Professional Windows® PowerShell

23.1. Introducing Windows Management Instrumentation

Windows Management Instrumentation is a systems management technology that you can use to manage a local Windows computer or remote computers. In fact, using WMI is the only way to manage a remote Windows computer using PowerShell version 1.0.

The philosophy behind the creation of Widows Management Instrumentation was similar to the thinking applied in PowerShell. Recognition that using graphical tools can be repetitive and inefficient gave rise to a search for more efficient ways of executing tasks that have to be carried out on one machine multiple times or on multiple machines. The development of WMI took place in the broader context of the development of an approach to distributed management of computers. The Distributed Management Task Force, DMTF, drew up specifications for a cross-platform approach to distributed management of computers making use of the Web-based enterprise management, WBEM, in which Microsoft was involved.

The arrival of WMI gave administrators of Windows machines the ability to access system information and to configure and manage multiple machines. Before WMI the scripting languages that administrators used were unable to manage Windows functionality, since direct access to Windows 32 APIs was required and that wasn't generally supported using the available scripting languages.

WMI supports management of Windows 2003, Windows XP, and Windows 2000 machines. WMI and Windows Script Host enables administrators ...