Device Class GUIDs for Common Hardware

System-defined device classes have corresponding GUID values

By
Tim Fisher
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Tim Fisher
Senior Vice President & Group General Manager, Tech & Sustainability
  • Emporia State University
Tim Fisher has more than 30 years' of professional technology experience. He's been writing about tech for more than two decades and serves as the SVP and General Manager of Lifewire.
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Updated on February 21, 2023

Outside of device driver programming, knowing the globally unique identifier (GUID) for a hardware device class is useful when tracking down driver information in the Windows Registry.

For example, the solution to several Device Manager error codes includes removing specific registry values from registry keys named after a device's GUID.

Close up picture of an open hard drive
Michael Bodmann / E+ / Getty Images

This is not an exhaustive list, and not all Windows versions use every GUID in this table. Several less common system-defined device classes exist. Also, devices can generate unique classes based on variables, which makes it impossible to list them all.

Common Device Class GUIDs
Class GUID Device Description
Battery 72631E54-78A4-11D0-BCF7-00AA00B7B32A UPSs and other battery devices
Biometric 53D29EF7-377C-4D14-864B-EB3A85769359 Biometric-based devices
Bluetooth E0CBF06C-CD8B-4647-BB8A-263B43F0F974 Bluetooth devices
Camera CA3E7AB9-B4C3-4AE6-8251-579EF933890F Camera devices
CDROM 4D36E965-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318 CD/DVD/Blu-ray drives
DiskDrive 4D36E967-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318 Hard drives
Display 4D36E968-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318 Video adapters
Extension E2F84CE7-8EFA-411C-AA69-97454CA4CB57 Devices requiring customizations
FDC 4D36E969-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318 Floppy controllers
FloppyDisk 4D36E980-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318 Floppy drives
HDC 4D36E96A-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318 Hard drive controllers
HIDClass 745A17A0-74D3-11D0-B6FE-00A0C90F57DA Some USB devices
1394 6BDD1FC1-810F-11D0-BEC7-08002BE2092F IEEE 1394 host controller
Image 6BDD1FC6-810F-11D0-BEC7-08002BE2092F Cameras and scanners
Infrared 6BDD1FC5-810F-11D0-BEC7-08002BE2092F Infrared devices
Keyboard 4D36E96B-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318 Keyboards
MediumChanger CE5939AE-EBDE-11D0-B181-0000F8753EC4 SCSI media changer devices
MTD 4D36E970-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318 Memory devices (e.g., flash memory cards)
Modem 4D36E96D-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318 Modems
Monitor 4D36E96E-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318 Monitors
Mouse 4D36E96F-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318 Mice and pointing devices
Multifunction 4D36E971-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318 Combo cards (e.g., PCMCIA modem)
Media 4D36E96C-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318 Audio and video devices
MultiportSerial 50906CB8-BA12-11D1-BF5d-0000F805F530 Multiport serial cards
Net 4D36E972-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318 Network adapters
NetClient 4D36E973-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318 Network and/or print providers
NetService 4D36E974-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002be10318 Servers
Ports 4D36E978-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318 Serial and parallel ports
Printer 4D36E979-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318 Printers
PNPPrinters 4658EE7E-F050-11D1-B6BD-00C04FA372A7 SCSI/1394-enumerated printers
Processor 50127DC3-0F36-415E-A6CC-4CB3BE910B65 Processor types
SCSIAdapter 4D36E97B-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318 SCSI and RAID controllers
Securitydevices D94EE5D8-D189-4994-83D2-F68D7D41B0E6 Trusted Platform Module chips
Sensor 5175D334-C371-4806-B3BA-71FD53C9258D Sensor and location devices
SmartCardReader 50DD5230-BA8A-11D1-BF5D-0000F805F530 Smart card readers
Volume 71A27CDD-812A-11D0-BEC7-08002BE2092F Storage volumes
System 4D36E97D-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318 System buses, bridges, etc.
TapeDrive 6D807884-7D21-11CF-801C-08002BE10318 Tape drives
USB 36FC9E60-C465-11CF-8056-444553540000 USB host controllers and hubs
USBDevice 88BAE032-5A81-49f0-BC3D-A4FF138216D6 USB devices that don't belong to another class
WPD EEC5AD98-8080-425F-922A-DABF3DE3F69A WPD devices

What Are GUIDs?

A globally unique identifier (GUID) is just that: a unique number used, in this context, to identify specific hardware components. Windows creates the GUID, written in hex as a 128-bit alphanumeric string, for each piece of hardware. A GUID starts with one set of eight hexadecimal digits, followed by three groups of four digits and then one group of 12 digits. 

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