Container ID

A container ID is a system-supplied device identification string that uniquely groups the functional devices associated with a single-function or multifunction device installed in the computer.

Starting with Windows 7, the Plug and Play (PnP) manager uses the container ID to group one or more device nodes (devnodes) that originated from and belong to each instance of a particular physical device. This instance is referred to as the device container.

Grouping all the devnodes that originated from an instance of a single device achieves the following:

  • The operating system can determine how functionality is related among child devnodes and their container devnode.

  • The user or applications are presented with a device-centric view of devices instead of the traditional function-centric view.

This section contains topics that discuss the container ID in more detail:

Overview of Container IDs

How Container IDs are Generated

Verifying the Implementation of Container IDs

Troubleshooting the Implementation of Container IDs