Skip to main content

How to List Devices by a Specific Status (e.g., Error) in Batch Script

A healthy computer is one where all its hardware devices are working correctly. When a piece of hardware fails or has a driver issue, it can cause system instability, crashes, or loss of functionality. For troubleshooting and system health monitoring, it's crucial to be able to programmatically find any devices that are in an error state.

This guide will teach you how to use the powerful, built-in WMIC (Windows Management Instrumentation Command-line) utility to query the state of all devices on the system. You will learn how to use a WHERE clause to filter this list and find only the devices that are not reporting a healthy "OK" status.

The Core Command: WMIC and Device Status​

The WMIC utility is the standard tool for querying the deep state of the Windows operating system and its hardware. To find devices, we need to query the WMI class that represents all "Plug and Play" devices.

The Key WMI Class: Win32_PnPEntity​

The Win32_PnPEntity class in WMI represents every single piece of "hardware" that the Plug and Play manager is aware of. This includes everything from the motherboard chipset and USB controllers to webcams and virtual devices.

Each device in this class has a Status property, which is what we will use to find problems.

  • OK: The device is working properly.
  • Error: The device has a problem. This is what you see in the graphical Device Manager when a device has a yellow exclamation mark next to it.
  • Degraded: The device is not in an optimal state but is still functioning.
  • Other statuses exist, but OK and Error are the most common.

Basic Example: A Simple Device Health Check​

To find all devices that are not in a healthy state, we can use a WHERE clause to filter the Win32_PnPEntity class.

Command: WMIC PATH Win32_PnPEntity WHERE "Status<>'OK'" GET Caption, Status

  • WMIC PATH Win32_PnPEntity: Specifies the WMI class we are querying.
  • WHERE "Status<>'OK'": This is the crucial filter.
    • Status: The property we are checking.
    • <>: The "not equal to" operator in WMI Query Language (WQL).
    • 'OK': The value we are checking against.
  • GET Caption, Status: The properties we want to display.

Running this command will produce a list of only the devices that have a problem. If your system is healthy, it will return No Instance(s) Available.

How to Capture the Problem Devices in a Script​

To create a report or an alert, you need to capture the output of this command. A FOR /F loop with the CSV format is the most reliable way.

@ECHO OFF
SETLOCAL
ECHO --- Scanning for Devices with Errors ---
ECHO If no devices are listed, the system is healthy.
ECHO.

REM 'skip=1' ignores the header. 'tokens=2,3' grabs the Caption and Status.
FOR /F "skip=1 tokens=2,3 delims=," %%A IN (
    'WMIC PATH Win32_PnPEntity WHERE "Status<>'OK'" GET Caption,Status /FORMAT:CSV'
) DO (
    ECHO [PROBLEM DETECTED]
    ECHO   Device: "%%~A"
    ECHO   Status: "%%~B"
    ECHO.
)

ENDLOCAL

How the WMIC Command Works​

The WMIC command is an interface to the WMI service. It sends a WQL (WMI Query Language) query to the service, which is like a database query. The command WMIC PATH Win32_PnPEntity WHERE "Status<>'OK'" is essentially saying, "Go to the big table of all Plug and Play devices, and give me back every row where the value in the 'Status' column is not 'OK'."

Common Pitfalls and How to Solve Them​

Problem: You Need Administrator Rights for a Full View​

While a standard user can run this query, they may not have permission to see the status of all low-level system devices. This can lead to an incomplete or misleading report.

Solution: For a complete and accurate audit of all hardware devices, you must run the script as an Administrator.

Problem: Understanding "Normal" Errors​

Sometimes, devices can be in a non-OK state for legitimate reasons.

  • Disabled Devices: If you have manually disabled a device in the Device Manager, its status might be reported as "Degraded" or another non-OK status. This is not a hardware failure. The ConfigManagerErrorCode property (value 22) can confirm if a device is disabled.
  • Virtual Devices: Some virtual adapters or devices used by software may have unusual statuses that are not indicative of a real hardware problem.

Solution: This requires interpretation. The primary goal of this script is to find devices with a status of Error, which almost always indicates a real problem (e.g., driver issue, hardware conflict, or failure).

Practical Example: A System Health Audit Script​

This script creates a report of all problematic devices and saves it to the desktop. It's a perfect tool for a quick system health check.

@ECHO OFF
SETLOCAL
SET "ReportFile=%USERPROFILE%\Desktop\Device_Health_Report.txt"

ECHO --- System Device Health Audit ---
ECHO Creating report at: "%ReportFile%"

(
    ECHO Device Health Report for: %COMPUTERNAME%
    ECHO Generated on: %DATE% at %TIME%
    ECHO ------------------------------------
    ECHO The following devices are reporting a non-OK status:
    ECHO.
) > "%ReportFile%"

REM Use /FORMAT:LIST for a clear, readable report format.
WMIC PATH Win32_PnPEntity WHERE "Status<>'OK'" GET Caption,Status,DeviceID /FORMAT:LIST >> "%ReportFile%"

ECHO.
ECHO [SUCCESS] Report created.
START "" "%ReportFile%"
ENDLOCAL

Conclusion​

The WMIC command provides a powerful and direct way to query the status of all hardware devices known to Windows.

Key takeaways for using it to find problems:

  • The core WMI class is Win32_PnPEntity.
  • The key is the WHERE clause: WHERE "Status<>'OK'". This filters the list to show only devices that are not healthy.
  • For a complete and accurate report, you must run the script as an Administrator.
  • Use a FOR /F loop with the /FORMAT:CSV output to parse the results for automated alerting or reporting.

By incorporating this simple query into your maintenance and diagnostic scripts, you can proactively detect hardware and driver issues before they become major problems.

Table of Contents