Device Description under Device Manager (WINDOWS)

Hi there,

My very first attempt at posting a message in the forum. I have looked for this on the internet, and asked the @arduinoteam on twitter, and they suggested I post this question here, so here I am.

I am wondering if it is possible to change the Device Description under the Device Manager tab in Windows. At the moment, my Arduino Mega 2560 comes up as Arduino Mega 2560, which is fine. However, there is a chance certain third parties may interface to the device via USB, and it would be useful if I can give it a name that goes with a system name/serial number. This should help us diagnose any future issues that we may encounter remotely.

I have attached the image to show what I am talking about.

Any help on this topic would be great appreciated.

Thanks!

interesting question,

Of course it is possible (the string Mega can be show too), question is how .

Look in the register under - HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\HARDWARE\DEVICEMAP\SERIALCOMM -
There the virtual comports appear - you need to refresh (click something else and back) to see this in regedit -

Where do they come from?

If you have an Arduino connected you can select properties of the new COM port in the context menu (right mouse)
select the tab details, and there are a lot of fields aboutthe comport

One search lead me to - HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\ControlSet001\Enum\FTDIBUS -
under which I found multiple (5 in my case) folders with a name like - VID_0403+PID_6001+xxxxxxxxx -
These folders all have a 0000 subfolder and these have 3 or 4 subfolders

  • 3 if device is not attached
  • 4 is device is attached
    and a number of fields including the "friendly name" that holds the string that shows up in the Device manager.

Unfortunately that string is not editable from regedit (on my PC!)
Same for - HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Enum\FTDIBUS\VID_0403+PID_6001+A800eGcHA\0000

// time is up for this question
=> Check if Mark Russinovich has some tool to patch this - Sysinternals - Sysinternals | Microsoft Learn -
If anyone knows windows he is....

Succes,
Rob

This works for boards with FTDI...
http://www.arduino.cc/cgi-bin/yabb2/YaBB.pl?num=1251104881

The Mega 2560 has an ATmega8U2 instead of FTDI but the technique may still work.

Thanks for the replies guys.
However, the responses mean that I have to make those changes on my own PC. The unit has to be installed on other PCs, so as far as modifying registry settings and updating FTDI drivers is concerned, it may not be a good idea, specially since the other people require a plug-and-play experience and will be very difficult for them to go through all of this process.
However, I would like to thank you for the help and will be open to more suggestions!
Thanks!

I have tried the above method, and it does not seem to pick my board up as it does not have an FTDI chip, so I suppose the above method won't work.

Sorry about that. For some reason I got it my head that @eried was modifying the INF file.

I have no idea if it will work but you could try changing the DESCRIPTION in the INF file...

[Strings]
DESCRIPTION="Arduino Mega 2560"

Bear in mind that that may change the name for all installed Mega 2560s.

It has worked actually!
If you change the device description in the driver *.inf file, you can actually change the name to whatever you want it to appear as. Open the *.inf file for Mega or UNO under the Arduino folder/Drivers/ and scroll to the bottom where you will find the following code:

;------------------------------------------------------------------------------
; String Definitions
;------------------------------------------------------------------------------
;Modify these strings to customize your device
;------------------------------------------------------------------------------
[Strings]
MFGFILENAME="CDC_vista"
DRIVERFILENAME ="usbser"
MFGNAME="Arduino LLC (www.arduino.cc)"
INSTDISK="Arduino Mega 2560 Driver Installer"
DESCRIPTION="NEW NAME HERE >>> Arduino Mega 2560"
SERVICE="USB RS-232 Emulation Driver"

Change the name there, uninstall the old drivers, and replug your device, and browse to the driver again, and it will pick up on it as whatever new name you leave there.

But as you mentioned, the problem is, it will change all MEGA/UNO boards to that new name. But I suppose this is a start.

Thanks :slight_smile: