,

" Although hardware profiles are still used in Vista they are hidden from the user, i.e. there is neither an option to create a new one nor the possibility to choose a hardware profile when booting. It is however possible to manually create a second profile by editing the registry.

?Creation

a.Export the active hardware profile: HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Hardware Profiles\Current

b.Open the exported .reg file with an editor and replace all occurences of \Current\ with \000X\ (where X is the next available number - check HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Hardware Profiles.) Then import the modified .reg file.

c.Export the following key for the active hardware profile: HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\IDConfigDB\AcpiAlias\000a (where a denotes the active profile - HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\IDConfigDB\CurrentConfig will tell you which one is active.)

d.Edit the exported .reg file, replacing 000a with 000X (just as above) and import the changes back.

e.Export the profile summary: HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\IDConfigDB\000a

f.Again edit and replace all occurences of 000a with 000X. Subsequently modify the last digit of HwProfileGuid in your exported .reg.

?Warning: The new HwProfileGuid has to be unique. To check this do a search for it in the registry first.

?Note: You can also change the FriendlyName value to e.g. "Native Profile".

Once this is done re-import the modified profile summary.

g.After rebooting Vista should be aware of your new profile: You can check via Services->[Any Service]->Properties->Log On which should now also show your new profile."

Is that useful to you? Like you said, they also exist in the Services.msc console but personally I don't see what one can do with this because you can no longer select a set of hardware configuration at startup.

I will check this out.

Thanks,

[+BudMan MVC]

So you want to disable services to play games? For one the small amount of resources you free up I find it unlikely would make any significant changes in game performance.

What hardware would you want to disable that you feel would give your machine more resources for the game?

I think you going down the wrong path to be honest.

But I think you can do what you want with this http://alacritypc.kensalter.com/

What is AlacrityPC? AlacrityPC allows you to get the most from your Windows PC by shutting down unnecessary services and programs before you run a resource intensive application like a game. When you finish with the application, AlacrityPC can automatically restart those services and programs, returning your PC back to its original state.

Here is some more info about turning off things with devcon, etc. And use of that profile on windows 7

http://www.gearslutz.com/board/music-computers/683774-finally-demand-hardware-services-profile-management-windows-7-a.html

[devnulllore]

So you want to disable services to play games? For one the small amount of resources you free up I find it unlikely would make any significant changes in game performance.

What hardware would you want to disable that you feel would give your machine more resources for the game?

I think you going down the wrong path to be honest.

But I think you can do what you want with this http://alacritypc.kensalter.com/

What is AlacrityPC? AlacrityPC allows you to get the most from your Windows PC by shutting down unnecessary services and programs before you run a resource intensive application like a game. When you finish with the application, AlacrityPC can automatically restart those services and programs, returning your PC back to its original state.

Here is some more info about turning off things with devcon, etc. And use of that profile on windows 7

http://www.gearslutz...indows-7-a.html

Thank you so much for the info!

As always, you rock!

[+BudMan MVC]

No problem - hope it works out for you. I personally don't see it as of much use. But hey have fun with it. And let us know how it turns out. Would really be interested in say some game benchmarks show the advantages if any.