USBDeview

CNET Editors' review

by: CNET staff on September 12, 2010

Keeping track of your USB devices is easy with NirSoft's USBDeview. It's a small, free tool that lists all the USB devices currently attached to your PC as well as detailed information about each, including the device, manufacturer, model, serial number, VendorID and ProductID, and even the date and time the device was attached to your system. It even lists devices no longer attached to your system, plus the time they were removed.

We've made no secret of the fact that we just love tiny apps, especially when they're efficient and effective for their size. USBDeview certainly fits that description; at just over 65KB, it's like a leftover from the Age of Floppies, but its small size belies its large capabilities. This efficient utility is portable freeware that needs no installation; it runs as soon as you extract and click the program's zipped executable file, so it's easy to store on a flash drive or other device for use on any Windows PC. The user interface is a small but up-to-date Windows-style dialog with file menu, toolbar, and horizontally scrolling main display. As soon as we opened it, it displayed all our USB devices with pretty much all available information for each in a customizable list view that extended the full width of our wide-screen LCD when we maximized the view. The program even listed USB class, subclass, protocol, and hub or port for each device.

If you've ever had to troubleshoot a faulty USB device or connection, USBDeview's appeal will be obvious. But even if you just want to know what's hooked up to your system, and where and when, it's up to the job. We're quite impressed with how much this tool packs in such a small download.