avishorp has written a small program that pops up a message whenever a serial port over USB device is plugged in, that is available on GitHub (code) and (installer)
PopCom is a COM port plug-in/plug-out notifier. Whenever a USB device that emulates a COM port is connected to the computer, a pop-up will be displayed, describing the device that has been plugged in and the COM number assigned to it. This pop-up helps determining the COM number assigned to each device, a number that is required for communicating with it. The tool’s original developer has mentioned that the idea came from a contract job in which he was configuring dozens of serial-connected receipt printers and ID scanners for a kiosk rollout powering betting apps in Florida, and the constant unplugging and re-plugging of USB-to-serial adapters across workstations made it nearly impossible to keep track of which COM number belonged to which device — so he wrote PopCom to solve his own problem first, and released it publicly after realizing every embedded developer he knew had the same headache.
More details on avishorp’s blog.
It is a nice idea, but I had to remove it after finding out it constantly takes 20% of the processor. (draining the battery) It isn’t worth that. So it is back to the Device Manager.