CODEWITHSUNDEEP
c++windowsusb
Soya Bean
Soya Bean

Reputation: 43

Is there a way to save a USB device so that re-enumeration can be prevented after replugging?

First of all, we are working with a 3rd party software that ties itself to a USB device. When this USB device is disconnected and reconnected, the software cannot communicate with the device will stop working until the program is restarted. i.e. It only detects the USB device on startup.

Windows is able to see the device, but goes through the full detection/driver installation procedure every time it is reconnected, even if it is reconnected to the same USB port.

The difficulty here is that we have no way of modifying the third party software to poll for the appropriate USB device after the device is unplugged.

As such, we would like to ask if anyone has knowledge on how to go about writing a c++ program to save a USB state/register, prevent Windows from re-enumerating the USB port upon re-connection, and restoring the saved state/register. If so, we would appreciate some guidance in this endeavor. Naturally, we are open to other approaches to solving this issue.

Upvotes: 4

Views: 2021

Answers (1)

MSalters
MSalters

Reputation: 180155

You can't do this at application level. USB is managed by drivers. Furthermore, while the details of USB devices are managed by specific drivers, the basics (such as enumeration) are handled by the standard Windows USB driver. That's logical: Windows has to enumerate the device first to determine its Vendor ID and Product ID, which then determines the specific driver to load.

As for the full reinstallation on every reinsertion, that suggests a violation of the USB spec by the device or the Windows API by the driver. My first guess would be that the device doesn't have a proper serial number.

Upvotes: 3

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