How to enable a device using PowerShell Enable-PnpDevice Cmdlet
In this lesson, let us learn how to enable a device using PowerShell Enable-PnpDevice cmdlet. PowerShell Enable-PnpDevice cmdlet can be used to enable a device, if you are working in a Windows 2025 Server Core server, where there is no Graphical User Interface.
You must be a Windows Server administrator to run these tasks successfully. Click the following link to learn how to run PowerShell as administrator, and how to run PowerShell as administrator in Server Core.
Step 01 – Run Get-PnpDevice PowerShell cmdlet to find information about the Plug and Play (PnP) devices, as shown below. In this example, I had selected a Gigabit Ethernet Network adapter device. Remaining output are truncated.
PS C:\jajish> Get-PnpDevice | Format-Table -Property FriendlyName,InstanceID FriendlyName InstanceId ------------ ---------- <command output truncated> ***** Gigabit Network Connection PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_10D3&SUBSYS_07D015AD&REV_00\000C29FFFF739D8400 <command output truncated>
From the output of the Get-PnpDevice PowerShell cmdlet, we can find the InstanceId of the devices, as shown in above output.
Step 02 – Now, run the Enable-PnpDevice PowerShell cmdlet, with the InstanceId found from the above Get-PnpDevice cmdlet output to enable the particular Plug and Play (PnP) device, as shown below. Make sure to enclose the InstanceId between single quots.
PS C:\jajish> Enable-PnpDevice -InstanceId 'PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_10D3&SUBSYS_07D015AD&REV_00\000C29FFFF739D8400' Confirm Are you sure you want to perform this action? Performing the operation "Enable" on target "Win32_PnPEntity: <output omitted> Network Connection (DeviceID = "PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_10D3&SUBSYS_07D015AD&R...)". [Y] Yes [A] Yes to All [N] No [L] No to All [S] Suspend [?] Help (default is "Y"): y PS C:\jajish>
The device is enabled now, using the Enable-PnpDevice PowerShell cmdlet.
Written by Jajish Thomas.
Last updated on 14th July, 2024.