Getting Serial Port Information

Question

I have some code that loads the serial ports into a combo-box        List lt String gt  tList   new List lt String gt            comboBoxComPort Items Clear          foreach  string s in SerialPort GetPortNames                   tList Add s                tList Sort         comboBoxComPort Items Add  Select COM port            comboBoxComPort Items AddRange tList ToArray          comboBoxComPort SelectedIndex   0    I would like to add the port descriptions  similar to what are shown for the COM ports in the Device Manager  to the list and sort the items in the list that are after index 0  solved  see above snippet    Does anyone have any suggestions for adding the port descriptions   I am using Microsoft Visual C  2008 Express Edition   NET 2 0    Any thoughts you may have would be appreciated   Thanks

User · Answer

Use following code snippet

It gives following output when executed.

serial port : Communications Port (COM1)
serial port : Communications Port (COM2)

Don't forget to add

using System;
using System.Management;
using System.Windows.Forms;

Also add reference to system.Management (by default it is not available)

C#

private void GetSerialPort()
{

    try
    {
        ManagementObjectSearcher searcher = 
            new ManagementObjectSearcher("root\\CIMV2", 
            "SELECT * FROM Win32_PnPEntity"); 

        foreach (ManagementObject queryObj in searcher.Get())
        {
            if (queryObj["Caption"].ToString().Contains("(COM"))
            {
                Console.WriteLine("serial port : {0}", queryObj["Caption"]);
            }

        }
    }
    catch (ManagementException e)
    {
        MessageBox.Show( e.Message);
    }

}

VB

  Private Sub GetAllSerialPortsName()
        Try
            Dim searcher As New ManagementObjectSearcher("root\CIMV2", "SELECT * FROM Win32_PnPEntity")
            For Each queryObj As ManagementObject In searcher.Get()
                If InStr(queryObj("Caption"), "(COM") > 0 Then
                    Console.WriteLine("serial port : {0}", queryObj("Caption"))
                End If
            Next
        Catch err As ManagementException
            MsgBox(err.Message)
        End Try
    End Sub

Update: You may also check for

if (queryObj["Caption"].ToString().StartsWith("serial port"))

instead of

if (queryObj["Caption"].ToString().Contains("(COM"))

User · Answer

I tried so many solutions on here that didn t work for me  only displaying some of the ports  But the following displayed All of them and their information           using  var searcher   new ManagementObjectSearcher  SELECT   FROM Win32 PnPEntity WHERE Caption like    COM                            var portnames   SerialPort GetPortNames                var ports   searcher Get   Cast lt ManagementBaseObject gt    ToList   Select p   gt  p  Caption   ToString                  var portList   portnames Select n   gt  n     -     ports FirstOrDefault s   gt  s Contains n    ToList                 foreach string s in portList                                Console WriteLine s

User · Answer

There is a post about this same issue on MSDN      Getting more information about a serial port in C       Hi Ravenb       We can t get the information through the SerialPort type  I don t know why you need this info in your application  However  there s a solved thread with the same question as you  You can check out the code there  and see if it can help you       If you have any further problem  please feel free to let me know       Best regards    Bruce Zhou   The link in that post goes to this one      How to get more info about port using System IO Ports SerialPort      You can probably get this info from a WMI query   Check out this tool to help you find the right code   Why would you care though   This is just a detail for a USB emulator  normal serial ports won t have this   A serial port is simply know by  COMx   nothing more

User · Answer

EDIT   Sorry  I zipped past your question too quick   I realize now that you re looking for a list with the port name   port description   I ve updated the code accordingly     Using System Management  you can query for all the ports  and all the information for each port  just like Device Manager      Sample code  make sure to add reference to System Management    using System  using System Management  using System Collections Generic  using System Linq  using System IO Ports           namespace ConsoleApplication1       class Program               static void Main string   args                        using  var searcher   new ManagementObjectSearcher                   SELECT   FROM WIN32 SerialPort                                  string   portnames   SerialPort GetPortNames                    var ports   searcher Get   Cast lt ManagementBaseObject gt    ToList                    var tList    from n in portnames                             join p in ports on n equals p  DeviceID   ToString                               select n     -     p  Caption    ToList                     tList ForEach Console WriteLine                                 pause program execution to review results                Console WriteLine  Press enter to exit                Console ReadLine                        More info here   http   msdn microsoft com en-us library aa394582 28VS 85 29 aspx

