How to retrieve additional properties for a device or PnP object (HTML)

Describes how to get additional device properties from a DeviceInformation or PnpObject.

Specifying additional properties

By default, findAllAsync and createWatcher return DeviceInformation objects that have the following properties:

Property	Canonical name
Id	Not applicable. This property is the identity of the object.
Name	System.ItemNameDisplay
IsDefault	System.Devices.IsDefault
IsEnabled	System.Devices.InterfaceEnabled
EnclosureLocation	System.Devices.PhysicalDeviceLocation

 

You can use the overloaded forms of the findAllAsync and createWatcher methods that are available on the DeviceInformation and PnpObject classes. You can specify additional properties to include in the results by using the additionalProperties parameter, as follows.

// Create a set of two additional properties.
    var propertiesToRetrieve = new Array();
    propertiesToRetrieve.push("System.Devices.InterfaceClassGuid");
    propertiesToRetrieve.push("System.Devices.ContainerId");

    Windows.Devices.Enumeration.findAllAsync(selectorString, 
             propertiesToRetrieve).then(successCallback, errorCallback);)

// Handles successful completion of the findAllAsync method.
function successCallback(deviceInformationCollection) {
    var numDevices = deviceInformationCollection.length;
    if (numDevices) {
        for (var i = 0; i < numDevices; i++) {
            printProperties(document.getElementById("log"),
                 deviceInformationCollection[i].properties);
        }
    } 
}

// Handles an error completion of the findAllAsync method.
function errorCallback(e) {
    document.getElementById("statusMessage").innerHTML = 
        "Failed to find devices, error: " + e.message;
}

function printProperties(log, prop) {
    log.innerHTML += "property store count is: " + prop.size;
    var pt = prop.first();
    while (pt.hasCurrent) {
        log.innerHTML += "<br />" + pt.current.key + " := " + pt.current.value;
        pt.moveNext();
    }
    log.innerHTML += "<br />";
}

List of canonical properties

If a property value is not associated with a particular device interface, it may be associated with the device that the interface is part of, or the device container object that represents the visible aspects of a device hardware product, such as manufacturer or model name. The following are lists of property names for device interfaces, devices, and device containers. See Retrieving related PnP objects to learn how to navigate between object types.

Device interface properties

Name	Property	Description
System.Devices.ContainerId	DEVPKEY_Device_ContainerId	The ID of the device interface's container.
System.Devices.DeviceInstanceId	DEVPKEY_Device_InstanceId	The device instance ID of the device that this interface belongs to.
System.Devices.InterfaceClassGuid	DEVPKEY_DeviceInterface_ClassGuid	Class GUID of the interface.
System.Devices.InterfaceEnabled	DEVPKEY_DeviceInterface_Enabled	Indicates whether the interface is enabled.
System.ItemNameDisplay	DEVPKEY_NAME	The friendly name of the device interface.
System.Storage.IsMediaRemovable	DEVPKEY_Storage_Removable_Media	Indicates whether the volume's media is removable.
System.Storage.IsPortable	DEVPKEY_Storage_Portable	Indicates whether the storage stack considers the storage as portable.

 

Device properties

Name	Property	Description
System.Devices.Children	DEVPKEY_Device_Children	The device instance IDs of the children. Queried live from kernel state.
System.Devices.CompatibleIds	DEVPKEY_Device_CompatibleIds	This property is a multi-sz string value that contains the list of compatible IDs for the device.
System.Devices.ContainerId	DEVPKEY_Device_ContainerId	The ID of the device's container.
System.Devices.DeviceCapabilities	DEVPKEY_Device_Capabilities	This property is a DWORD value that contains a bitwise OR of a device’s capabilities. These capabilities are represented by CM_DEVCAP_Xxxxx bit masks that are defined in cfgmgr32.h.
System.Devices.DeviceCharacteristics	DEVPKEY_Device_Characteristics	This property is a DWORD value that contains a bitwise OR of a device’s characteristics. For a description of these flags, which are defined in wdm.h and ntddk.h, see the IoCreateDevice function’s DeviceCharacteristics parameter.
System.Devices.DeviceHasProblem	DEVPKEY_Device_HasProblem	This property is queried live from kernel state.
System.Devices.DeviceInstanceId	DEVPKEY_Device_InstanceId	The device instance ID.
System.Devices.HardwareIds	DEVPKEY_Device_HardwareIds	This property is a multi-sz string value that contains the list of hardware IDs for the device.
System.Devices.InLocalMachineContainer	DEVPKEY_Device_InLocalMachineContainerr	Indicates whether the devnode is in the computer's container.
System.ItemNameDisplay	DEVPKEY_NAME	The name of the device instance.

 

Container properties

Name	Property and Description
System.ItemNameDisplay	PKEY_NAME - Name of the container.
System.Devices.DiscoveryMethod	DEVPKEY_DeviceContainer_DiscoveryMethod - List of device discovery methods.
System.Devices.Connected	DEVPKEY_DeviceContainer_IsConnected - Indicates if the device is connected.
System.Devices.Paired	DEVPKEY_DeviceContainer_IsPaired - Indicates if the device is paired.
System.Devices.Icon	DEVPKEY_DeviceContainer_Icon - Path to the device icon.
System.Devices.LocalMachine	DEVPKEY_DeviceContainer_IsLocalMachine - Whether this container represents the local machine (PC) or not.
System.Devices.MetadataPath	DEVPKEY_DeviceContainer_MetadataPath - Path to device metadata.
System.Devices.LaunchDeviceStageFromExplorer	DEVPKEY_DeviceContainer_LaunchDeviceStageFromExlplorer - Whether to launch Device Stage from Windows Explorer.
System.Devices.DeviceDescription1	DEVPKEY_DeviceContainer_DeviceDescription1 - Device description.
System.Devices.DeviceDescription2	DEVPKEY_DeviceContainer_DeviceDescription2 - Device description.
System.Devices.NotWorkingProperly	DEVPKEY_DeviceContainer_HasProblem - Whether the container has a problem or not. TRUE if any present device in the container has DEVPKEY_DEVICE_HasProblem set to TRUE.
System.Devices.IsShared	DEVPKEY_DeviceContainer_IsSharedDevice - Whether the device is shared.
System.Devices.IsNetworkConnected	DEVPKEY_DeviceContainer_IsNetworkDevice - Whether the device is network connected.
System.Devices.IsDefault	DEVPKEY_DeviceContainer_IsDefaultDevice - Whether the device is the default device.
System.Devices.Category	DEVPKEY_DeviceContainer_Category_Desc_Singular - Device category (singular).
System.Devices.CategoryPlural	DEVPKEY_DeviceContainer_Category_Desc_Singular - Device category (plural).
System.Devices.CategoryGroup	DEVPKEY_DeviceContainer_CategoryGroup_Desc - Device category group.
System.Devices.FriendlyName	DEVPKEY_DeviceContainer_FriendlyName - The friendly name.
System.Devices.Manufacturer	DEVPKEY_DeviceContainer_Manufacturer - The manufacturer name.
System.Devices.ModelName	DEVPKEY_DeviceContainer_ModelName - The model name.
System.Devices.ModelNumber	DEVPKEY_DeviceContainer_ModelNumber - The model number.

 

Specifying properties that don't have a canonical name

When a property doesn't have a canonical name specified, it can still be retrieved by specifying the key as a string of the form "{Guid} pid". For example, System.Devices.ContainerId can be specified as "{8C7ED206-3F8A-4827-B3AB-AE9E1FAEFC6C} 2".

Related topics

Concepts

System-Defined Device Properties

Unified Device Property Model