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Is there a way to find the last-added USB device in Windows (perhaps something like "dmesg" for Windows)?

I'm plugging the USB device in, and it makes the sound of connection, but when I check Device Manager -- it's not there (where I think it should be), nor is there any notification of malfunctioning devices.

I've tried looking through similar and neighboring categories in Device Manager, but I can't find the thing.

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2 Answers 2

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Try this.

In order to determine the last time the device was connected to the system, we have to navigate to the following Registry key: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\DeviceClasses.

DeviceClasses Contains information about the device interfaces on the system. There is a subkey for each device interface class and entries under those subkeys for each instance of an interface that is registered for the device interface class.

Read more info.

Or use USBDeview.

USBDeview is a small utility that lists all USB devices that currently connected to your computer, as well as all USB devices that you previously used.

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See Reference

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  • Thanks. Just for future reference -- what should I be looking for within that registry key? I see a smorgasbord of GUID's, but seemingly no sort order (like by date).
    – Coldblackice
    Oct 13, 2013 at 17:42
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I should have googled a second longer before posting :)

There's a free application called "USBDeview" that does just this, with the ability to sort on last plug/unplug date.

http://www.nirsoft.net/utils/usb_devices_view.html

And if this one didn't work, I was about to next try another free utility called "USBLogView", which shows USB information for any device that is plugged/unplugged from the system while the utility is open.

http://www.nirsoft.net/utils/usb_log_view.html

I found the device just fine, labeled with a nicely generic "USB Input Device", rather than the actual product and model name (which appears just fine in USBDeview).

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  • USBDeview is hard to follow, too much info. Also I did not see any column called "last plug" or "last unplug" nor did I see a setting for it. The usb_log_view did the trick though.
    – Dave
    Jan 14, 2023 at 20:48

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