Windows Management Instrumentation Command.
Retrieve a huge range of information about local or remote computers. Make configuration changes to multiple remote machines.
The WMIC is a deprecated tool as of 2021. While it is unlikely to stop working for a few years, no new features will be added and it may eventually be removed.
WMIC is a Feature on Demand (FoD) that’s preinstalled by default in Windows 11, versions 23H2 and 22H2.
In the next release of Windows, the WMIC FoD will be disabled by default.
The ALIAS defines the component of your system that you want WMIC to interact with.
The WHERE clause can be added to filter down to a specific item, e.g. a specific printer instead of all printers.
Syntax
WMIC [global_switch(s)] Alias [options] [format]
WMIC [global_switch(s)] Command
WMIC [global_switch:value] [global_switch:value] Command
WMIC CONTEXT
Interactive mode:
WMIC
Global_Switches:
/NODE Servers to operate against:
@filename
machine_id <,machine id list>
/APPEND Mode for output redirection: STDOUT, CLIPBOARD, <filename>
/AUTHLEVEL Client authentication level: Default,None,Connect,Call,Pkt,Pktintegrity,Pktprivacy
/AGGREGATE Aggregate mode: (column titles) ON, OFF
/AUTHORITY The <authority type> for the connection.
/FAILFAST FailFast mode:(timeout for connection to remote machine) ON, OFF
/IMPLEVEL Client impersonation level: Anonymous,Identify,Impersonate,Delegate
/INTERACTIVE Interactive mode:(prompt before WMI schema changes) ON, OFF
/LOCALE Language id. (ms_409=US)
/NAMESPACE Path for the namespace the alias operates against.
/OUTPUT Mode for output redirection: STDOUT, CLIPBOARD, <filename>
/PASSWORD Password for session login. <password>
/PRIVILEGES Enable or disable all privileges: ENABLE, DISABLE
/RECORD Log all input commands and output: <FilePath>
/ROLE Path for the role containing the alias definitions.
/TRACE Output debugging information to stderr. ON, OFF
/USER User for this session: <domain>\<userid>
CONTEXT Display the current state of all global switches.
CLASS Escape to full WMI schema.
PATH Escape to full WMI object paths.
QUIT/EXIT Exit 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
MEMORYCHIP - Memory chip information.
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]
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]
REGISTRY - Computer system registry [SET]
SCSICONTROLLER - SCSI Controller [CALL]
SERVER - Server information
SERVICE - Service application [CALL]
SHADOWCOPY - Shadow copy management [CALL]
SHADOWSTORAGE - Shadow copy storage areas [CALL/SET]
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]
VOLUMEUSERQUOTA - Per user storage volume quotas [SET]
WMISET - WMI service operational parameters [SET]
for more inofrmation on a specific alias, type alias /?
By default an alias will return a standard LIST of information, you can also use GET to return one or more specific properties.
GET * will also return all 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 alias /?
WMIC alias option /?
e.g.
WMIC BIOS CALL /?
WMIC MEMLOGICAL SET /?
The order of the /FORMAT and /TRANSLATE switches is significant: if /TRANSLATE follows /FORMAT, the output is formatted first and then translated.
The options above can be filtered with a WHERE clause:
Where item='string value' # Test if Equal
Where item!='string value' # NOT EQUALUse single quotes to delimit spaces or special characters, do not add spaces to either side of the = or !=
See further 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.xslTab 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).
All WMIC output is UTF16 Unicode text with a BOM, convert this to plain ASCII with TYPE or MORE
e.g. WMIC OS LIST BRIEF |more >> "C:\demo.txt"
To run WMIC requires administrator rights and for many operations Elevation.
The last element returned by WMIC is a single <CR> character (an empty line), when running WMIC in a FOR loop you might need to remove this, particularly if delayed expansion is involved.
The number of WMI properties that can be monitored has increased with every new version of Windows.
For bulk operations CIM is significantly faster than WMI.
Running WMIC within a batch file it can sometimes hang, possible workarounds for this:
START "" /W CMD /C WMIC options...
WMIC options... <NULThe 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 VBScript like this from Torgeir Bakken or a PowerShell script: Get-Programs.ps1
Display the DELL Serial number (also works for some other brands):
WMIC.exe BIOS get serialnumber
List the available key/value pairs for the computer:
WMIC COMPUTERSYSTEM get * /format:list |more
Display Memory and domain join status:
WMIC COMPUTERSYSTEM get PartofDomain,TotalPhysicalMemory /format:list
List the available key/value pairs for the OS:
WMIC OS get * /format:list |more
List the OS build and version:
WMIC OS LIST BRIEF
List the computername, locale and Bootdevice:
WMIC OS GET csname, locale, bootdevice /value
WMIC OS GET osarchitecture /value
Get a list of installed Windows updates on a remote machine, unlike Get-Hotfix, this includes the installation date:
WMIC /NODE:"server64" QFE list
Get the local date and time:
WMIC OS GET localdatetime:
List all local Disks:
WMIC LOGICALDISK where drivetype!=4 get deviceid, description, volumename
List ipv4 adapters:
WMIC NICCONFIG where (IPEnabled=True and TcpipNetbiosOptions!=null and TcpipNetbiosOptions!=2) GET caption,index,TcpipNetbiosOptions,IPEnabled
WMIC NICCONFIG where (IPEnabled=True and TcpipNetbiosOptions!=null and TcpipNetbiosOptions!=2) CALL SetTcpipNetbios 2
Dump the full application event log to a text file:
WMIC NTEVENT List Full >appevents.txt
List all the running services and save to a file:
WMIC SERVICE where (state="running") GET caption, name, state > services.tsv
Stop the TELNET service (also StartService, PauseService,ResumeService):
WMIC SERVICE where caption='TELNET' CALL StopService
List the installed software MSI’s:
WMIC PRODUCT GET name,vendor,version
WMIC PRODUCT GET InstallDate, Name,localPackage
Display Printer Status:
WMIC PRINTER LIST brief
WMIC PRINTER LIST /?
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:computer64,computer65 PROCESS call create "netstat.exe -ano > C:\output.txt" WMIC /node:@computers.txt /failfast:on PROCESS call create "\\server\share\installer.cmd" WMIC /node:computer64 /output:shares.html SHARE get name,path /format:htable WMIC /node:computer64 SHARE where name="Share1"
Interactive mode:
C:> WMIC wmic:root\cli> OS get csname wmic:root\cli> quit
“Life is like a game of cards. The hand you are dealt is determinism; the way you play it is free will” ~ Jawaharial Nehru
SYSTEMINFO - List system configuration.
The Grammar of WMIC - ISC.
MOF (Managed Object Format) - A language that describes management information.
Equivalent
PowerShell: Get-CIMinstance - Get information via CIM.
DateTime Formats in PowerShell including invariant culture.
Docs.Microsoft.com - Full WMI reference, Classes and providers.