HardwareID Registry Subkey

Beginning with Windows 7, the HardwareID registry subkey specifies a removable device capability override for a device installed in the computer. For more information about removable device capability overrides, see DeviceOverrides Registry Key.

The name of the HardwareID registry subkey specifies the hardware ID of the device, and is formatted based on the requirements described below.

The following table defines the format and requirements of the HardwareID registry subkey.

Registry subkey name	Required/optional	Format requirements	Parent key	Child subkeys
Valid hardware ID value	Required	Must include the hardware ID's bus prefix. All slash () path separator characters within the hardware ID must be replaced with number (#) characters.	DeviceOverrides

The hardware ID value must follow the format requirements described in this table. Each HardwareID subkey must contain either the LocationPaths or ChildLocationPaths subkeys. Both subkeys could be specified within the HardwareID subkey if necessary.

Because the slash character is not a valid character in a registry subkey name, you must replace it with the number character when specifying a bus prefix for the HardwareID registry subkey name. For example, if a removable device capability override is specified for the device node (devnode) with a hardware ID of USB\VID_1234&PID_ABCD&REV_0001, you must create a HardwareID registry subkey with a name of USB#VID_1234&PID_ABCD&REV_0001.