How to determine whether I have USB3 ports in my laptop?

Question

Is there any way, besides reading the product manual, to determine which type/class of USB ports are present in my computer casing?

Can this obtained by visual confirmation, reading the device properties or searching for a registry key? If not, how can I do so?

Answer 1

In device manager look for Extensible Host Controller Interface (xHCI) In Universal Serial Bus Controllers. If you have a usb 3.0 you'll have it, if not, not.

Here is an example of an Intel USB 3.0 controller in device manager

Answer 2

Visually speaking, USB 3 ports are typically blue, so you can easily differentiate them. They also have 2 extra pins.

It is impossible to differntiate versions 1.0, 1.1, and 2.0 from each other visually. However, a computer would have to be pretty old to have version 1 or 1.1 ports. I believe anything on a Pentium 4 or later would be v2 and up.

See the following image to see the difference between version 3, and what is most likely 2.

Also, yellow ports typically designate powered ports, which can be always on to charge your devices.

Answer 3

Similarly, in Device Manager (Windows 7 : Start --> Computer (right-click) --> Properties --> Device Manager) if you expand the Universal Serial Bus Controllers button you will see Enhanced Host Controller if you only have USB 2.0.