Exploring WMI Architecture in Windows
Windows installs WMI during the installation of the OS. The installation process puts most of the WMI components, including the repository, tools, and the WMI providers, into a folder C:\Windows\System32\WBEM.
Inside a running Windows host, WMI runs as a service, the winmgmt service (WinMgmt.exe). Windows runs this service inside a shared service process (svchost.exe). In the early versions of WMI in Windows, WMI loaded all the WMI providers into the winmgmt service. The failure of a single provider could cause the entire WMI service to fail. Later, with Windows XP and beyond, Microsoft improved WMI to load providers in a separate process, Wmiprvse.exe. WMI loads individual providers as needed.
In this recipe, you examine the contents of the WBEM folder, the WMI service, and the runtime components of WMI.
Getting ready
This recipe uses SRV1, a domain-joined host. You have installed PowerShell 7 and VS code on this host.
