PCI-Z, detect unknown PCI devices

[bbanelli]

Greetings to all,

my name is Bruno and I am the author of PCI-Z, freeware lightweight system utility designed to provide information about (unknown) PCI (PCI-E, PCI-X...) devices and helps you find appropriate device drivers.



PCI-Z is designed for detecting unknown hardware on your Windows based PC. It will help you determine vendor, device and certain details about device even if you don't have drivers installed. Software uses The PCI ID Repository, a public repository of all known ID's used in PCI devices: ID's of vendors, devices, subsystems and device classes. It is used in various programs (e.g. The PCI Utilities) to display full human-readable names instead of cryptic numeric codes.

You can find drivers for your operating system without a problem! Find drivers for your WiFi cards, audio cards, network cards or any other PCI peripheral.

Software is compatible with Windows 2000, Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows 7 and Windows 8, as well as Windows Server 2000, Windows Server 2003, Windows Server 2008 and Windows Server 2012. Both 32 bit (x86) and 64 bit (x64) Windows are fully supported. Software will NOT run on Windows 95, 98 or ME.

It does not require any library but default Windows ones. No Visual Studio C++ redistributed, no .NET platform, no Java. It doesn't even require WMI, so you can use it on Windows editions such as Bart PE and similar.

There is no installation or configuration! Simply run the file and wait until you get the report. Afterwards, right click on the line to get options (copy all data or just a segment) or export the whole list.

No configuration of whatsoever is needed.

Key features

• detects all PCI/PCI-X/PCI-E cards, even if your device manager doesn't recognizes them
  helps you find drivers for your Windows OS
  one file only needed for running - 100% portable, no installation needed, no Internet connection needed
  reports devices with drivers issues
  daily updates with PCI ID database
  small size, small memory footprint
  spyware/malware free - VirusTotal report
  freeware!

To-to/wishlist
I am currently working on the following additional features:

• 64 bit version for Windows PE with amd64 subsystem only
  command line options and parameters for non-GUI (CLI) usage
  more textual export options
  screenshot options
  e-mail options
  better PCI ID database manipulation and redundancy
  minor bug fixes and code improvements

Current version 1.0.1.0
http://www.pci-z.com/

Kind regards,

Bruno

[allclownsareevil]

Now THAT is how to submit your own program on a forum.

Thanks for posting Bruno. Sounds useful.

[joby_toss]

Thanks! Looks very nice and it is indeed portable.

[allclownsareevil]

Bruno, I submitted this entry to the database on your behalf.

PCI-Z database entry ... please vote.

[bbanelli]

Greetings,

Bruno, I submitted this entry to the database on your behalf.

PCI-Z database entry ... please vote.

thank you very much!

@joby_toss thank you for you positive feedback.

With my best,

Bruno

[Midas]

Summarily tested, works as expected. Great job!

A few suggestions, mostly interface related: change the interface font to something more current (e.g., Tahoma, MS Shell Dlg), make columns auto-sizable, moveable, hideable and sortable upon clicking the column header, and lastly, the option for a non-standard Windows menu structure would be advantageously replaced by a small toolbar...

[bbanelli]

Summarily tested, works as expected. Great job!

Thanks.

A few suggestions, mostly interface related: change the interface font to something more current (e.g., Tahoma, MS Shell Dlg),

Font is system based, so it is Tahoma in most cases.

make columns auto-sizable, moveable, hideable and sortable upon clicking the column header,

Frankly, that's really among the last of the features I plan to implement (and they will take most of the programming itself). Since there is an option to add database manually, I believe I will take some time to implement targets from wishlist and lay out new application only than.

This is really a weekend project for me, but it became nicely accepted, to the extent I was even contacted from a third largest PC manufacturer in the world (well, at least by the Wikipedia ) for some of the stuff currently included in the wishlist.

and lastly, the option for a non-standard Windows menu structure would be advantageously replaced by a small toolbar...

What do you mean, "non-standard Windows menu structure"? Menus in the application are standard Windows menus.

But I will certainly consider the GUI based proposals I am receiving, since yours is not the first one. My GUI "vision" is really spartan and my Windows themes are always "Windows classic", so that's something I will have to think through.

In any case, your feedback is most welcome, thank you very much!

[Midas]

What do you mean, "non-standard Windows menu structure"?

• I just meant it in respect to standard UI placement, with preset choices and 'Help' always last...

  

  winmenu.PNG (3.18 KiB) Viewed 16118 times

  See http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library ... x#menuBars...
  
  BTW, 'spartan' & 'classic' appeal to me too.

[bbanelli]

What do you mean, "non-standard Windows menu structure"?

I just meant it in respect to standard UI placement, with preset choices and 'Help' always last...
See http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library ... x#menuBars...

Thank you very much for the link!

This is a great tip, I will definitely look deeper into it!

BTW, 'spartan' & 'classic' appeal to me too.

Well, this is basically a "one shot" usage tool, so KISS concept was my idea really!

Best regards,

Bruno

[bbanelli]

Greetings to all,

just a small update - I have added 64 bit version for people who have been asking for support on Windows PE with amd64 kernel.

http://www.pci-z.com/current/PCI-Zx64.exe

In addition, I see that the software was published with "free for personal usage" license, but it is really freeware all the way, so basically, it has no limits on commercial or non-commercial usage. Not a big deal, I am grateful for publishing in the first place, but just wanted to make sure.

With my best,

Bruno

[joby_toss]

Thanks! Entry updated!

[I am Baas]

PCI-Z crashed.

---------------------------
Fatal error
---------------------------
Fatal error, exiting. Error code: 4
---------------------------
OK
---------------------------

How to...?

Click on "Load new PCI ID database..."

Enter a random file name... press enter... and kaboom.

[bbanelli]

Greetings,

PCI-Z crashed.

---------------------------
Fatal error
---------------------------
Fatal error, exiting. Error code: 4
---------------------------
OK
---------------------------

How to...?

Click on "Load new PCI ID database..."

Enter a random file name... press enter... and kaboom.

thanks for the bug report. I have to redo some procedures for error checking when user deliberately enters wrong file name and/or loads erroneous file.

Will be in next update soon enough!

With my best,

Bruno

[bbanelli]

Greetings,

here is the latest 1.2 beta.

- standardized menus (thx @Midas)
- CLI options (run from consol with --help for details)
- check if there is newer pci.ids database in folder that PCI-Z is run from and if so, loaded automatically
- check if there is newer PCI ID database on the Internet and if so, possibility to automatically download
- screenshot options (PNG)
- e-mail reporting (primitive, but does its job properly)
- "driver search" (right click on list), almost useless, but have been asked for this feature, I guess people just hate to do more than few clicks, but hey, can't blame them
- check if there is newer PCI-Z version
- minor bug fixes (thx @I am Baas)

I guess that's it for not, still doing some minor code modifications, hope no major bugs are present in this version, will officially publish 1.2 version very soon.

With my best,

Bruno

[I am Baas]

PCI-Z.7z is password protected.