The Old New Thing

Why does Windows not recognize my USB device as the same device if I plug it into a different port?

November 10, 2004 Nov 10, 2004 11/10/04

Raymond Chen

You may have noticed that if you take a USB device and plug it into your computer, Windows recognizes it and configures it. Then if you unplug it and replug it into a different USB port, Windows gets a bout of amnesia and thinks that it's a completely different device instead of using the settings that applied when you plugged it in last time...