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DevCon Enable

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Note

PnPUtil ships with every release of Windows and makes use of the most reliable and secure APIs available. We recommend using PnPUtil instead of DevCon. See the Recommended replacement below and Replacing DevCon for more information.

Enables devices on the computer. Valid only on the local computer.

To enable a device means that the device driver is loaded into memory and the device is ready for use.

devcon [/r] enable {* | ID [ID ...] | =class [ID [ID ...]]}

Parameters

/r

Conditional reboot. Reboots the system after completing an operation only if a reboot is required to make a change effective.

*

Represents all devices on the computer.

ID

Specifies all or part of a hardware ID, compatible ID, or device instance ID of a device. When specifying multiple IDs, type a space between each ID. IDs that include an ampersand character (&) must be enclosed in quotation marks.

The following special characters modify the ID parameter.

Character Description
* Matches any character or no character. Use the wildcard character () to create an ID pattern, for example, disk.
@ Indicates a device instance ID, for example, @ROOT\FTDISK\0000.
'
(single quote)		 Matches the string literally (exactly as it appears). Precede a string with a single quote to indicate that an asterisk is part of the ID name and is not a wildcard character, for example, '*PNP0600, where *PNP0600 (including the asterisk) is the hardware ID.

=class

Specifies the device setup class of the devices. The equal sign (=) identifies the string as a class name.

You can also specify hardware IDs, compatible IDs, device instance IDs, or ID patterns following the class name. Type a space between each ID or pattern. DevCon finds devices in the class that match the specified IDs.

pnputil /enable-device

For more recommended replacements, see Replacing DevCon.

Comments

DevCon enables the device even if it is already enabled. Before and after enabling a device, use the DevCon Status operation to verify the device status.

The system might need to be rebooted to make this change effective. To have DevCon reboot the system, add the conditional reboot parameter (/r) to the command.

Sample usage

devcon enable * (not recommended)
devcon /r enable *DVD-ROM*
devcon /r enable =printer

Examples