Enable/disable a device from the command line

Enable/disable a device from the command line

This article lets users enable/disable a tag from command line in a few easy steps.
The document shows how to carry out this activity on Windows XP by installing Devcon. The link to download this is provided in the article. This software displays all devices and thus the user can enable or disable a device according to his requirement. The commands for the same are included in the article.

This allows for example to enable / disable your internet connection (or network card) on the command line.

Install Devcon

• 1. Download it on Microsoft Website : Link
• 2. Unpack the file, once downloaded
• 3. Copy \i386\devcon.exe to c:\windows\system32
• 4. Locate the device that you want : in the command prompt type:

  devcon find *

Display all the devices in the system

• In the command prompt, type

  devcon find *> list.txt 

  • To get the list in a file.
• For example, my network card Accton appears as:

  • PCI\VEN_1113&DEV_1211&SUBSYS_12111113&REV_10\3&13C0B0C5&0&48: Accton EN1207D Series PCI Fast Ethernet Adapter #2 

To choose a piece of the string that identifies the device, and verify it is unique:

c:\>devcon find *VEN_1113  
PCI\VEN_1113&DEV_1211&SUBSYS_12111113&REV_10\3&13C0B0C5&0&48: Accton EN1207D Ser  
ies PCI Fast Ethernet Adapter #2  
1 matching device(s) found.

Make be sure that "VEN_1113" means a single network card.

Enable/disable the device

devcon disable *VEN_1113   
devcon enable *VEN_1113 

This allows me to enable / disable my network card (and therefore my internet connection) from the command line.

Other devices

• The floppy disk drive is:

  • ACPI\PNP0700\3&13C0B0C5&0 : standard disk controller

• To disable / enable it at will:

  • devcon disable * PNP0700 

  • This eliminated the floppy drive system!
• To prevent your computer from beeping:

  • ROOT\LEGACY_BEEP\0000 : Beep