WMIC - Windows Management Page 1

Search

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

http://ss64.com/nt/wmic.html 1/2/2012 3:26:30 PM
WMIC - Windows Management Page 2
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]

http://ss64.com/nt/wmic.html 1/2/2012 3:26:30 PM

WMIC - Windows Management Page 3
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]

Options

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

http://ss64.com/nt/wmic.html 1/2/2012 3:26:30 PM
WMIC - Windows Management Page 4
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.

http://ss64.com/nt/wmic.html 1/2/2012 3:26:30 PM

WMIC - Windows Management Page 5

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

Configuration, Not Coding

Speeds Deployment and Time to Value For
Today's IT. Free White Paper.
Nimsoft.com/configure-not-coding

© Copyright SS64.com 1999-2011

Some rights reserved

http://ss64.com/nt/wmic.html 1/2/2012 3:26:30 PM