What does this Device Manager icon mean?

During the process of troubleshooting a printer problem, you notice that the printer port’s icon inside of Device Manager has a red “X” on the icon. What does this red “X” signify?

A) The drivers for the device were not properly loaded

B) The device requires a reboot before it will work properly

C) The device is waiting for administrator access before it can continue

D) The device has been disabled

The answer: D) The device has been disabled

The icons inside Device Manager can visually inform you about the device’s status. A yellow exclamation mark means the device is not working properly, and a red “X” signifies a device that has been disabled. Devices that do not have any special icons are working normally.

Want to know more? Watch “Working with Device Drivers.” If you’re going to troubleshoot hardware, you’ll certainly be working with device drivers in Windows’ Device Manager. In this video, we’ll discuss the importance of device drivers and interactively walk you through the installation, troubleshooting, and uninstall of device drivers in Windows XP.