Introduction

Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI) is a Windows component you use to help manage Windows systems. WMI is Microsoft’s proprietary implementation of the standards-based Web-Based Enterprise Management (WBEM). WBEM is an open standard promulgated by the Distributed Management Task Force (DMTF) that aims to unify the management of distributed computing environments by using open standards-based internet technologies.

In addition to WMI, there are other implementations of WBEM, including OpenWBEM. You can read more about the DMTF and WBEM at https://www.dmtf.org/about/faq/wbem_faq, and check out OpenWBEM over at http://openwbem.sourceforge.net/. That said, WMI is most useful today on Windows.

Microsoft first introduced WMI as an add-on component for Windows NT 4. They later integrated WMI as an essential component of the Windows client from Windows XP onward, and Windows Server versions since Windows Server 2000. Subsequently, several feature teams inside...