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windowsbatch-filewindows-10device-managerdevcon

Enabling/disabling a device in Windows 10 from command line

I have a specific piece of hardware which I'd like to disable and re-enable each time my Windows restarts. I created a batch script which is supposed to do that, along with running my program afterwards:

cd %~dp0
devcon.exe disable "PCI\VEN_1002&DEV_687F"
timeout /t 3
devcon.exe enable "PCI\VEN_1002&DEV_687F"

runMyWindows.exe --totally-not-virus

I am not sure if devcon.exe is a proper application for this in the first place because I have no experience with writing Windows scripts at all.

However, I have noticed that those commands don't quite do the job because my runMyWindows.exe program doesn't work as it should until I go to Windows Device Manager and manually disable and re-enable this device.

I have only 1 user on this machine which is in "Administrator" group and I am not running this script in any special way except double-clicking the .bat file, or in case of the restart, it is run from the startup folder (C:\Users\oxxo\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Startup).

Is there a way to do this properly within my batch script which should be run automatically on Windows startup?

Solution

  • Due to security 'improvements' in Windows 10 and certainly since Windows Vista and the introduction of User Account Control I assume you would need to Run as administrator, not just be a member of the Administrators group.

    It should generally be read that Run as administrator means Run as the user with the account name Administrator not Run as any user who holds membership of the Administrators group.

    To Run as administrator, right click on the batch file and select Run as administrator from the context menu.

    There are other ways of running as Administrator too.

    • You can use a self-elevating batch file, which usually uses a PowerShell or WSH helper function.
    • You can use Task Scheduler and choose the appropriate triggers and account information, (possibly using the SYSTEM account).

    Additionally you need to ensure that DevCon.exe is either:

    • Along side the batch file, "%~dp0DevCon.exe" Disable "PCI\VEN_1002&DEV_687F*"
    • At a location defined within %PATH%, DevCon Disable "PCI\VEN_1002&DEV_687F*"
    • Invoked using its full path, "C:\Tools\DevCon.exe" Disable "PCI\VEN_1002&DEV_687F*"

    In all cases above please note the asterisk which is missing from your examples