USBDeview

Pros

• Freeware
• Detailed USB information
• Not limited to connected devices

Cons

• Report export options limited

USBDeview is a small Windows utility that enumerates all connected and known USB devices.

USBDeview is used as freeware and is provided as is. Windows support ranges from Windows XP all the way up to Windows 10. Windows 98/SE/ME are therefore not supported. Both 32-bit and 64-bit editions of all supported operating systems are also supported. Note that there are 32-bit and 64-bit editions of this program, and while you can use the 32-bit version on a 64-bit system for the most part, you will only be able to enable and disable USB items on a 64-bit system with the 64-bit version of this software.

USBDeview does not require installation. It also does not require additional DLLs or other files. This means that you can have the 32-bit and 64-bit executables on a USB flash drive and use them as appropriate. The purpose of this program is to enumerate USB devices and provide detailed information about those devices as well as be able to manipulate them in certain scenarios.

Note that USBDeview is not limited to devices that are connected. Windows stores a record of connected USB devices for future use. As long as those records have not been deleted, then you can enumerate and retrieve information about any USB device ever connected to the system. It is possible for USBDeview to enumerate remote USB devices if that is facilitated by another program, such as USB over Ethernet, which is developed and maintained by NirSoft as well.

USBDeview provides a dozen data elements, which are represented in the UI as data columns. These include device name, device description, device type, connected, safe to unplug, drive letter, serial number, created date, last plug/unplug date, vendor ID/product ID, USB class/subclass/protocol and hub/port. Most of these columns are self-explanatory, and the UI is highly customizable so you can reorder them or hide any that are not relevant to you.

Note that the USB Version column is only enabled when the Retrieve USB Power/Version Information option in the settings is enabled, which it is by default. However, when this option is enabled, it can cause the program to hang when there is an incorrect, outdated or corrupted drive installed. The option can be disable using USBDeview.exe /RetrieveUSBPower 0 until the drive can be corrected.

USBDeview is a handy tool for many developers and IT professionals. It can also be useful to an end-user who has many USB devices connected and wants to enable and disable them all at once. This program can also dump that data it collects into a report, and our one gripe is that it only supports HTML, so if you need a different format, you will need to write an XML file or similar to do that.

Pros

• Freeware
• Detailed USB information
• Not limited to connected devices

Cons

• Report export options limited