Enumerate Devices

 Keywords: Enumerate List Device Manager Control Panel Windows 7

Question:

I would like to get a list of all of the devices listed in the Control Panels Device Manager on Windows 7.

Answer:

There are a number of possible approaches. The Device manager contains a ton of information about devices. If you know which type of device you are interested in it will help narrow down which option to use. WMI is probably your best bet.

WMI

Not sure if there is a direct relationship between Device manager nodes and WMI classes, but here likely some mappings:

 
	 Disk Drives node -> Win32_DiskDrive
	 Display Adapters node -> Win32_VideoController
	 DVD/CD-ROM drives node -> Win32_CDROMDrive
	 Floppy Disk Controllers node -> Win32_FloppyController
	 IDE ATA/ATAPI Controllers node -> Win32_IDEController
	 Keyboards node -> Win32_Keyboard
	 Mice and other pointing devices node -> Win32_PointingDevice
	 Modems node -> Win32_POTSModem
	 Monitors node -> Win32_DesktopMonitor
	 Network Adapters node -> Win32_NetworkAdapter
	 Ports (COM and LPT) node -> Win32_SerialPort and Win32_ParallelPort
	 Processors node -> Win32_Processor
	 SCSI and RAID Controllers node -> Win32_SCSIController
	 Universal Serial Bus controllers -> Win32_USBController and Win32_USBHub

For System Devices node, it looks like it is populated mostly from Win32_PnPEntity, but not all Win32_PnPEntity instances are present in this node (maybe only those that don't have associations with any of the above WMI classes)?

For Network adapters node in Device Manager, it seems that only those instances of Win32_NetworkAdapter where NetConnectionStatus property is not null are displayed.

Reference: WMI_Scripter

DevCon

DevCon (Devcon.exe), the Device Console, is a command-line tool that displays detailed information about devices. Using DevCon, you can search for and manipulate devices from the command line. DevCon enables, disables, installs, configures, and removes devices on the local computer and displays detailed information about devices on local and remote computers.
Reference: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/hardware/ff544707(v=vs.85).aspx

MSInfo32.exe

MSINFO32 displays a comprehensive view of your hardware, system components, and software environment. The follwoing Microsoft article contains an overview of the available switches that can be used with the MSINFO32 command in Windows 7, in Windows Vista, and in Windows XP.

Reference: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/300887

	tmpfile = 'c:\temp\devicelist.txt'
	sCmd ='msinfo32.exe'
	sParam = '/categories +components /report "' : tmpfile : '"'
	Run( sCmd, sParam )
	WinWaitClose( '~Information' , 60)
	Run( tmpfile, '' )
	exit

Article ID:   W17925

Filename:   Enumerate Devices.txt

File Created: 2014:07:18:09:51:38

Last Updated: 2014:07:18:09:51:38

	Backups
	Ctrl Alt Del Issues
	Determine Platform - OS
	Get EXE Name
	Get Machine Name - Workstation
	Icons
	Reboot Issues
	Recycle Bin
	Resource Lock
	System Information
	User Profiles

Database Search

TechHome