tinyusb/tools/usbtreeview/UsbTreeView.txt

UsbTreeView V2.3.1.0 - Shows the USB Device Tree
Freeware by Uwe Sieber - www.uwe-sieber.de

Works under Window 2000, XP, and higher

Usage:
UsbTreeView [/R:filename]

/R:filename  write (silently) a report to filename



UsbTreeView is based upon the USBView sample from the Windows Driver Kit for Server 2003.

Improvements:
- better icons in the treeview
- refresh on device change performed asynchronously, selected item stays selected
- shows additional information gathered from the Windows device management
- shows drive letters/mountpoints and COM ports
- can perform safe removal, device restart and port restart
- custom font and color for the right pane
- toolbar with jump-lists for easily finding devices in complex trees

History
V1.1     - first published version
V1.2     - works with Windows 2000 again
V1.3     - shows some more information about USB 3.0 devices
V1.3.1   - minor fixes
V1.3.2   - workaround for TI root hubs
V1.4.0   - device safe removal and restart, saves window position
V1.4.1   - shows driver version and date, custom font and color for the right pane,
           removed some redundant information
V1.4.2   - keeps tree item selection over refresh
V1.5.0   - More USB information
         - Extended USB information available under Windows 8 
         - Rearranged the text output
         - Some minor improvements
V2.0.0   - USB enumeration rewritten; faster and independent from the treeview
         - Port restart
         - Extended host controller information
         - Some failed USB requests are re-tried in the background, e.g. for
           mouses
         - nearly flicker free refresh and resize
         - lots of minor improvements
V2.0.1   - Bugfix: Crash on complex descriptors
V2.0.2   - Bugfix: Multiple volumes per disk not shown correctly
         - Bugfix: String descriptors which are referenced more than once was
           shown multiple times each
V2.1.0   - Decoding of USB Video Class (UVC) 1.1 descriptors
         - Toolbar with jump-lists for easily finding devices in complex trees
         - Driveletters, COM-Ports or extended device names shown in the device tree
V2.1.1   - Bugfix: Crash on root-hubs which are not a child device of the host controller
V2.1.2   - Bugfix: Windows 'app key' (or Shift+F10) opened the context menu in the wrong position
V2.1.3   - Bugfix: V2.1.2 always showed wrong error for the device's Address property
           Bugfix: Workaround for font problem
V2.1.4   - Bugfix: V2.1.3 switched back to the default font
V2.1.5   - New: Can write a report
           New: Improved device names in the treeview
V2.1.6   - Bugfix: Crash on decoding USB3 standard hubs
         - Bugfix: some format glitches on USB3 standard hubs
V2.1.7   - Bugfix: Decoding of bmAttributes in USB 2.0 Extension Descriptor was wrong
V2.1.8   - Bugfix: Decoding of SuperSpeed Endpoint Companion Descriptors was done only for MSC devices
V2.1.8.1 - Bugfix: Crash when saving report to 'long' path
V2.1.9   - Bugfix: Crash on USB-Hubs with more than 16 Ports
         - New: Commandline parameter for writing a report, e.g. /R:U:\UsbTreeView-Report.txt
V2.2.0   - New: Shows some more device properties
         - New: Can show the Windows device properties dialog
V2.2.1   - Bugfix: V2.2.0 worked under Windows 7 and 8 only
V2.3.0   - Bugfix: Several bugs which could cause crashes
         - New: Decoding of HID descriptors
V2.3.1   - Bugfix: Font color setting was ignored

ToDo:
- USB Video Class H.264 decoding
- Maybe Unicode support if someone shows me that it is required



About Unknown Descriptors

There are two reasons why decriptors cannot be decoded and therefore
shown as "Unknown":
- decoding is not implemented
- the device's InterfaceClass is 0xFF (vendor specific), so class specific
  descriptors cannot be decoded since their class is unknown

So, if you have an unknown descriptor and the interface class is not 0xFF
then please let me know, maybe I find the right specification document
and can add the decoding for it.

For an unknown reason HID descriptors often cannot be read, Windows
returns ERROR_GEN_FAILURE or ERROR_INVALID_PARAMETER. As far as I have
seen it depends alone on the device but another user reported that
some device's hid descriptor can be read under NT6 but not under NT5.



About "Safe Removal" and "Restart"

On Safe Removal UsbTreeView first calls the configuration management call
CM_Query_And_Remove_SubTree. On success the device has the problem code
21 which is CM_PROB_WILL_BE_REMOVED. A code 21 device can be reactivated
by performing a DIF_PROPERTYCHANGE class installer call. This is what
UsbTreeView does if you select "Restart device".
But CM_Query_And_Remove_SubTree needs admin previleges, otherwise it fails
with CR_ACCESS_DENIED. In this case CM_Request_Device_Eject is called
which works without admin previleges but leads to problem code 47 which
is CM_PROB_HELD_FOR_EJECT. Such a device cannot be reactivated alone.
A reactivation is possible by restarting the port or the whole hub it is
attached to. But the latter of course restarts all devices attached to
the hub.

In all cases UsbTreeView just performs the system call and shows a
message-box if Windows returns an error. But Windows does not always
return an error, even there was one, so sometimes nothing happens at all.



About "Restart Port"

This calls IOCTL_USB_HUB_CYCLE_PORT which simulates a disconnect and
reconnect of the attached device.
It is available under XP but usually only for hubs which run with the
Microsoft default driver. 3rd party drivers usually return
ERROR_UNKNOWN_FUNCTION.
Under Vista and Windows 7 it is no more supported, it always fails
with ERROR_NOT_SUPPORTED.
With Windows 8 it works again but in contrast to XP admin previleges
are required. Without admin previleges it fails as under Vista and Win7
with ERROR_NOT_SUPPORTED.


About the Debug-Port

In Microsoft's USBView sample there is a list of USB host controllers
and their debug port. I've put the table into UsbTreeView, it shows
then in the properties of the host controller a line like so:
DebugPort (from List): 1
Windows 8 has extended USB information, it reports for each port if it
is debug capable and this works indeed (seen on a i945G Chipset with ICH7).



USB Mouses

If an USB mouse is moved while the tool requests its USB properties there
is usually an error because the mouse just has more important things to
do. UsbTreeView tries then for some seconds to get this information.
You might see the yellow question mark at your mouse for a moment which
disappears as soon as you stop moving the mouse. This retry mechanism is
done for all type of devices but usually its a mouse where it helps.


Information shown in the tree-view

UsbTreeView is optimized for speed, therefore USB descriptors are not
gathered before a device is selected in the tree-view. So, information
which come from USB descriptors cannot be shown in the tree-view, it
all comes from the Windows devices manager.




Uwe Sieber, mail@uwe-sieber.de
2013-10-14