Resources For IT Professionals
Post an article
Wikis - Page Details
  • First published by (Microsoft, Microsoft Partner)
  • When: 28 Feb 2010 2:16 PM
  • Last revision by (eMicrosoft Partne)
  • When: 3 Jun 2013 12:08 PM
  • Revisions: 16
  • Comments: 15
Options
RSSSubscribe to Article (RSS)
Can You Improve This Article?
Positively! Click Sign In to add the tip, solution, correction or comment that will help other users.

Report inappropriate content using these instructions.
Wiki  >  TechNet Articles  >  How to Obtain the Current Version of Device Console Utility (DevCon.exe)

How to Obtain the Current Version of Device Console Utility (DevCon.exe)

How to Obtain the Current Version of Device Console Utility (DevCon.exe)

This topic is a how to.
Please keep it as clear and simple as possible. Avoid speculative discussions as well as deep dive into underlying mechanisms or related technologies.

(what is this box?)

There are two main sources one can use to obtain Device Console utility (DevCon.exe). To find out what DevCon.exe is please read How to Manage Device Drivers with Command Line.

Windows Driver Kit (WDK)

This is the recommended option.

  1. Download Windows Driver Kit. See “Links” section for dowonload location of the most recent version of WDK.
  2. Extract or mount ISO.
  3. To obtain DevCon.exe you need either to:
    • install WDK:
      • execute KitSetup.exe and follow on-screen instructions.
    • or perform Administrative Installation of “setuptools_<Platform>fre” Microsoft Software Installer (MSI) package:
      • execute the following command:
        • "%SystemRoot%\System32\msiexec.exe" /a "<path to WDK>\setuptools_<Platform>fre.msi" targetdir="<Desired Path>"
      • for example, assuming that:
        • you need DevCon.exe for x64 (aka AMD64 aka EM64T) platform,
        • you mounted WDK ISO as drive D:,
        • you want to find DevCon.exe under your Temporary directory;
      • you should execute:

        • "%SystemRoot%\System32\msiexec.exe" /a "D:\WDK\setuptools_x64fre.msi" targetdir="%temp%"

Separate download

Microsoft Support Knowledge Base article 311272 “The DevCon command-line utility functions as an alternative to Device Manager” contains direct download link.. This option is not recommended because:

  1. you obtain outdated version of DevCon.exe which is 5.2.3790.0 (srv03_rtm.030324-2048). This was intended to work with Windows Server 2003. This version may or may not work correctly with more recent versions of Windows;
  2. you can obtain version of DevCon.exe to work on the following platforms:
    • x86 (aka i386) or
    • ia64 (aka Intel Itanium);
  3. using this option you can not obtain version of DevCon.exe for x64 (aka AMD64 aka EM64T) platform. If you don't match the platform DevCon.exe might be partially functional. For example if you try to use x86 version of DevCon.exe with x64 OS it would correctly read and display information but return errors if you try to make some changes (e.g. update a driver).

Links

  • The current version of Windows Driver Kit (WDK) is 6.1.7600.16385 (win7_wdk.100208-1538). You can download it at Windows Driver Kit Version 7.1.0.
    • Note: this is a revised version of WDK for Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2. The original version of WDK for Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 is 6.1.7600.16385 (win7_rtm.090713-1255).
, , , , , , , , , [Edit tags]
Leave a Comment
  • Please add 4 and 7 and type the answer here:
  • Post
Wiki - Revision Comment List(Revision Comment)
Sort by: Published Date | Most Recent | Most Useful
Comments
  • 3 Jun 2013 12:08 PM

    Carsten Siemens edited Revision 14. Comment: Added tag: has comment

Page 1 of 1 (1 items)
Wikis - Comment List
Sort by: Published Date | Most Recent | Most Useful
Posting comments is temporarily disabled until 10:00am PST on Saturday, December 14th. Thank you for your patience.
Comments
  • Posted by
    on 26 Jun 2011 4:23 AM

    Why not just update KB311272!!! Really annoying that 64-bit version is not easily downloadable but thanks for the article - now I know why it does not work!

  • Posted by
    on 18 Jul 2011 6:17 PM

    I agree with Steve6375.  This is absolutely silly!

