Title: List USB devices in C#

This program uses WMI (Windows Management Instrumentation) to query for USB devices. To use WMI, add a references to System.Management and add a using System.Management directive.

When it starts, this example uses the following code to list USB devices.

// Add a reference to System.Management. using System.Management; ... private void Form1_Load(object sender, EventArgs e) { ManagementObjectSearcher device_searcher = new ManagementObjectSearcher("SELECT * FROM Win32_USBHub"); foreach (ManagementObject usb_device in device_searcher.Get()) { ListViewItem new_item = lvwDevices.Items.Add( usb_device.Properties["DeviceID"].Value.ToString()); new_item.SubItems.Add( usb_device.Properties["PNPDeviceID"].Value.ToString()); new_item.SubItems.Add( usb_device.Properties["Description"].Value.ToString()); } }

This code creates a ManagementObjectSearcher to execute the WMI query SELECT * FROM Win32_USBHub. It then loops through the results displaying each USB device's plug and play ID and description.

For more information on the Win32_PnPEntity class, see its Microsoft web page.

Unfortunately I haven't figured out how to tell if a device is present and available for use. If you figure it out, post a comment below.

Download the example to experiment with it and to see additional details.