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UsbTreeView V3.1.

3 - Shows the USB Device Tree


Freeware by Uwe Sieber - www.uwe-sieber.de

Works under Windows 2000, XP and higher

Usage:
UsbTreeView [/R:filename] [/L[n]:logfile]

/R:filename write (silently) a report to filename


/L[n]:logfile write a logfile for debugging, helpful in case of crash or hang
(causes massive slowdown);
n is the optional loglevel, default is 3, max is 5

UsbTreeView is based upon the USBView sample from the Microsoft Windows Driver Kit
for Server 2003.

Improvements:
- refresh on device change performed asynchronously, per device and selected item
stays selected
- additional descriptors are decoded as Audio 2.0
- shows additional information gathered from the Windows device management
- shows drive letters/mountpoints and COM ports
- can perform safe removal, device restart and port restart
- better icons in the treeview
- custom font and color for the right pane
- toolbar with jump-lists for easily finding devices in complex trees
- search to find device IDs, string descriptors etc
- nodes of empty hubs kept closed

History since V2.5.0, for old history see UsbTreeView.txt in here: http://www.uwe-
sieber.de/files/usbtreeview261.zip

V3.1.3 - Bugfix: Wrong value shown for Clock Selector in Audio Control Clock
Selector Unit Descriptor 2.0
- New: Full enumeration when missing USB device notifcation is detected
(workaround for SILEX USB Device Servers)
V3.1.2 - Bugfix: Occasional crash on safe removal
- Bugfix: Since V3.0.6 no device information for UHCI controllers under
Windows 2000
- Bugfix: wPacketSize decoded wrong if SuperSpeed device reported a Device
Bus Speed of 0x02
V3.1.1 - New: Can show multiple Configuration and Other-Speed-Configuration
Descriptors
- New: TreeView sub-menu to copy some id strings to clipboard
- New: Basic check for DLL hijacking
V3.1.0 - Bugfix: Removal of storage volumes not handled correctly
- New: Project is UNICODE now, so non-ASCII string descriptors are shown
correctly even the Windows ANSI codepage cannot
- New: Improved robustness when decoding invalid descriptors
- New: Option "Always On Top"
V3.0.8 - Bugfix: No more font change in the text pane when hitting some special
charaters
V3.0.7 - New: Improved detection of arrival/removal of child devices
- New: Devices in low power state but no problem code get a 'D1', 'D2' etc
icon instead of an exclamation mark
- New: Workaround for a strange phenomenon: On some Windows device
notifications come with wide strings
even RegisterDeviceNotificationA was used; This is dealt with now.
V3.0.6 - New: Support for virtual USB Controllers where Hostcontroller and Root-
Hub are one and the same device
V3.0.5 - New: New port property PortConnectorIsTypeC (Win10 only)
V3.0.4 - New: Device Manager problem numbers shown in the treeview icons
V3.0.3 - New: Search hits get highlighted in the text pane (which is a Richedit
control now)
V3.0.2 - Bugfix: Dropdown lists not refreshed on device arrival and removal
V3.0.1 - Bugfix: Crash on full refresh
V3.0.0 - New: No more enumeration of all devices on arrival and removal of a USB
device
- New: Search function (not full text, only things like device ID, drive
letter, volume name etc)
- New: Toolbar controls shrink if required
- New: Some new Keyboard shortcuts (Alt+D to open the drives list, Alt+O
the Others list, Alt+S to focus the
search edit, Alt+Left/Right to cycle thru the search hits
- New: options not to expand empty hubs or hub with only empty hubs
attached
- New: options to jump to arrived and removed devices
- New: option to expand tree items to make selected arrived and removed
devices visible
- New: Uses Windows visual theme with option to turn it off
V2.6.1 - Bugfix: Limit of 32 root hubs removed
- Bugfix: 'Other Speed Configuration' descriptors were not read
- New: Shows progress information in the status bar, when stuck giving a
hint where
- New: Getting Microsoft String Descritor 0xEE can be deactivated because
it causes some devices to freeze.
If in the Registry under
HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\UsbFlags\VVVVPPPPRRRR there is a
osvc value != 0 then UsbTreeView reads it anyway because Windows
already read it successfully.
VVVVPPPPRRRR is a 12 digit hex value containing idVendor, idProduct
and bcdDevice from the USB Device Descriptor
V2.6.0 - Bugfix: bRefresh field in endpoint descriptors of Audio 1.0 devices was
not shown
V2.5.9 - Bugfix: Wrong warning about characters below 0x20 in some string
descriptors
- Bugfix: Delay on opening a Windows Device Manager device properties
dialog removed
- New: Decoding of Microsoft string descriptor 0xEE
V2.5.8 - Bugfix: Decoding of SuperSpeedPlus descriptor and some others fixed
V2.5.7 - New: Display SuperSpeedPlus in Connection Information V2 under Windows
10
V2.5.6 - Bugfix: String descriptors containing invalid characters where not shown
at all
- Bugfix: Crash when more than 64 ports per hub
- New: On Windows 8 and 10 the Microsoft USB stack returns for USB devices
running at SuperSpeed a
Device Bus Speed of 0x02 (High-Speed). So far UsbTreeView faked it
to 0x03 (SuperSpeed) as Microsoft's USBview does.
Now the truely returned value is shown with a hint if it is not the
true speed.
V2.5.5 - Bugfix: Occasional crash after device safe removal or reactivation
V2.5.4 - Bugfix: Crash on H.264 WebCams
- Bugfix: Crash when more than 127 USB devices
- New: Reading of the Microsoft specific string descriptor 0xEE
V2.5.3 - New/Bugfix: USB Attached SCSI drives (UASPStor) shown with drive letter
in the tree and in the drives combobox
V2.5.2 - New: Option to show the drive numbers in the tree, e.g. Disk3, CdRom1
etc.
V2.5.1 - Bugfix: Since V2.5.0 possible crash when getting a string descriptor
V2.5.0 - New: Audio 2.0 descriptors

