With each newer version, Windows is getting better at recognizing and automatically installing device drivers for all the devices connected to your system. You no longer have to install the device drivers using multiple CDs for most of the devices. But there are still one or two devices that Windows fails to identify and labels them as “Unknown Device” in the Device Manager. All of us frequently come across this situation and most of us conveniently choose to ignore it unless we really have to use the device. Thanks to the free Unknown Device Identifier, now you can not only identify such unknown devices, but can also find possible device drivers for them.
Unknown device identifier can be downloaded from the Huntersoft website. It is available only as a setup installer. After the installation, you can launch it from its desktop shortcut. As you launch the Unknown Device Identifier, it scans and shows a list of all the devices on your system just like the Device Manager utility in Windows does. The only difference is that it displays the vendor ID, device name and the plug-n-play ID of each device and does not display anything else. These few device properties can help you identify any device because they are used in the device driver catalog files.
If you want to find out a device driver for an unknown device, then you can right-click on it and select Find Driver from the context-menu. Similarly, if you want to find the manufacturer website for such an unknown device, then you can right-click on it and select Contact Vendor. Both of these actions open Google search website looking for the device driver or manufacturer website using the device name, vendor name and the PnP ID of the device.
You can also create a backup of installed device drivers for any device by right-clicking on that device and choosing Backup Driver. The tool can also export the list of all the devices into a plain text file or print the list on your connected printer for future reference.
Conclusion: Unknown Device Identifier makes it pretty easy for you to find any unknown devices in Windows for which no device drivers have been installed. The trick to google for PnP string for an unknown device is very well known, but Unknown Device Identifier automates half the process and makes it much easier.
You can download Unknown Device Identifier from http://www.zhangduo.com/udi.html.