how to get the serial no. and logging on date time of every

As usual, things are not as simple as they should be with Windows!

You'd think that, if you're using Vista or later, it would be a simple matter of querying the WMI class, Win32_DiskDrive, to get this information:

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-gb/library/windows/desktop/aa394132(v=vs.85).aspx

However, for the devices I tried, the SerialNumber property gave silly answers and the InstallDate property didn't work at all!

I did eventually figure out that you could parse out the serial number from the PNPDeviceID property and the following code shows how to do that:

using System;

using System.Management;

class Test

{

static void Main()

{

var searcher = new ManagementObjectSearcher("SELECT * FROM Win32_DiskDrive WHERE InterfaceType = 'USB'");

foreach(ManagementObject drive in searcher.Get())

{

string caption = drive["Caption"].ToString();

string deviceId = drive["PNPDeviceID"].ToString();

string[] items = deviceId.Substring(deviceId.LastIndexOf('\\') + 1).Split('&');

string serialNo = items[items.Length - 2];

string installDate = "Unavailable";

object temp = drive["InstallDate"];

if (temp != null) installDate = temp.ToString();

Console.WriteLine(caption);

Console.WriteLine("PNP Device ID = {0}", deviceId);

Console.WriteLine("Serial Number = {0}", serialNo);

Console.WriteLine("Installation Date = {0}", installDate);

Console.WriteLine();

}

Console.ReadKey();

}

}

As far as the log in date is concerned, I couldn't find any way to get at this statically but there's a Code Project article here which shows how to detect in real time when devices are plugged-in and removed which may be of some help to you:

http://www.codeproject.com/Articles/63878/Enumerate-and-Auto-Detect-USB-Drives#AWalkAroundWMI

1 Reply

Know the answer? Post it — somebody with the same question will find it here.

Vulpes13y ago
As usual, things are not as simple as they should be with Windows!

You'd think that, if you're using Vista or later, it would be a simple matter of querying the WMI class, Win32_DiskDrive, to get this information:

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-gb/library/windows/desktop/aa394132(v=vs.85).aspx

However, for the devices I tried, the SerialNumber property gave silly answers and the InstallDate property didn't work at all!

I did eventually figure out that you could parse out the serial number from the PNPDeviceID property and the following code shows how to do that:

using System;
using System.Management;

class Test
{
static void Main()
{
var searcher = new ManagementObjectSearcher("SELECT * FROM Win32_DiskDrive WHERE InterfaceType = 'USB'");

foreach(ManagementObject drive in searcher.Get())
{
string caption = drive["Caption"].ToString();
string deviceId = drive["PNPDeviceID"].ToString();
string[] items = deviceId.Substring(deviceId.LastIndexOf('\\') + 1).Split('&');
string serialNo = items[items.Length - 2];
string installDate = "Unavailable";
object temp = drive["InstallDate"];
if (temp != null) installDate = temp.ToString();
Console.WriteLine(caption);
Console.WriteLine("PNP Device ID = {0}", deviceId);
Console.WriteLine("Serial Number = {0}", serialNo);
Console.WriteLine("Installation Date = {0}", installDate);
Console.WriteLine();
}

Console.ReadKey();
}
}

As far as the log in date is concerned, I couldn't find any way to get at this statically but there's a Code Project article here which shows how to detect in real time when devices are plugged-in and removed which may be of some help to you:

http://www.codeproject.com/Articles/63878/Enumerate-and-Auto-Detect-USB-Drives#AWalkAroundWMI
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