Finding Driver Information

by Dec 20, 2011

driverquery.exe returns all kinds of information about installed drivers, but the information seems a bit useless at first:

PS> driverquery.exe /V

Module Name  Display Name           Description            Driver Type   Start Mode State      Status     Accept Stop Accept Pause Paged Pool Code(bytes BSS(byLink Date              Path                                             Init(bytes
============ ====================== ====================== ============= ========== ========== ========== =========== ============ ========== ========== ============================ ================================================ ==========
1394ohci     OHCI-konformer 1394-Ho OHCI-konformer 1394-Ho Kernel        Manual    Stopped    OK         FALSE       FALSE        4.096      200.704    0
20.11.2010 11:44:56    C:\Windows\system32\drivers\1394ohci.sys         4.096

This console application does support a parameter called /FO CSV. This formats the information as a comma-separated list:

PS> driverquery.exe /v /FO CSV
"Module Name","Display Name","Description","Driver Type","Start Mode","State","S
tatus","Accept Stop","Accept Pause","Paged Pool(bytes)","Code(bytes)","BSS(bytes
)","Link Date","Path","Init(bytes)"
"1394ohci","OHCI-konformer 1394-Hostcontroller","OHCI-konformer 1394-Hostcontrol
ler","Kernel ","Manual","Stopped","OK","FALSE","FALSE","4.096","200.704","0","20
.11.2010 11:44:56","C:\Windows\system32\drivers\1394ohci.sys","4.096"

Now here’s the scoop: Powershell can not only read the results from console application. When the output is CSV, it can even convert the raw text automagically into objects. So, with just one line, you get tremendous information about drivers (thanks to Stephen Owen for pointing us to this):

PS> driverquery.exe /v /FO CSV | ConvertFrom-CSV | Select-Object 'Display Name',
 'Start Mode', 'Paged Pool(bytes)', Path

Display Name        Start Mode          Paged Pool(bytes)   Path
------------        ----------          -----------------   ----
OHCI-konformer 1... Manual              4.096               C:\Windows\syste...
Microsoft ACPI-T... Boot                90.112              C:\Windows\syste...
ACPI-Energieanze... Manual              4.096               C:\Windows\syste...
(...)

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