Getting started with wmi

Remarks#

This section provides an overview of what wmi is, and why a developer might want to use it.

It should also mention any large subjects within wmi, and link out to the related topics. Since the Documentation for wmi is new, you may need to create initial versions of those related topics.

Installation or Setup

The WMI Framework

Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI) is included in all modern versions of Windows and Windows Server. Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI) CORE 1.5 was once available from Microsoft to install WMI on computers running Windows 95/98 or Windows NT 4.0.

Even though all Windows computers have WMI, not all WMI Providers, Classes, or even Methods and Properties are included in every version of Windows. For example, the Win32_WinSAT class is not available in versions of Windows greater than 8.1 and the Win32_Service class is not supported on versions of Windows prior to Vista.

WMI Development

Any language that can handle ActiveX objects (.NET, VBScript, PowerShell, Python, JScript, etc) can interact with WMI.