Get or generate System Information in "C++"

Question

If you look at your windows pc's system information window and select Components->Display in the left pane. The second from top value in the right pane is PNP Device ID. This is the case for XP at any rate.

I need some way of accessing or generating this PNP Device ID value.

I currently use glGetString ( RENDERER ) and glGetString ( VENDOR ) to identify the primary gpu. I have been told that these values can be subject to change when a driver is updated, so not ideal to use as list of our known problem devices. Further searching has shown me that these glGetString values are generated from the PNP Device ID which is a combination of bios information and driver .inf file data.

Does anyone know a way in C++ to access this PNP Device ID.

Answer 1

OpenGL doesn't deal with this kind of low level device access. It's device model is purely abstract and the strings reported are mostly of informational value. If you want to know specific information about the device, you must use OS dependent bus enumeration functions.