The title pretty much says it all. I'm just concerned about Windows, so there's no need to go into esoterica about Mono compatibility or anything like that.
I should also add that the app that I'm writing is WPF, and I'd prefer to avoid taking a dependency on System.Windows.Forms if at all possible.
The simplest way would be to create an Autoplay Handler:
http://www.codeproject.com/KB/system/AutoplayDemo.aspx
Autoplay Version 2 is a feature in Windows XP that will scan the first four levels of a removable media, when it arrives, looking for media content types (music, graphics, or video). Registration of applications is done on a content type basis. When a removable media arrives, Windows XP determines what actions to perform by evaluating the content and comparing it to registered handlers for that content.
A detailed MSDN article is also available.
Give this a shot...
using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Text;
using System.Management;
namespace WMITestConsolApplication
{
class Program
{
static void Main(string[] args)
{
AddInsertUSBHandler();
AddRemoveUSBHandler();
while (true) {
}
}
static ManagementEventWatcher w = null;
static void AddRemoveUSBHandler()
{
WqlEventQuery q;
ManagementScope scope = new ManagementScope("root\\CIMV2");
scope.Options.EnablePrivileges = true;
try {
q = new WqlEventQuery();
q.EventClassName = "__InstanceDeletionEvent";
q.WithinInterval = new TimeSpan(0, 0, 3);
q.Condition = "TargetInstance ISA 'Win32_USBControllerdevice'";
w = new ManagementEventWatcher(scope, q);
w.EventArrived += USBRemoved;
w.Start();
}
catch (Exception e) {
Console.WriteLine(e.Message);
if (w != null)
{
w.Stop();
}
}
}
static void AddInsertUSBHandler()
{
WqlEventQuery q;
ManagementScope scope = new ManagementScope("root\\CIMV2");
scope.Options.EnablePrivileges = true;
try {
q = new WqlEventQuery();
q.EventClassName = "__InstanceCreationEvent";
q.WithinInterval = new TimeSpan(0, 0, 3);
q.Condition = "TargetInstance ISA 'Win32_USBControllerdevice'";
w = new ManagementEventWatcher(scope, q);
w.EventArrived += USBInserted;
w.Start();
}
catch (Exception e) {
Console.WriteLine(e.Message);
if (w != null)
{
w.Stop();
}
}
}
static void USBInserted(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
Console.WriteLine("A USB device inserted");
}
static void USBRemoved(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
Console.WriteLine("A USB device removed");
}
}
}
There are much less cumbersome ways of doing this than using WMI polling - just capture WM_DEVICECHANGE:
Hy, you can check out this guy's code here http://karlagius.com/2009/03/04/keeping-track-of-usb-devices-using-wmi/. The interesting bit is the ForgetMeNot\Controllers\DeviceListController.cs file.