  • Posted by
    on 3 Aug 2011 11:41 AM

    Add tag for command line

  • Posted by
    on 3 Aug 2011 11:41 AM

    Add tag for command line

  • Posted by
    on 3 Aug 2011 11:41 AM

    Add tag for command line

  • Posted by
    on 26 Aug 2011 12:46 PM

    Quit understandable to download and extract a 600+ MB ISO for a 600+KB exe file )-;

  • Posted by
    on 10 Apr 2012 11:25 AM

    I have Win7 x64 but I still cannot query remote Win7 machines.  I can only query locally or Windows XP or Server 2003.  I followed the instructions above.  I'm running the command prompt as administrator.  Please help!

  • Posted by
    on 13 Apr 2012 5:49 AM

    Well, +1 with everyone else - 600mb file for a 80k file seems a little insane.

    For what it's worth I've uploaded a copy devcon AMD64 extracted from the Windows Driver Kit 7.1.0: dl.dropbox.com/.../devcon-7600.16385.win7_wdk.100208-1538-x64.zip

    Yeah, I know, downloading an .exe from some random person on the Internet would generally seem like a bad idea, and I probably wouldn't use it in your position -- but if you feel like rolling the dice the link is there.  For what it's worth, I give my personal assurance that it's legit :)

    size (extracted): 81,920 bytes

    md5: 3904d0698962e09da946046020cbcb17

    sha1: edae098e7e8452ca6c125cf6362dda3f4d78f0ae

  • Posted by
    on 2 May 2012 3:08 PM

    Thank you Alan. I can verify that the download you provided is legitimate. I scanned it with AVG as soon as I downloaded it and it came up clean. I have also run it and verified that it works as expected.

    The devcon version included in his upload is 6.1.7600.16385. And just to clarify, the md5 and sha1 checksums provided are for the extracted devcon.exe file. The download is a zip file including both the devcon.exe file and the license.rtf file.

    Checksums for the zip file itself:

    md5:    59424845D7814792F53DB2C0FA5042A4

    sha1:   4AB5745CB0673F5AEB319A1518933BCEF3F6FD68

  • Posted by
    on 21 May 2012 8:28 AM

    I downloaded this devcon zip but when I ran "devcon rescan" it fails. Do I need anything else that comes with WDK?

  • Posted by
    on 11 Dec 2012 10:36 AM

    Guys can you please help with obtaining the current version of devcon.exe from WDK8? I need it for win8 x64. I can't find wdk8 on iso file, so I'm unable to use the same method.

  • Posted by
    on 26 Feb 2013 3:45 PM

    Thanks Alan Isherwood.  I started to download the 1GB (newest version for Win8 or 700Mb if you download the previous version which supports up to Windows 7)... and I thought there has got to be someone who has already done this!! And voila, Alan to the rescue.  Thanks bud.  Saved me about 40 minutes of downloading, installing, configuring, extracting, making a coffee while waiting for everything to work... etc etc!

  • Posted by
    on 30 Apr 2013 5:25 PM

    okay, well, Microsoft issued a DMCA takedown notice on my link so I've had to remove it (and now Dropbox are mad with me).  Evidently Microsoft wants to force you to download the 600+MB WDK in order to obtain the 80KB devcon exe.  Have fun with that.

  • Posted by
    on 3 Jun 2013 12:08 PM

    Carsten Siemens edited Revision 14. Comment: Added tag: has comment

  • Posted by
    on 19 Jul 2013 10:51 PM

    I am having trouble with my friend’s Toshiba laptop (running Window 7 Home Premium edition 64-bit). She has all of her WAN Miniports uninstalled and now I am trying to get them re-installed again, so that she could have her network connectivity working, again.

    And so, on your post titled, “Broken WAN Miniports”, you mentioned to uninstall them and re-install them using DevCon utility. Unfortunately, I have tried this route; followed the instruction on how to download Devcon.exe but running into some issues. Perhaps, I’m not very sure on what do you mean by #2 instruction under “Reinstall the miniports”.

    To give you more detail about what I meant, here’s the path where I extracted the noted file “C:\WinDDK\7600.16385.1

    From, the path above in it you’ll find several folders and within src\setup and tools folders you’ll find the devcon folder. Out from what I mentioned folders , which devcon.exe you needed me to run. This is where I get confused. In fact, I both run devcon.exe from each mentioned folders but none of them seemed to work. It gives me the following running error:

    “The version of this file is not compatible with the version of Windows you’re running. Check your computer’s system information to see whether you need an x86 (32-bit) or x64 (64-bit) version of the program, and them contact the software publisher.”

    Please let me know if you have the most current update on this issue. I need your help. Thanks.

Page 1 of 1 (15 items)