Question

in windows if you go
DeviceManager -> Select Device(Like a a keyboard) -> Go to details -> List of properties:

Device description
Hardware Ids
Compatible Ids
Device class
Device class guid
Driver key
ConfigFlags
... etc

Where can I find what each of these properties mean?

Answer 1

From MSDN documentation, you will find description for Device Instance IDs, and link to other descriptions. This link briefly describes some of them, which are listed as following:

Device IDs

A device ID is a vendor-defined identification string that is the most
specific ID that Setup uses to match a device to an INF file. A device
has only one device ID. A device ID has the same format as a hardware
ID. If an enumerator reports a list of hardware IDs for a device, the
device ID should be the first hardware ID in the list.

The PnP Manager uses the device ID to create a subkey for a device
under the registry key for the device’s enumerator.

To obtain a device ID, use an IRP_MN_QUERY_ID request and set the
Parameters.QueryId.IdType field to BusQueryDeviceID.

Hardware IDs

A hardware ID is a vendor-defined identification string that Setup
uses to match a device to an INF file. In most cases, a device has
associated with it a list of hardware IDs. (However, there are
exceptions – see Identifiers for 1394 Devices). The first hardware ID
in the list should be the device ID, and the remaining IDs should be
listed in order of decreasing suitability.

A hardware ID has one of the following generic formats:

<enumerator>\<enumerator-specific-device-ID> This is the most common
format for individual PnP devices reported to the PnP Manager by a
single enumerator. New enumerators should use this format or the
following format.
*<enumerator-specific-ID> The asterisk indicates that the device is supported by more than one enumerator, such as ISAPNP and the BIOS.
<device-class-specific-ID> An existing device class that has
established its own naming convention might use a custom format. For
information on their hardware ID formats, see the hardware
specification for such buses. New enumerators should not use this
format. The number of characters of a hardware ID, excluding a
NULL-terminator, must be less than MAX_LENGTH_LEN. This constraint
applies to the sum of the lengths of all the fields and any “\” field
separators in a hardware ID. In addition, when an instance ID is
concatenated to a hardware ID to create a device instance ID, the
lengths of the hardware ID and the instance ID are further constrained
by the maximum possible length of a device instance ID.

To obtain the list of hardware IDs for a device, call
IoGetDeviceProperty with the DeviceProperty parameter set to
DevicePropertyHardwareID. The list of hardware IDs that this routine
retrieves is a REG_MULTI_SZ value. The maximum number of characters in
a hardware list, including a NULL terminator after each hardware ID
and a final NULL terminator, is REGSTR_VAL_MAX_HCID_LEN. The maximum
possible number of IDs in a list of hardware IDs is MAX_HCID_COUNT.

Examples of Hardware IDs

In the following, the first example is a generic identifier for a PnP
device, and the second example is an identifier for a PCI device:

root*PNP0F08

PCI\VEN_1000&DEV_0001&SUBSYS_00000000&REV_02

Compatible IDs

A compatible ID is a vendor-defined identification string that Setup
uses to match a device to an INF file. A device can have associated
with it a list of compatible IDs. The compatible IDs should be listed
in order of decreasing suitability. If Setup cannot locate an INF file
that matches one of a device’s hardware IDs, it uses compatible IDs to
locate an INF file. Compatible IDs have the same format as hardware
IDs; however, compatible IDs are typically more generic than hardware
IDs.

If a vendor ships an INF file that specifies a compatible ID for a
driver node, the vendor should ensure that their INF file can support
all the hardware that matches the compatible ID. Because a match with
a compatible ID is not as strong as a match to a hardware ID, the PnP
Manager prompts the user for confirmation before processing the INF
file.

To obtain a list of compatible IDs for a device, call
IoGetDeviceProperty with the DeviceProperty parameter set to
DevicePropertyCompatibleID. The list of compatible IDs that this
routine retrieves is a REG_MULTI_SZ value. The maximum number of
characters in a compatible ID list, including a NULL terminator after
each compatible ID and a final NULL terminator, is
REGSTR_VAL_MAX_HCID_LEN. The maximum possible number of IDs in a list
of compatible IDs is MAX_HCID_COUNT.

Instance IDs

An instance ID is a device identification string that distinguishes a
device from other devices of the same type on a machine. An instance
ID contains serial number information, if supported by the underlying
bus, or some kind of location information. The string cannot contain
any “\” characters; otherwise, the generic format of the string is
bus-specific.

The number of characters of an instance ID, excluding a
NULL-terminator, must be less than MAX_LENGTH_LEN. In addition, when
an instance ID is concatenated to a device ID to create a device
instance ID, the lengths of the device ID and the instance ID are
further constrained by the maximum possible length of a device
instance ID.

The UniqueID member of the DEVICE_CAPABILITIES structure for a device
indicates if a bus-supplied instance ID is unique across the system,
as follows:

If UniqueID is FALSE, the bus-supplied instance ID for a device is
unique only to the device’s bus. The PnP Manager modifies the
bus-supplied instance ID, and combines it with the corresponding
device ID, to create a device instance ID that is unique in the
system. If UniqueID is TRUE, the device instance ID, formed from the
bus-supplied device ID and instance ID, uniquely identifies a device
in the system. An instance ID is persistent across system boots.

To obtain the bus-supplied instance ID for a device, use an
IRP_MN_QUERY_ID request and set the Parameters.QueryId.IdType member
to BusQueryInstanceID.

Device Instance IDs

A device instance ID is a system-supplied device identification string
that uniquely identifies a device in the system. The PnP Manager
assigns a device instance ID to each device node in a system’s device
tree.

The format of this string consists of an instance ID concatenated to a
device ID, as follows:

\ The number of characters of a
device instance ID, excluding a NULL-terminator, must be less than
MAX_LENGTH_LEN. This constraint applies to the sum of the lengths of
all the fields and “\” field separator between the device ID and
instance-specific-ID fields. A device instance ID is persistent across
system boots.

The following is an example of an instance ID (“1&08”) concatenated to
a device ID for a PCI device:

PCI\VEN_1000&DEV_0001&SUBSYS_00000000&REV_02\1&08