Find Drivers for Devices Using a Hardware ID from Device Manager

The hardware id for a device in Windows can be found in the Windows Device Manager. To check the hardware id for a device, follow these steps: 

1. Open the Device Manager from the Control Panel. You can also type "devmgmt.msc" at the Run option in the Start menu.

2. In the Device Manager, right-click the device, and select Properties in the window.
3. Select the Details tab.
4. Select the Hardware Ids in the dropdown list.

There can be multiple hardware ids for a device. The top listing is the most specific hardware device identifier, and going down, the identifiers are more generic. The reason this is done is to allow a device driver identifier to be selected based on a match to any of these hardware identifiers.
The hardware manufacturer in this example is Realtek, which is identified by VEN_10EC.
A hardware ID is typically in the form of <BUS>\<VENDOR ID>&<Device ID>&<Additional IDs>.
The Vendor ID is indicated by the four characters after VEN_.
The Device ID is indicated by the four characters after DEV_.

The hardware ID is available for devices in which drivers were already installed, for unknown devices and not recognized devices.

You can also use the hardware ID for a device to find drivers for that device by searching the Microsoft Update Catalog .




If the driver is not in the Microsoft Update Catalog, search for the Device ID online to find drivers.

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