How to view the list of connected USB devices in Windows 10

If you need to know which devices are connected via USB in Windows 10 or earlier versions of the system, Device Manager is not the most convenient tool for this, but there are third-party utilities that allow you to quickly obtain a list of all those devices: both external as "internal" connected by you that use the same interface (for example, the touchpad, the camera, the card reader of your laptop).

In this review on two simple utilities to get a list of USB devices from your computer in Windows 10, 8.1 or Windows 7 - both programs are free and from the same developer. These same tools can also be useful to solve some common problems, for example, to find out the cause of your device's constant sound when disconnecting and connecting.

USBDeview

The first of the programs is USBDeview, available for download on the official website https://www.nirsoft.net/utils/usb_devices_view.html (there is a file in Russian for the program on the same page, just copy it in the folder with the executable file of the program).

USBDeview does not require installation on your computer: just unzip the file to a convenient location and run the utility.

1. Immediately after launch, you will see a list of all the USB devices detected in the system (not only the ones that are currently connected, but also the ones that were previously connected to the computer), with the currently active ones highlighted in green.
2. By double-clicking on any of the devices, you can get detailed information about it: the driver used, the date of the first connection, the path to the device instance, etc.
3. By opening the contextual menu of the device, additional actions can be performed: for example, deactivate its connection in the future, change the drive letter if it is a disk drive, open the registry section where the parameters of this device are set.

In addition, the program supports exporting the list of selected devices, restarting the USB hub (can be useful for solving problems with a connected device), and quick access to the device properties window in Windows Device Manager.

USB Drive Log

NirSoft's USBDriveLog is available for download at https://www.nirsoft.net/utils/usb_drive_log.html, there you will also find a file with the interface language in Russian, its use is the same as the previous program.

Unlike USBDeview, USBDriveLog only shows USB storage devices: memory drives and external hard drives or SSDs, both currently connected and previously connected to this computer or laptop.

By double clicking on any unit, you can get more detailed information, such as the date and time of connection and disconnection.

The utility is simpler than the previous one, but it can also be useful. Unfortunately, you cannot remove previously connected devices, but there are other tools for this, as described in What to do if the computer cannot see the flash drive.

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