How do I access USB devices from Windows applications?
How an application communicates with a USB device depends on the device driver that Windows has assigned to the device. The choice of driver in turn depends on finding a match between the information in the descriptors that Windows retrieves on device attachment or bootup and the information stored in the PC’s INF files. Typically, the application doesn’t have to know whether the device uses USB or another interface. For example, applications access files on a drive in the same way whether the drive uses USB, IEEE-1394, SCSI, ATAPI, or another interface. The interface-specific details are handled at a lower level. Some devices use drivers included with Windows. Others use a vendor-specific driver that he user must install.
