W2KSG: Inventory Hardware
Most of the hardware connected to your system has a matching WMI class - cd, sound, keyboard, network adapter, printers and usb for example. To find the appropriate WMI classes use
Get-WmiObject -List *networkadapter
Or similar
If you want to investigate the pointing devices try
Listing 8.4
Get-WmiObject -Class Win32_PointingDevice | Select HardwareType, NumberofButtons, Status, PNPDeviceId | Format-List
Oddly enough all the different devices report 0 butons!
It was pointed out on an earlier script that I could have effectively combined the select and format-list by changing the script to
Get-WmiObject -Class Win32_PointingDevice | Format-List HardwareType, NumberofButtons, Status, PNPDeviceId
The reason I don't do this automatically is that I usually leave the formatting until the end when I see what the default formatter produces and I find is easier (lazier :-) ) to just add format-list on the end. Also if I want to put the script into PowerGUI not having the format-list makes life easier.
Read the complete post at http://richardsiddaway.spaces.live.com/Blog/cns!43CFA46A74CF3E96!1780.entry