WMIC.exe
Windows Management Instrumentation Command.
Read a huge range of information about local or remote computers. Also provides a way to make configuration changes to multiple remote machines.
Syntax Retrieve information about <Alias>: WMIC [global_switches] [/locale:ms_409] <alias> [options] [format] Interactive mode: WMIC Aliases: ALIAS - Access local system aliases [CALL] BASEBOARD - Base board management (motherboard or system board) BIOS - BIOS management (Basic input/output services) BOOTCONFIG - Boot configuration CDROM - CD-ROM COMPUTERSYSTEM - Computer system [CALL/SET] CPU - CPU CSPRODUCT - Computer system product information from SMBIOS. DATAFILE - DataFiles [CALL] DCOMAPP - DCOM Applications. DESKTOP - User's Desktop DESKTOPMONITOR - Desktop Monitor DEVICEMEMORYADDRESS - Device memory addresses DISKDRIVE - Physical disk drive DISKQUOTA - Disk space usage for NTFS volumes.[SET] DMACHANNEL - Direct memory access (DMA) channel ENVIRONMENT - System environment settings [SET] FSDIR - Filesystem directory entry [CALL] GROUP - Group account [CALL] IDECONTROLLER - IDE Controller IRQ - Interrupt request line JOB - Jobs scheduled using the schedule service.[CALL] LOADORDER - System services that define execution dependencies. LOGICALDISK - Local storage devices [CALL/SET] LOGON - LOGON Sessions. MEMCACHE - Cache memory MEMLOGICAL - System memory, layout and availability MEMPHYSICAL - Physical memory management NETCLIENT - Network Client management. NETLOGIN - Network login information for a particular user. NETPROTOCOL - Protocols (and their network characteristics). NETUSE - Active network connection. NIC - Network Interface Controller (NIC) NICCONFIG - Network adapter. [CALL] NTDOMAIN - NT Domain. [SET] NTEVENT - NT Event Log. NTEVENTLOG - NT eventlog file [CALL/SET] ONBOARDDEVICE - Common adapter devices built into the motherboard. OS - Operating System/s [CALL/SET] PAGEFILE - Virtual memory file swapping PAGEFILESET - Page file settings [SET] PARTITION - Partitioned areas of a physical disk. PORT - I/O ports PORTCONNECTOR - Physical connection ports PRINTER - Printer device [CALL/SET] PRINTERCONFIG - Printer device configuration PRINTJOB - Print job [CALL] PROCESS - Processes [CALL]* PRODUCT - Windows Installer [CALL] QFE - Quick Fix Engineering (patches) QUOTASETTING - Setting information for disk quotas on a volume. [SET] REGISTRY - Computer system registry [SET] SCSICONTROLLER - SCSI Controller [CALL] SERVER - Server information SERVICE - Service application [CALL] SHARE - Shared resourcees [CALL] SOFTWAREELEMENT - Elements of a software product* SOFTWAREFEATURE - Subsets of SoftwareElement. [CALL]* SOUNDDEV - Sound Devices STARTUP - Commands that run automatically when users logon SYSACCOUNT - System account SYSDRIVER - System driver for a base service. [CALL] SYSTEMENCLOSURE - Physical system enclosure SYSTEMSLOT - Physical connection points including ports, slots and peripherals, and proprietary connections points. TAPEDRIVE - Tape drives TEMPERATURE - Temperature sensor (electronic thermometer). TIMEZONE - Time zone data UPS - Uninterruptible power supply (UPS) USERACCOUNT - User accounts [CALL/SET] VOLTAGE - Voltage sensor (electronic voltmeter) data VOLUME - Local storage volume [CALL/SET] VOLUMEQUOTASETTING - Associates the disk quota setting with a specific disk volume. [SET] WMISET - WMI service operational parameters [SET] New aliases in Windows 2003: MEMORYCHIP - Memory chip information. RDACCOUNT - Remote Desktop connection permission [CALL] RDNIC - Remote Desktop connection on a specific network adapter [CALL/SET] RDPERMISSIONS - Permissions to a specific Remote Desktop connection [CALL] RDTOGGLE - Turn Remote Desktop listener on or off remotely[CALL] RECOVEROS - Blue Screen Information [SET] SHADOWCOPY - Shadow copy management [CALL] SHADOWSTORAGE - Shadow copy storage areas [CALL/SET] VOLUMEUSERQUOTA - Per user storage volume quotas [SET]
By default an alias will return a standard LIST of information, you can also choose to GET one or more specific properties.
