IPortableDeviceManager::GetDevices method (portabledeviceapi.h)

Article
10/13/2021

Retrieves a list of portable devices connected to the computer.

Syntax

HRESULT GetDevices(
  [in, out] LPWSTR *pPnPDeviceIDs,
  [in, out] DWORD  *pcPnPDeviceIDs
);

Parameters

[in, out] pPnPDeviceIDs

A caller-allocated array of string pointers that holds the Plug and Play names of all of the connected devices. To learn the required size for this parameter, first call this method with this parameter set to NULL and pcPnPDeviceIDs set to zero, and then allocate a buffer according to the value retrieved by pcPnPDeviceIDs. These names can be used by IPortableDevice::Open to create a connection to a device.

[in, out] pcPnPDeviceIDs

On input, the number of values that pPnPDeviceIDs can hold. On output, a pointer to the number of devices actually written to pPnPDeviceIDs.

Return value

The method returns an HRESULT. Possible values include, but are not limited to, those in the following table.

Return code	Description
S_OK	The method succeeded.
E_POINTER	At least one of the required arguments was a NULL pointer.
S_FALSE	The pPnPDeviceIDs buffer is too small to hold all the values requested, but pcPnPDeviceIDs values have been written to pPnPDeviceIDs.

Remarks

The list of devices is generated when the device manager is instantiated; it does not refresh as devices connect and disconnect. To refresh the list of connected devices, call RefreshDeviceList.

The API allocates the memory for each string pointed to by the pPnPDeviceIDs array. Once your application no longer needs these strings, it must iterate through this array and free the associated memory by calling the CoTaskMemFree function.

Examples

For an example of how to use this method to enumerate devices, see Enumerating Devices. For an example of how to use this method to enumerate Services, see Enumerating Services.

Requirements

Requirement	Value
Target Platform	Windows
Header	portabledeviceapi.h
Library	PortableDeviceGUIDs.lib