Getting Serial Port Information

Question

I have some code that loads the serial ports into a combo-box:

     List<String> tList = new List<String>(); 

     comboBoxComPort.Items.Clear();

     foreach (string s in SerialPort.GetPortNames())
     {
        tList.Add(s);
     }

     tList.Sort();
     comboBoxComPort.Items.Add("Select COM port...");
     comboBoxComPort.Items.AddRange(tList.ToArray());
     comboBoxComPort.SelectedIndex = 0;

I would like to add the port descriptions (similar to what are shown for the COM ports in the Device Manager) to the list and sort the items in the list that are after index 0 (solved: see above snippet). Does anyone have any suggestions for adding the port descriptions? I am using Microsoft Visual C# 2008 Express Edition (.NET 2.0). Any thoughts you may have would be appreciated. Thanks.

Answer 1

EDIT: Sorry, I zipped past your question too quick. I realize now that you're looking for a list with the port name + port description. I've updated the code accordingly...

Using System.Management, you can query for all the ports, and all the information for each port (just like Device Manager...)

Sample code (make sure to add reference to System.Management):

using System;
using System.Management;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Linq;
using System.IO.Ports;        

namespace ConsoleApplication1
{
    class Program
    {
        static void Main(string[] args)
        {
            using (var searcher = new ManagementObjectSearcher
                ("SELECT * FROM WIN32_SerialPort"))
            {
                string[] portnames = SerialPort.GetPortNames();
                var ports = searcher.Get().Cast<ManagementBaseObject>().ToList();
                var tList = (from n in portnames
                            join p in ports on n equals p["DeviceID"].ToString()
                            select n + " - " + p["Caption"]).ToList();

                tList.ForEach(Console.WriteLine);
            }

            // pause program execution to review results...
            Console.WriteLine("Press enter to exit");
            Console.ReadLine();
        }
    }
}

More info here: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa394582%28VS.85%29.aspx