Configuration changes can be made, where indicated above with: [CALL or SET ]
The CREATE and DELETE options allow you to change the WMI schema itself.
alias alias LIST [BRIEF | FULL | INSTANCE | STATUS |SYSTEM | WRITEABLE] [/TRANSLATE:BasicXml|NoComma ] [/EVERY:no_secs] [/FORMAT:format] alias GET [property list] [/VALUE ] [/ALL ] [/TRANSLATE:BasicXml|NoComma ] [/EVERY:no_secs] [/FORMAT:format] alias CALL method_name [parameters] alias SET [assignments] alias CREATE alias DELETE alias ASSOC [/RESULTCLASS:classname] [/RESULTROLE:rolename][/ASSOCCLASS:assocclass] For more help WMIC /locale:ms_409 /alias /? WMIC /locale:ms_409 /alias option /? e.g. WMIC /locale:ms_409 /BIOS /CALL /? WMIC /locale:ms_409 /MEMLOGICAL /SET /?
The order of the /FORMAT and /TRANSLATE switches is significant: if /TRANSLATE follows /FORMAT, the output is formatted first and then translated.
All the options above can be extended with a WHERE clause, best shown by the examples below:
Format:
Format defines the layout of the information, XML output is automatically formatted using a default style sheet, while other formats (HTML, Table, MOF, Raw XML etc) can be specified using/FORMAT: stylesheet_name
Stylesheets supplied with WMIC:
csv.xsl, hform.xsl, htable-sortby.xsl, htable.xsl texttable.xsl, textvaluelist.xsl, xml.xsl
All output files are unicode text (convert to ASCII with TYPE) Tab Separated Values (.tsv) can be opened in excel
The PROCESS alias can be used to start a new installation process, if doing this across the network, place the installer files on a share with permissions EVERYONE : Read Only. This is because network credentials will be dropped when jumping from one remote machine to another (unless you have kerberos configured).
Examples
WMIC /locale:ms_409 OS WMIC OS LIST BRIEF WMIC OS GET csname, locale, bootdevice WMIC OS GET osarchitecture /value WMIC /locale:ms_409 NTEVENT where LogFile='system' WMIC NTEVENT where "LogFile='system' and Type>'0'" WMIC SERVICE where (state=”running”) GET caption, name, state > services.tsv WMIC SERVICE where caption='TELNET' CALL STARTSERVICE WMIC PRINTER LIST STATUS WMIC PRINTER where PortName="LPT1:" GET PortName, Name, ShareName WMIC /INTERACTIVE:ON PRINTER where PortName="LPT1:" DELETE WMIC PROCESS where name='evil.exe' delete WMIC /output:"%computername%.txt" MEMORYCHIP where "memorytype=17" get Capacity WMIC /node:@workstns.txt /failfast:on PROCESS call create "\\server\share\installer.cmd" Interactive mode: C:>START "Windows Management" WMIC wmic:root\cli>/locale:ms_409 wmic:root\cli>OS get csname wmic:root\cli>quit
Notes
WMIC is available on XP Professional and Windows 2003 or later versions of Windows.
The availability of WMI information does vary across different versions of Windows
e.g. ODBC, SNMP, Windows Installer.
To run WMIC requires administrator rights.
In Windows 2000, around 4,000 properties can be monitored, and around 40 can be configured.
In Windows XP around 6,000 properties can be monitored, and around 140 can be configured.
Windows 2003 offers a few improvements and bug fixes: the global option /locale:ms_409 is not required (it defaults to English US.)
When you type WMIC for the first time in Windows 2003 all the aliases are compiled. The second, and subsequent times you run WMIC, it will start immediately. Under XP WMIC is slower to initialise, therefore to run several WMI queries it can be quicker to use interactive mode.
* WMI information for installed software packages (PACKAGE and SOFTWAREFEATURE) is often incomplete and inconsistent for a variety of historical reasons. A more reliable method is to retrieve a list of installed programs directly from the Add/Remove list in the registry, with a WSH script like this from Torgeir Bakken.
“Life is like a game of cards. The hand you are dealt is determinism; the way you play it is free will” - Jawaharial Nehru
Related:
SYSTEMINFO List system configuration
The Grammar of WMIC - ISC
Get-WMIobject - Get WMI class information (Powershell)
MOF (Managed Object Format) - A language that describes management information.
Q824223 - WMIC command runs slowly with /FAILFAST switch.
Q875605 - Troubleshoot WMI-related issues
Sample commands - Windows 2003
MSDN full WMI reference - Classes, providers etc