How can I get a list of all the connected USB devices on a windows computer?
Enter the following command: Get-PnpDevice -PresentOnly | Where-Object { $_. InstanceId -match '^USB' } . That command will show a list of all present USB devices.
Open "System Profiler." The System Profiler window will open and display on-screen. Click on "USB" in the left pane under Hardware. Review the list of USB ports in the top pane to determine whether your computer contains any USB 2.0 ports. Each USB port will be labeled specifically as "USB 1.0," USB 2.0," or "USB 3.0."
Add a reference to System.Management for your project, then try something like this:
namespace ConsoleApplication1
{
using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Management; // need to add System.Management to your project references.
class Program
{
static void Main(string[] args)
{
var usbDevices = GetUSBDevices();
foreach (var usbDevice in usbDevices)
{
Console.WriteLine("Device ID: {0}, PNP Device ID: {1}, Description: {2}",
usbDevice.DeviceID, usbDevice.PnpDeviceID, usbDevice.Description);
}
Console.Read();
}
static List<USBDeviceInfo> GetUSBDevices()
{
List<USBDeviceInfo> devices = new List<USBDeviceInfo>();
ManagementObjectCollection collection;
using (var searcher = new ManagementObjectSearcher(@"Select * From Win32_USBHub"))
collection = searcher.Get();
foreach (var device in collection)
{
devices.Add(new USBDeviceInfo(
(string)device.GetPropertyValue("DeviceID"),
(string)device.GetPropertyValue("PNPDeviceID"),
(string)device.GetPropertyValue("Description")
));
}
collection.Dispose();
return devices;
}
}
class USBDeviceInfo
{
public USBDeviceInfo(string deviceID, string pnpDeviceID, string description)
{
this.DeviceID = deviceID;
this.PnpDeviceID = pnpDeviceID;
this.Description = description;
}
public string DeviceID { get; private set; }
public string PnpDeviceID { get; private set; }
public string Description { get; private set; }
}
}
I know I'm replying to an old question, but I just went through this same exercise and found out a bit more information, that I think will contribute a lot to the discussion and help out anyone else who finds this question and sees where the existing answers fall short.
The accepted answer is close, and can be corrected using Nedko's comment to it. A more detailed understanding of the WMI Classes involved helps complete the picture.
Win32_USBHub
returns only USB Hubs. That seems obvious in hindsight but the discussion above misses it. It does not include all possible USB devices, only those which can (in theory, at least) act as a hub for additional devices. It misses some devices that are not hubs (particularly parts of composite devices).
Win32_PnPEntity
does include all the USB devices, and hundreds more non-USB devices. Russel Gantman's advice to use a WHERE clause search Win32_PnPEntity
for a DeviceID beginning with "USB%" to filter the list is helpful but slightly incomplete; it misses bluetooth devices, some printers/print servers, and HID-compliant mice and keyboards. I have seen "USB\%", "USBSTOR\%", "USBPRINT\%", "BTH\%", "SWD\%", and "HID\%". Win32_PnPEntity
is, however, a good "master" reference to look up information once you are in possession of the PNPDeviceID from other sources.
What I found was the best way to enumerate USB devices was to query Win32_USBControllerDevice
. While it doesn't give detailed information for the devices, it does completely enumerate your USB devices and gives you an Antecedent/Dependent pair of PNPDeviceID
s for every USB Device (including Hubs, non-Hub devices, and HID-compliant devices) on your system. Each Dependent returned from the query will be a USB Device. The Antecedent will be the Controller it is assigned to, one of the USB Controllers returned by querying Win32_USBController
.
As a bonus, it appears that under the hood, WMI walks the Device Tree when responding to the Win32_USBControllerDevice
query, so the order in which these results are returned can help identify parent/child relationships. (This is not documented and is thus only a guess; use the SetupDi API's CM_Get_Parent (or Child + Sibling) for definitive results.) As an option to the SetupDi API, it appears that for all the devices listed under Win32_USBHub
they can be looked up in the registry (at HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Enum\ + PNPDeviceID
) and will have a parameter ParentIdPrefix
which will be the prefix of the last field in the PNPDeviceID of its children, so this could also be used in a wildcard match to filter the Win32_PnPEntity
query.
In my application, I did the following:
Win32_PnPEntity
and stored the results in a key-value map (with PNPDeviceID as the key) for later retrieval. This is optional if you want to do individual queries later.Win32_USBControllerDevice
for a definitive list of USB devices on my system (all the Dependents) and extracted the PNPDeviceIDs of these. I went further, based on order following the device tree, to assign devices to the root hub (the first device returned, rather than the controller) and built a tree based on the parentIdPrefix. The order the query returns, which matches device tree enumeration via SetupDi, is each root hub (for whom the Antecedent identifies the controller), followed by an iteration of devices under it, e.g., on my system:
Win32_USBController
. This gave me the detailed information of the PNPDeviceIDs of my controllers which are at the top of the device tree (which were the Antecedents of the previous query). Using the tree derived in the previous step, recursively iterated over its children (the root hubs) and their children (the other hubs) and their children (non-hub devices and composite devices) and their children, etc.
Win32_PnPEntity
individually using the PNPDeviceId to get the information at this step; probably a cpu vs. memory tradeoff determining which order is better.)In summary, Win32USBControllerDevice
Dependents are a complete list of USB Devices on a system (other than the Controllers themselves, which are the Antecedents in that same query), and by cross-referencing these PNPDeviceId
pairs with information from the registry and from the other queries mentioned, a detailed picture can be constructed.
If you love us? You can donate to us via Paypal or buy me a coffee so we can maintain and grow! Thank you!
Donate Us With