How to get hardware print? - hardware

Question

Can someone tell me how to get the hardware print of my computer, on VB 2010 express, or where and how is that stored? Thanks in advance.

Answer 1

The best way to figure out what hardware is attached to your computer is to use WMI to get the information. Microsoft has created a tool that will create C#, VB.Net and VBScript sample code which you can run with the program and see what the values are, you can then add it to your program. This tool is called the WMI Code Creator. I would start out by exploring the Classes starting with Win32_
Now that I know what you are trying to do I can be a little more specific. The WMI NameSpace you are needing is root\CIMV2 the Class is Win32_DiskDrive or Win32_PhysicalMedia and the Property is SerialNumber. I made a small console test app in Vb.net. It will print out the drive serialnumbers on your PC, if you need it in c# I can modify. There are also numerous other SO Questions about the same subject.
Imports System
Imports System.Management
Module Module1
Sub Main()
For Each sn As String In GetDriveSerialNumber()
Console.WriteLine(sn.Trim)
Next
Console.ReadLine()
End Sub
Function GetDriveSerialNumber() As List(Of String)
Dim snList As List(Of String) = New List(Of String)
Try
Dim searcher As New ManagementObjectSearcher("root\CIMV2", "SELECT * FROM Win32_DiskDrive")
For Each queryObj As ManagementObject In searcher.Get()
snList.Add(queryObj("SerialNumber").ToString())
Next
Catch err As ManagementException
Throw
End Try
Return snList
End Function
End Module