finally a way to list comports, tho hacky

listComPorts.vbs

@@ -0,0 +1,48 @@
+'
+' ListComPorts -- List all COM, even USB-to-serial-based onesports,
+'                 along with other info about them
+'
+' http://github.com/todbot/usbSearch
+'
+' 2012, Tod E. Kurt, http://todbot.com/blog/
+'
+' core idea stolen from
+' http://collectns.blogspot.com/2011/11/vbscript-for-detecting-usb-serial-com.html
+' And this is fun, if not particularly useful:
+' http://henryranch.net/software/jwmi-query-windows-wmi-from-java/
+' 
+
+Set portList = GetComPorts()
+
+portnames = portList.Keys
+for each pname in portnames
+    Set portinfo = portList.item(pname)
+    wscript.echo pname & " - " & _
+           portinfo.Manufacturer & " - " & _
+           portinfo.PNPDeviceID & _
+           ""
+Next
+
+'
+' For all the keys in an entity, see
+'http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/aa394353(v=vs.85).aspx
+'
+Function GetComPorts()
+    set portList = CreateObject("Scripting.Dictionary")
+
+    strComputer = "."
+    set objWMIService = GetObject("winmgmts:\\" & strComputer & "\root\cimv2")
+    set colItems = objWMIService.ExecQuery _
+        ("Select * from Win32_PnPEntity")
+    for each objItem in colItems
+        set objRgx = CreateObject("vbScript.RegExp")
+        strDevName = objItem.Name
+        objRgx.Pattern = "COM[0-9]+"
+        set objRegMatches = objRgx.Execute(strDevName)
+        if objRegMatches.Count = 1 then
+            portList.Add objRegMatches.Item(0).Value, objItem 
+        end if
+    Next
+    set GetComPorts = portList
+End Function
+