The DevCon utility acts as a command-line version of Device Manager. Using DevCon, you can enable, disable, restart, update, remove, and query individual devices or groups of devices.  However, because this utility is not part of the operating system many people have had trouble locating the correct version for each OS architecture.

DevCon started life as a sample in the Windows Driver Development Kit.  The first compiled sample for administrator use was provided in Microsoft Knowledge Base article 311272.  However, I recommend that use use the newest versions which are provided in the Windows Server 2003 Service Pack 2 Support Tools.

• The x86 version can be found in the Windows Server 2003 Service Pack 2 32-bit Support Tools: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=96A35011-FD83-419D-939B-9A772EA2DF90
• The x64 version can be found in the Support Tools on the Windows Server 2003 Service Pack 2, x64 Editions ISO image file (in the \Support\Tools folder): http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=8A6EBFB5-833D-44E2-BF92-44648A8BB250
• The Itanium (IA-64) version can be found in the Support Tools on the Windows Server 2003 Service Pack 2 for Itanium-based Systems ISO image file (in the \Support\Tools folder): http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=803F39EA-50AC-43CA-B564-75C5C080E471

You can extract devcon.exe for each platform from support.cab in each case.

If you need help with using DevCon, here are a few sources of information:

• Devcon Overview
  http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc737393(WS.10).aspx
• DEVCON - Command Line Utility Alternative to Device Manager
  http://www.robvanderwoude.com/devcon.php
• The DevCon command-line utility functions as an alternative to Device Manager
  http://support.microsoft.com/?id=311272

 

Disclaimer: The information on this site is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, confers no rights, and is not supported by the authors or Microsoft Corporation. Use of included script samples are subject to the terms specified in the Terms of Use.

This post was contributed by Michael Murgolo, a Senior Consultant with Microsoft Services - U.S. East Region.