VB.NET detect laptop or desktop

Using VB.NET detect laptop or desktop

You may run into a situation where you want to check the machine type and determine if your application is running on a desktop or laptop.

This article will discuss how to use VB.NET to detect laptop or desktop device type.

I should note, that there are a lot of ways to accomplish this.

You could:

• Utilize WMI classes, and then determine chassis type.
• Build a static array of models types in your environment, and then get the model type the program is running on
• Look at the power settings of the device (laptops typically have different power configurations than desktops)

None of these are going to work 100% of the time and are prone to error.

The method I ended up with is also not 100% foolproof.

The basic concept is that we’ll look to the battery to make a determination.  Desktops don’t typically have batteries, right?  Well, that’s true most of the time.  For example, if you have a modern UPS hooked to a desktop via usb, chances are good the desktop will report as having an active battery.

That wasn’t going to pose an issue in my case, and I found the below code to work perfectly on accurately determining whether or not I was dealing with a laptop or desktop.

Determine if machine type is laptop or desktop:

'################################################################################
    'checks to see if device is a laptop or desktop and performs action accordingly
    Public Sub checkDeviceType()
        Try
            'easiest way to to this is to check for a battery
			'so, lets check the battery power status
            Dim ps As PowerStatus = SystemInformation.PowerStatus
            Dim batteryStatus As String = ps.BatteryChargeStatus.ToString
			'the status for no batter is NoSystemBattery
            If batteryStatus = "NoSystemBattery" Then
                'if no battery, than we are likely dealing with a desktop
				'*****Perform******
				'*****Destkop******
				'******Code********
            Else
                'we likely have a laptop
				'*****Perform******
				'*****Laptop******
				'******Code********
            End If
        Catch ex As Exception
            'Error control
        End Try
    End Sub
'################################################################################

Have an even better solution? Feel free to post in the comments below.