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Is there any way, besides reading the product manual, to determine which type/class of USB ports are present in my computer casing?

Can this obtained by visual confirmation, reading the device properties or searching for a registry key? If not, how can I do so?

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3 Answers 3

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Visually speaking, USB 3 ports are typically blue, so you can easily differentiate them. They also have 2 extra pins.

It is impossible to differntiate versions 1.0, 1.1, and 2.0 from each other visually. However, a computer would have to be pretty old to have version 1 or 1.1 ports. I believe anything on a Pentium 4 or later would be v2 and up.

See the following image to see the difference between version 3, and what is most likely 2.

Also, yellow ports typically designate powered ports, which can be always on to charge your devices.

USB ports

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  • What do you mean by "extra pins"?
    – wizlog
    Sep 9, 2012 at 22:07
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    look below each of the blue tabs on the USB3 port in the picture. There are 2 pins which are not present in the USB2 ports. The "tab" in the USB2 ports are not pins, they are probably for grounding.
    – Keltari
    Sep 9, 2012 at 22:52
  • Actually USB 3.0 has several more connector. Picture here Keep in mind that some of these ports are bent/cut for a better view. But this shows how USB 3.0 adds 4 data ports to 2.0's 2 data ports, and another ground for better performance at higher speeds. Giving you a total of 9 pins and the Shell of the connector.
    – PsychoData
    Sep 24, 2013 at 17:41
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In device manager look for Extensible Host Controller Interface (xHCI) In Universal Serial Bus Controllers. If you have a usb 3.0 you'll have it, if not, not.

Here is an example of an Intel USB 3.0 controller in device manager

enter image description here

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  • when you plug-in a drive and it shows up in my computer as letter drive, is there a way to see which one of the host controllers is being used? so that one can verify that USB 3 is actually being used?
    – Joe
    Aug 23, 2022 at 18:04
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Similarly, in Device Manager (Windows 7 : Start --> Computer (right-click) --> Properties --> Device Manager) if you expand the Universal Serial Bus Controllers button you will see Enhanced Host Controller if you only have USB 2.0.

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