
The hardware manufacturer in this example is NVidia, which is identified by VEN_10DE. The reason this is done is to allow a device driver to be selected based on a match to any of these hardware identifiers. The top one is the most specific identifier, and going down, the identifiers are more generic. Now select the Hardware Ids in the dropdown list.Īs you can see in the screen shot, there can be multiple hardware ids for a device.In the Device Manager, right-click the device, and select Properties in the popup menu.

You can also type “devmgmt.msc” at the Run option in the Start menu (or menu Search option for Windows 7 and newer). Open the Device Manager from the Control Panel.To check the hardware id for a device, follow these steps: The hardware id for a device in Windows can be found in the Windows Device Manager. This can tell you which manufacturer made the device and help you find a device driver. So when you are looking for a device driver for a piece of hardware, it is useful to know the hardware id of the device. In some cases additional sub-system identifiers and revision information is included to distinguish between variations of a device. The hardware identifier is a combination of the bus type, the hardware manufacturer (or vendor) and the device identifier. You can check the hardware ID for a device to locate a driver for it. In Windows this generally means that a device driver for the hardware is installed.

This allows operating systems to recognize them and install the necessary software for them. How to Check the Hardware ID for a Windows DeviceĪll hardware equipment uses an identifier to uniquely identify itself.
