I am with novicepopulace.
I cannot get the vendor name to show up.
How do I get it to work? I downloaded the file it asked me to, but then...nothing.

This version (1.60) does not work for me, it hangs without ever displaying anything and is extremely hard to kill. I've reverted back to the last version (1.56) that I downloaded which works just fine, so it's not something on my computer that causes this aplication to fail - just teh most recent version.

USBdeView is useful and easy to use. Thanks to the author for writing an easy to read manual also. It is easy to script this program.

A nice advanced use of this program is to add explorer contextual menus that call upon it to remove specific devices by name. I have done this to add a right-click menu to eject only my portable media player while leaving all other USB devices non-affected.

Also I like the option to have it remove all USB devices with one command. This greatly simplifies some shutdown and USB dismount tasks where some versions of Windows might not do it correctly (iPod corruption issues, for example).

The main display window can be very nicely configured to give very detailed yet understandable information about the devices and ports installed and whether or not they are in use or not.

If you use USB multimedia gear (MIDI, cameras, etc), USBdeView can be handy for USB conflict-analysis purposes. Thanks again for making this decent portable program.

Please instruct me on getting vendor name in the list. I put the file in the folder, but vendor stays blank.

I use this tool to completely remove USB devices I no longer use. This is one of my favorite utilities from NirSoft.

Another way you can look at it is this.
You go to install zune but never installed software and windows asks you to find driver well at the end it ask's you if you want windows to never ask you to install this hardware again and bam. You can not get plug that comes with zune to work because of the you accepting never to ask you again about this new hardware. This works great.

another use for this program.
Think about auditing purposes.. you may have a policy which prohibits or restrict the use of usb drives to prevent any data leak.. having a log that shows exactly what have been pluged and when (even remotely) would be a great tool to provide evidence of that security policy

QUESTION: What is the purpose and use of such a program? what situation would call for it?
ANSWER: Have you ever put your feets in a cyberpoint of Africa or Asia? How can you unplug your pendrive? Just removing it? Guy, this is a great tool, even if doesn't work always!

I've actually had to replace a handheld card scanner on a workstation. The model of the newer was one newer than the broken scanner.. but the models were the same, and I couldn't uninstall, or get the old drievrs and such out. This program cleared everything out, and I was able to put the new one back in, as if there was never a previous one.

How about this situation: I bought a bargin generic usb thumb drive which worked fine on my newer machines, but I also wanted to use it on my old Win98 system. Lacking a W98 driver, I was about to try installing the free generic W98 mass storage driver but that looked like a lot of work. Then I came across an earlier version of USBDeview. I used it to find the vendor code of the generic drive, looked up their web site and found a W98 driver for some of their name brand drives. The gamble that it would work for the generic drive paid off. My thanks to the folks who write (and give away) these unusual gems like USBDeview.

What is the purpose and use of such a program? what situation would call for it?

Great utility , works flawlessly and its history population is good and useful.. recommended