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Plug-and-Play The ability to add many devices to modern computers to expand their capabilities has become increasingly easier with the advances made in plug-and-play technology. As the administrator becomes more familiar with added devices and expansion cards, it becomes necessary to deal with resource conflicts that result from so many different non-standard devices on the market. Dealing with these issues can be a tremendously confusing, difficult and time-consuming task. In an attempt to resolve this ongoing problem, the Plug-and-Play (also called PnP) specification was developed. The goal of plug-and-play is to create a computer whose hardware and software work together to automatically configure devices and assign resources, while allowing for hardware changes and additions without the need for large-scale resource assignment tweaking. As the name suggests, the goal is to be able to just plug in a new device and immediately be able to use it, without complicated setup procedures. The plug-and-play concept was first introduced with the Windows 95 operating system. With the latest operating systems now being released, the ease of plug-and-play technology has advanced a great deal. Windows NT4.0 does not support plug-and-play. Only Windows 2000/XP, Windows 95 ORS2, Windows 98 and Windows Millennium support this feature. Drivers
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