In recent years, laptops have evolved to have docking stations. The use of this gives more flexibility, more function, more ports when at the office. Our Fujitsu laptop at the office have a LAN Dock II which not only makes it easy to connect back, but also adds greater desktop functionality. This allows instant access to more devices like larger keyboard, mice, and monitors and the possibility of having a network connection.

Windows operating system have a facility to define hardware profiles, to make it easier for user to select hardware that is available when the laptop is docked versus when it is undocked. Starting up a computer that have missing devices will tend to be slow. The same applies to a computer that have more devices as the system will need to load the device drivers.

A user can create multiple hardware profiles depending on the need. One can create for example profile named “docked” and another “undocked”. Each profile can then specify the available hardware in it. A menu will be displayed everytime Windows starts. The relevant profile can then be loaded depending on the hardware devices attached.

Fewer device driver to be loaded means faster Windows start up. Never be bothered by missing device drivers create custom hardware profiles.