Plug and Play Technical Reference

Applies To: Windows Server 2003, Windows Server 2003 R2, Windows Server 2003 with SP1, Windows Server 2003 with SP2

Plug and Play technology provides a combination of hardware and software support that enables applications and the system to recognize and adapt to changes in hardware configuration. With Plug and Play in Microsoft Windows Server 2003, you can add devices while the system is in use and leave the job of configuring and starting the hardware to the operating system.

In order to use Plug and Play to install new devices without user intervention, the computer hardware, the device drivers, and the BIOS must be compliant with Plug and Play specifications. If any of these components are not designed to support Plug and Play, devices can still be added to a computer, but they must be manually configured to work properly.

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