How to Determine Which USB Controller Is Installed

This article describes how to identify your USB Host controller to determine if it is supported by Windows 2000.

After you identify your USB Host controller, check the Windows Hardware Compatibility List (HCL) to see if your controller is supported. You can check the HCL at the following Microsoft Web site:

Important This section, method, or task contains steps that tell you how to modify the registry. However, serious problems might occur if you modify the registry incorrectly. Therefore, make sure that you follow these steps carefully. For added protection, back up the registry before you modify it. Then, you can restore the registry if a problem occurs. For more information about how to back up and restore the registry, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:
To identify your USB Host controller, start Registry Editor (Regedt32.exe), and then locate the following registry key: Under this key are several keys with names similar to: Under each of these keys is a key with a name similar to: Click the key under the first VEN... key. In the right pane, note the data values for the following registry values: The DeviceDesc value is a REG_SZ value that contains a description of the device. The HardwareID value is a REG_MULTI_SZ value that contains the hardware revision of the chip set used in the device. The Mfg value is a REG_SZ value that contains the name of the hardware manufacturer.

Check the DeviceDesc value in the key under each VEN... key until you locate the key for the USB controller.