{"id":63553,"date":"2007-11-19T03:50:00","date_gmt":"2007-11-19T03:50:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.technet.microsoft.com\/heyscriptingguy\/2007\/11\/19\/hey-scripting-guy-how-can-i-tell-if-a-computer-has-a-smartcard-reader-attached\/"},"modified":"2007-11-19T03:50:00","modified_gmt":"2007-11-19T03:50:00","slug":"hey-scripting-guy-how-can-i-tell-if-a-computer-has-a-smartcard-reader-attached","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/scripting\/hey-scripting-guy-how-can-i-tell-if-a-computer-has-a-smartcard-reader-attached\/","title":{"rendered":"Hey, Scripting Guy! How Can I Tell If a Computer Has a SmartCard Reader Attached?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Hey, <\/H2>\n

Hey, Scripting Guy! How can I tell if a computer has a SmartCard reader attached?

— TE<\/P>\"Spacer\"\"Hey,\"Script<\/A> \n

Hey, TE. Um, we hate to be rude, TE, but we\u2019re closed today; we only answer questions Monday through Friday. We\u2019d be happy to help you out, but you\u2019re going to have to come back on \u2013 what\u2019s that? It is<\/I> Monday? Wow. Guess that explains why the Scripting Guys are back in Redmond, and back at work to boot. <\/P>\n\n<\/THEAD>\n\n\n
\n

Note<\/B>. Well, it explains why the Scripting Guy who writes this column is back in Redmond and back at work. Scripting Guy Jean Ross is back in Redmond, too but she\u2019s not<\/I> back at work; instead, she\u2019s<\/I> taking the week off. The Scripting Guy who writes this column was going to complain to his manager about this, except his manager\u2019s taking the week off, too.<\/P>\n

If only all<\/I> Microsoft employees were as devoted to their jobs as the Scripting Guy who writes this column.<\/P><\/TD><\/TR><\/TBODY><\/TABLE>\n

<\/DIV>\n

But that\u2019s probably just as well. After all, the Scripting Guy who writes this column has never complained about anything before. Why start now?<\/P>\n

At any rate, jet lag or no jet lag, today is<\/I> Monday. And that can mean only one thing: Monday Night Football.<\/P>\n

Then again, seeing as how the game won\u2019t start for a few more hours, we might as well see if we can put together a script that will tell you whether or not a computer has a SmartCard reader attached:<\/P>

