You can use WMI from client applications and scripts. It provides an infrastructure that makes it easy to both discover and perform management tasks. In addition, you can add to the set of possible management tasks by creating your own WMI providers.

The following topics are discussed in this section:

• Obtaining Data from WMI
• Providing Data to WMI
• Important Tasks for WMI

Obtaining Data from WMI

The following procedure describes how to obtain data from WMI by writing a script or application.

To obtain data from WMI by writing a script or application

1. Decide which language to use. For more information about scripting, see Creating a WMI Script. For more information about C++, see Creating a WMI Application Using C++. For using more information about C# or WMI .NET, see WMI .NET Overview.

   You can view or manipulate WMI data in many languages. The following table lists the topics that describe how to use the scripting and application languages to obtain data.

   Application language	Topic
   Scripts written in Microsoft ActiveX script hosting, including Visual Basic Scripting Edition (VBScript), Microsoft JScript, and Perl	Scripting API for WMI. Start with Creating a WMI Script. For script code examples, see WMI Tasks for Scripts and Applications and the TechNet ScriptCenter Script Repository.
   Visual Basic applications	Scripting API for WMI.
   Active Server Pages	Scripting API for WMI. Start with Creating Active Server Pages for WMI.
   C++ applications	COM API for WMI. Start with Creating a WMI Application Using C++ and WMI C++ Application Examples (contains examples).
   .NET Framework applications written in C#, Visual Basic .NET, or J#	Classes in the System.Management namespace. For more information, see WMI .NET Overview.

    

2. Ensure that your connections to remote computers work.

   For more information, see Connecting to WMI on a Remote Computer.

3. Connecting to WMI on remote computers requires the correct security settings, as explained in Maintaining WMI Security. The following table lists the topics that describe how to configure security settings with the scripting and application languages.

   Language	Topic
   Scripts in any language, Visual Basic applications	Setting the Default Process Security Level Using VBScript
   Active Server Pages	Configuring IIS 5 and Later for WMI ASP Scripting
   C++	Setting the Default Process Security Level Using C++ and Setting the Security on IWbemServices and Other Proxies

    

4. After connecting to WMI, you can obtain data through queries and enumerations.

   For more information, see Manipulating Class and Instance Information and Querying with WQL.

5. Registry data is available through WMI and you can create new keys and values or modify existing ones.

   For more information, see Modifying the System Registry.

6. You can subscribe to event notifications through WMI, either temporarily between system reboots or permanently.

   For more information, see Monitoring Events and Receiving a WMI Event.

7. Performance counter data for a system is available through WMI.

   The system performance library counters are converted to WMI classes. For more information, see Monitoring Performance Data.

8. WMI Tasks for Scripts and Applications describes how to do many administrative tasks with WMI.

Providing Data to WMI

The following procedure describes how to supply data to WMI by writing a provider.

To supply data to WMI by writing a provider

• Decide on the type of provider to write.

  You cannot write a WMI provider in script or Visual Basic. However, you can take several other approaches to writing a WMI COM provider:

  • Using the WMI ATL Wizard in Visual Studio.

    This approach creates an unmanaged COM provider. For more information, see Adding a WMI Instance Provider and Adding a WMI Event Provider.

  • Using COM directly in any integrated development environment.

    This approach creates an unmanaged COM provider.

  • Using WMI in the .NET Framework to create a managed code provider.

    This approach creates a managed code provider. Managed code providers can be written in any .NET Framework language, are simpler to write than WMI COM providers, and can obtain data from the WMI CIM-based classes such as Win32 Classes. However, the .NET Framework WMI provider has some limitations. For more information, see Managing Applications Using WMI.

  • Using the provider framework classes is not recommended.

    The provider framework has been superseded by the WMI ATL wizards, using COM directly, or .NET Framework providers. Creating a WMI COM provider with the provider framework classes is no longer recommended. The following table lists the topics that describe how to use COM or .NET Framework providers.

  Provider	Topic
  COM provider in the same process as WMI	Providing Data to WMI
  COM decoupled provider	Incorporating a Provider in an Application
  .NET Framework provider in C# or Visual Basic.NET	Managing Applications Using WMI

   

Important Tasks for WMI

The following topics provide information about using WMI to monitor and control enterprise components.

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Build date: 11/3/2009