User · Answer

I combined previous answers and used structure of Win32 PnPEntity class which can be found found here  Got solution like this   using System Management  public static void Main          GetPortInformation       public string GetPortInformation                 ManagementClass processClass   new ManagementClass  Win32 PnPEntity            ManagementObjectCollection Ports   processClass GetInstances                       foreach  ManagementObject property in Ports                        var name   property GetPropertyValue  Name                               if  name    null  amp  amp  name ToString   Contains  USB    amp  amp  name ToString   Contains  COM                                  var portInfo   new SerialPortInfo property                     Thats all information i got from port                    Do whatever you want with this information                                 return string Empty          SerialPortInfo class   public class SerialPortInfo       public SerialPortInfo ManagementObject property                this Availability   property GetPropertyValue  Availability   as int     0          this Caption   property GetPropertyValue  Caption   as string    string Empty          this ClassGuid   property GetPropertyValue  ClassGuid   as string    string Empty          this CompatibleID   property GetPropertyValue  CompatibleID   as string      new string               this ConfigManagerErrorCode   property GetPropertyValue  ConfigManagerErrorCode   as int     0          this ConfigManagerUserConfig   property GetPropertyValue  ConfigManagerUserConfig   as bool     false          this CreationClassName   property GetPropertyValue  CreationClassName   as string    string Empty          this Description   property GetPropertyValue  Description   as string    string Empty          this DeviceID   property GetPropertyValue  DeviceID   as string    string Empty          this ErrorCleared   property GetPropertyValue  ErrorCleared   as bool     false          this ErrorDescription   property GetPropertyValue  ErrorDescription   as string    string Empty          this HardwareID   property GetPropertyValue  HardwareID   as string      new string                this InstallDate   property GetPropertyValue  InstallDate   as DateTime     DateTime MinValue          this LastErrorCode   property GetPropertyValue  LastErrorCode   as int     0          this Manufacturer   property GetPropertyValue  Manufacturer   as string    string Empty          this Name   property GetPropertyValue  Name   as string    string Empty          this PNPClass   property GetPropertyValue  PNPClass   as string    string Empty          this PNPDeviceID   property GetPropertyValue  PNPDeviceID   as string    string Empty          this PowerManagementCapabilities   property GetPropertyValue  PowerManagementCapabilities   as int      new int                this PowerManagementSupported   property GetPropertyValue  PowerManagementSupported   as bool     false          this Present   property GetPropertyValue  Present   as bool     false          this Service   property GetPropertyValue  Service   as string    string Empty          this Status   property GetPropertyValue  Status   as string    string Empty          this StatusInfo   property GetPropertyValue  StatusInfo   as int     0          this SystemCreationClassName   property GetPropertyValue  SystemCreationClassName   as string    string Empty          this SystemName   property GetPropertyValue  SystemName   as string    string Empty             int Availability      string Caption      string ClassGuid      string   CompatibleID      int ConfigManagerErrorCode      bool ConfigManagerUserConfig      string CreationClassName      string Description      string DeviceID      bool ErrorCleared      string ErrorDescription      string   HardwareID      DateTime InstallDate      int LastErrorCode      string Manufacturer      string Name      string PNPClass      string PNPDeviceID      int   PowerManagementCapabilities      bool PowerManagementSupported      bool Present      string Service      string Status      int StatusInfo      string SystemCreationClassName      string SystemName

User · Answer

I m not quite sure what you mean by  sorting the items after index 0   but if you just want to sort the array of strings returned by SerialPort GetPortNames    you can use Array Sort