ToDo:
- USB Video Class H.264 decoding

About Unknown Descriptors

There are two reasons why decriptors cannot be decoded and therefore
shown as "Unknown":
- decoding is not implemented
- the device's InterfaceClass is 0xFF (vendor specific), so class specific
descriptors cannot be decoded since their class is unknown

So, if you have an unknown descriptor and the interface class is not 0xFF
then please let me know, maybe I find the right specification document
and can add the decoding for it.

HID descriptors usually cannot be read. Probably this is because they


must be requested from the interface rather than the device but the
IOCTL_USB_GET_DESCRIPTOR_FROM_NODE_CONNECTION call doesn't offer the
choice. The parameters are ignored and filled by the USB stack:
MSDN says: "the USB stack ignores the value of bmRequest and inserts
a value of 0x80 which indicates standard USB device request".
https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-
us/library/windows/hardware/ff539272%28v=vs.85%29.aspx
For most devices the result is an ERROR_GEN_FAILURE or ERROR_INVALID_PARAMETER.
But some devices return the HID descriptor anyway.

About "Safe Removal" and "Restart"

On Safe Removal UsbTreeView first calls the configuration management call


CM_Query_And_Remove_SubTree. On success the device has the problem code
21 which is CM_PROB_WILL_BE_REMOVED. A code 21 device can be reactivated
by performing a DIF_PROPERTYCHANGE class installer call. This is what
UsbTreeView does if you select "Restart device".
But CM_Query_And_Remove_SubTree needs admin privileges, otherwise it fails
with CR_ACCESS_DENIED. In this case CM_Request_Device_Eject is called
which works without admin privileges but leads to problem code 47 which
is CM_PROB_HELD_FOR_EJECT. Such a device cannot be reactivated alone.
A reactivation is possible by restarting the port or the whole hub it is
attached to. But the latter of course restarts all devices attached to
the hub.

In all cases UsbTreeView just performs the system call and shows a
message-box if Windows returns an error. But Windows does not always
return an error, even there was one, so sometimes nothing happens at all.
About "Restart Port"

This calls IOCTL_USB_HUB_CYCLE_PORT which simulates a disconnect and


reconnect of the attached device.
It is available under XP but usually only for hubs which run with the
Microsoft standard driver. 3rd party drivers usually return
ERROR_UNKNOWN_FUNCTION.
Under Vista and Windows 7 it is no more supported by the Windows standard
drivers, it always fails with ERROR_NOT_SUPPORTED.
Since Windows 8 it works again but in contrast to XP admin privileges
are required. Without admin privileges it fails as under Vista and Win7
with ERROR_NOT_SUPPORTED.

About the Debug-Port

In Microsoft's USBView sample there is a list of USB host controllers


and their debug port. I've put the table into UsbTreeView, it shows
then in the properties of the host controller a line like so:
DebugPort (from List): 1
Windows 8 has extended USB information, it reports for each port if it
is debug capable and this works indeed (seen on a i945G Chipset with ICH7).

USB Mouses

If an USB mouse is moved while the tool requests its USB properties there
is usually an error because the mouse just has more important things to
do than answering descriptor requests. UsbTreeView tries then for some
seconds to get this information.
You might see the yellow question mark at the mouse's tree node for a
moment which disappears as soon as you stop moving the mouse.
This retry mechanism is done for all type of devices but usually its a
mouse where it helps.

Information shown in the tree-view

UsbTreeView is optimized for speed, therefore USB string descriptors are


not gathered before a device is selected in the tree-view. So, information
which come from USB string descriptors cannot be shown in the tree-view, it
all comes from the Windows device manager.
This is also why creating a full report takes a moment.

Always On Top

By default the state of the "Always On Top" option is persistent (written


to and read from the INI). If you find this annoying then add the line
TopmostPersistent=0
to section [Settings] in the UsbTreeView.ini, then "Always On Top" is
no more written to the INI, so you can set Topmost=0 or Topmost=1 and
keep this as startup default.

Uwe Sieber, mail@uwe-sieber.de


Feb 2018

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