InstalledDrivers

Retrieves the long "friendly" name (or names) of a given port - even if that port (for example a removable/USB port) is not currently connected. See remarks below.

ReadOnly at Runtime.

Only available using the Comm32 ocx. Not supported by MSComm32

Syntax result = object.InstalledDevices(value)         object Name of the communications control.   value Numerical Com port number in the range 1 to 256   result A String containing the Windows FriendlyName of the given port number.     Returns an Empty String if no driver is installed - See remarks below.         Examples       MsgBox (Comm1.InstalledDevices(5) )

Remarks:
The purpose of this function is to see if a device driver for a Com port is installed. It doesn't matter if the actual hardware is connected or not. For example if you queried InstalledDrivers(5) then you may receive a result such as "USB RS232 Port (COM5)" even if Com5 was not physically connected. This would indicate that a driver is installed and that Com5 could be quickly enabled by connecting the relevant USB adpater.

'// We're going to populate a listbox with the Long "Friendly" names of com ports. Because these may be removable ports we'll also use the PortExists property to indicate if the hardware is [Available] or [Missing].

Private Sub PopulateList( )
Dim i as Long

       List1.Clear
       '// In this example we'll test for ports up to 32 - you can test up to 256 if you want.
       For i = 1 To 32
              
              If Comm1.PortExists( i ) = True Then
                     '// This port exists so add it to the list
                     List1.AddItem " [Available] " & Comm1.InstalledDrivers( i )
                  Else
                     '// This port does not exist - maybe the driver is installed but hardware is not connected
                     '// We'll ignore empty results because that means that no driver is installed for that port
                     If Comm1.InstalledDrivers( i ) <> "" Then
                          List1.AddItem " [Missing] " & Comm1.InstalledDrivers( i )
                     End If
              End If
       Next i
 
End Sub

The result of this might create a list like this:-

[ Available ] Communications Port (COM1)
[ Available ] Communications Port (COM2)
[ Missing ] Prolific USB-to-Serial Port (COM4)