User · Answer

None of the answers here satisfies my needs  The answer from Muno is wrong because it lists ONLY the USB ports  The answer from code4life is wrong because it lists all EXCEPT the USB ports   Nevertheless it has 44 up-votes     I have an EPSON printer simulation port on my computer which is not listed by any of the answers here  So I had to write my own solution  Additionally I want to display more information than just the caption string  I also need to separate the port name from the description  My code has been tested on Windows XP  Windows 7 and Windows 10  The Port Name  like  quot COM1 quot   must be read from the registry because WMI does not give this information for all COM ports  EPSON   If you use my code you do not need SerialPort GetPortNames   anymore  My function returns the same ports  but with additional details  Why did Microsoft not implement such a function into the framework   using System Management  using Microsoft Win32   using  ManagementClass i Entity   new ManagementClass  quot Win32 PnPEntity quot          foreach  ManagementObject i Inst in i Entity GetInstances                  Object o Guid   i Inst GetPropertyValue  quot ClassGuid quot            if  o Guid    null    o Guid ToString   ToUpper       quot  4D36E978-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318  quot               continue     Skip all devices except device class  quot PORTS quot           String s Caption    i Inst GetPropertyValue  quot Caption quot        ToString            String s Manufact   i Inst GetPropertyValue  quot Manufacturer quot   ToString            String s DeviceID   i Inst GetPropertyValue  quot PnpDeviceID quot    ToString            String s RegPath     quot HKEY LOCAL MACHINE  System  CurrentControlSet  Enum   quot    s DeviceID    quot   Device Parameters quot           String s PortName   Registry GetValue s RegPath   quot PortName quot    quot  quot   ToString             int s32 Pos   s Caption IndexOf  quot   COM quot            if  s32 Pos  gt  0     remove COM port from description             s Caption   s Caption Substring 0  s32 Pos            Console WriteLine  quot Port Name      quot    s PortName           Console WriteLine  quot Description    quot    s Caption           Console WriteLine  quot Manufacturer   quot    s Manufact           Console WriteLine  quot Device ID      quot    s DeviceID           Console WriteLine  quot ----------------------------------- quot             I tested the code with a lot of COM ports  This is the Console output  Port Name     COM29 Description   CDC Interface  Virtual COM Port  for USB Debug Manufacturer  GHI Electronics  LLC Device ID     USB VID 1B9F amp PID F003 amp MI 01 6 amp 3009671A amp 0 amp 0001 ----------------------------------- Port Name     COM28 Description   Teensy USB Serial Manufacturer  PJRC COM  LLC  Device ID     USB VID 16C0 amp PID 0483 1256310 ----------------------------------- Port Name     COM25 Description   USB-SERIAL CH340 Manufacturer  wch cn Device ID     USB VID 1A86 amp PID 7523 5 amp 2499667D amp 0 amp 3 ----------------------------------- Port Name     COM26 Description   Prolific USB-to-Serial Comm Port Manufacturer  Prolific Device ID     USB VID 067B amp PID 2303 5 amp 2499667D amp 0 amp 4 ----------------------------------- Port Name     COM1 Description   Comunications Port Manufacturer   Standard port types  Device ID     ACPI PNP0501 1 ----------------------------------- Port Name     COM999 Description   EPSON TM Virtual Port Driver Manufacturer  EPSON Device ID     ROOT PORTS 0000 ----------------------------------- Port Name     COM20 Description   EPSON COM Emulation USB Port Manufacturer  EPSON Device ID     ROOT PORTS 0001 ----------------------------------- Port Name     COM8 Description   Standard Serial over Bluetooth link Manufacturer  Microsoft Device ID     BTHENUM  00001101-0000-1000-8000-00805F9B34FB  LOCALMFG amp 000F 8 amp 3ADBDF90 amp 0 amp 001DA568988B C00000000 ----------------------------------- Port Name     COM9 Description   Standard Serial over Bluetooth link Manufacturer  Microsoft Device ID     BTHENUM  00001101-0000-1000-8000-00805F9B34FB  LOCALMFG amp 0000 8 amp 3ADBDF90 amp 0 amp 000000000000 00000002 ----------------------------------- Port Name     COM30 Description   Arduino Uno Manufacturer  Arduino LLC  www arduino cc  Device ID     USB VID 2341 amp PID 0001 74132343530351F03132 -----------------------------------  COM1 is a COM port on the mainboard  COM 8 and 9 are Buetooth COM ports  COM 25 and 26 are USB to RS232 adapters  COM 28 and 29 and 30 are Arduino-like boards  COM 20 and 999 are EPSON ports

User · Answer

this comboPortName Items AddRange       from qP in System IO Ports SerialPort GetPortNames        orderby System Text RegularExpressions Regex Replace qP      d        string Empty  PadLeft 6   0        select qP  ToArray

[c#] Getting Serial Port Information

Examples related to c#

Examples related to sorting

Examples related to combobox

Examples related to serial-port