Getting PCSC reader serial number with WinSCard

Maybe i'm a bit late - but anyway...

You can connect directly to the card reader using the SCARD_SHARE_DIRECT flag with SCardConnect. At least with us this works fine.. (we use a protocol flag of "0x00")

You should be using:

lReturn = SCardConnect(hResManager,szAvailRdr,SCARD_SHARE_SHARED,SCARD_PROTOCOL_T1,
                            &hCardHandle,
                            &dwActProtocol);

Instead, try using:

lReturn = SCardConnect(hResManager,szAvailRdr,SCARD_SHARE_DIRECT,
                      NULL,
                      &hCardHandle,
                      NULL);

where szAvailRdr refers to the reader name (smartcard readername) and hCardHandle is a handle obtained before using scardconnect.

This should keep you going!