strComputer = “.”<\/p>\n
Set objWMIService = GetObject(“winmgmts:\\\\” & strComputer & “\\root\\cimv2”)<\/p>\n
Set colItems = objWMIService.ExecQuery(“Select * From Win32_PnPEntity”)<\/p>\n
For Each objItem in colItems\n    If InStr(LCase(objItem.Description), “smartcard”) Then\n        Wscript.Echo “Description: ” & objItem.Description\n        Wscript.Echo “Manufacturer: ” & objItem.Manufacturer\n        Wscript.Echo “Name: ” & objItem.Name\n        Wscript.Echo “PNP Device ID: ” & objItem.PNPDeviceID\n    End If\nNext\n<\/PRE>\n
We start things out by connecting to the WMI service on the local computer. Can you use this same script to determine whether a SmartCard reader is installed on a remote computer? You bet you can; all you have to do is \u2013 all together now \u2013 \u201cassign the name of that remote computer to the variable strComputer.\u201d<\/P>\n
You know, like this:<\/P>
strComputer = “atl-fs-001”\n<\/PRE>\n
After connecting to the WMI service, we next use the ExecQuery<\/B> method and the following line of code to return a collection of all the Plug and Play devices installed on the computer:<\/P>
Set colItems = objWMIService.ExecQuery(“Select * From Win32_PnPEntity”)\n<\/PRE>\n
From there we set up a For Each loop to loop through all the items in the collection, giving us an opportunity to take a closer look at each of these devices.<\/P>\n
And what exactly are we looking for? That\u2019s easy: we\u2019re looking to see if the Description<\/B> property contains the string value smartcard<\/I>. If somewhere along the line we locate a device that has a Description containing the string smartcard<\/I> then we\u2019re going to assume that the computer has a SmartCard reader attached. If we don\u2019t<\/I> find such a device then we\u2019ll assume that the computer doesn\u2019t<\/I> have a SmartCard reader attached.<\/P>\n
So how do we carry out this little inspection? Like this:<\/P>
If InStr(LCase(objItem.Description), “smartcard”) Then\n<\/PRE>\n
It\u2019s really pretty simple: we\u2019re just using the InStr<\/B> function to determine whether the string value smartcard<\/I> appears anywhere in the device Description. To avoid potential confusion between values like SmartCard<\/I> and smartcard<\/I>, we also use the LCase<\/B> function to convert all the characters in the Description to their lowercase equivalent.<\/P>\n
If we don\u2019t find the value smartcard<\/I> then we simply zip back to the beginning of the loop and repeat the process with the next device in the collection. If the value is<\/I> found, then we use this block of code to echo back some of the relevant properties of that device:<\/P>
Wscript.Echo “Description: ” & objItem.Description\nWscript.Echo “Manufacturer: ” & objItem.Manufacturer\nWscript.Echo “Name: ” & objItem.Name\nWscript.Echo “PNP Device ID: ” & objItem.PNPDeviceID\n<\/PRE>\n
In turn, that\u2019s going to give us output similar to this:<\/P>
Description: Texas Instruments PCI GemCore based SmartCard controller\nManufacturer: Texas Instruments\nName: Texas Instruments PCI GemCore based SmartCard controller\nPNP Device ID: PCI\\VEN_104C&DEV_8035&SUBSYS_308B103C&REV_00\\4&1C88B56&0&25A4\n<\/PRE>\n
We can\u2019t guarantee that this script will be 100% accurate; that\u2019s because we can\u2019t guarantee that 100% of all SmartCard readers include the value smartcard<\/I> somewhere in their Description. But it\u2019s definitely worth a try.<\/P>\n
By the way, you might also find this script handy; it returns information about any SmartCard device drivers installed on the computer:<\/P>
On Error Resume Next<\/p>\n
strComputer = “.”<\/p>\n
Set objWMIService = GetObject(“winmgmts:\\\\” & strComputer & “\\root\\cimv2”)<\/p>\n
Set colItems = objWMIService.ExecQuery _\n    (“Select * From Win32_PnPSignedDriver Where DeviceClass = ‘SMARTCARDREADER'”)<\/p>\n
For Each objItem in colItems\n    Wscript.Echo “Device ID: ” & objItem.DeviceID\n    Wscript.Echo “Device Name: ” & objItem.DeviceName\n    Wscript.Echo “Driver Provider Name: ” & objItem.DriverProviderName\n    Wscript.Echo “Driver Version: ” & objItem.DriverVersion\n    Wscript.Echo “Hardware ID: ” & objItem.HardWareID\n    Wscript.Echo “INF Name: ” & objItem.InfName\n    Wscript.Echo “Manufacturer: ” & objItem.Manufacturer\n    Wscript.Echo “PDO: ” & objItem.PDO\n    Wscript.Echo “Signer: ” & objItem.Signer\n Next\n<\/PRE>\n
That script results in output similar to this:<\/P>
Device ID: PCI\\VEN_104C&DEV_8035&SUBSYS_308B103C&REV_00\\4&1C88B56&0&25A4\nDevice Name: Texas Instruments PCI GemCore based SmartCard controller\nDriver Provider Name: Gemplus\nDriver Version: 1.0.1.15\nHardware ID: PCI\\VEN_104C&DEV_8035&SUBSYS_308B103C&REV_00\nINF Name: oem19.inf\nManufacturer: Texas Instruments\nPDO: \\Device\\NTPNP_PCI0023\nSigner: Microsoft Windows Hardware Compatibility Publisher\n<\/PRE>\n
As for the Scripting Guy who writes this column, both the jet lag and the wear-and-tear of a busy week at TechE IT Forum<\/B><\/A> are beginning to catch up to him. We\u2019ll see everyone tomorrow.<\/P>\n\n<\/THEAD>\n\n\n
\n
Note<\/B>. OK, so maybe he\u2019s not all that<\/I> jet lagged and not the least bit tired. But this is Monday, remember? You know, Monday Night Football? Need we say any more?<\/P>\n
See you tomorrow. Well, assuming anyone besides the Scripting Guy who writes this column is working this week.<\/P><\/TD><\/TR><\/TBODY><\/TABLE><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Hey, Scripting Guy! How can I tell if a computer has a SmartCard reader attached?— TE Hey, TE. Um, we hate to be rude, TE, but we\u2019re closed today; we only answer questions Monday through Friday. We\u2019d be happy to help you out, but you\u2019re going to have to come back on \u2013 what\u2019s that? […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":595,"featured_media":87096,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[34,35,3,5],"class_list":["post-63553","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-scripting","tag-hardware","tag-peripherals-and-devices","tag-scripting-guy","tag-vbscript"],"acf":[],"blog_post_summary":"
Hey, Scripting Guy! How can I tell if a computer has a SmartCard reader attached?— TE Hey, TE. Um, we hate to be rude, TE, but we\u2019re closed today; we only answer questions Monday through Friday. We\u2019d be happy to help you out, but you\u2019re going to have to come back on \u2013 what\u2019s that? […]<\/p>\n","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/scripting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63553","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/scripting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/scripting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/scripting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/595"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/scripting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=63553"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/scripting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63553\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/scripting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/87096"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/scripting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=63553"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/scripting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=63553"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/scripting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=63553"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}