Wmic Help New

WMIC is a Feature on Demand (FOD) in newer builds.
Enable it via:

Get-CimInstance Win32_LogicalDisk -Filter "DriveType=3" | Select DeviceID, Size, FreeSpace

If you are on an older Server 2016/2019 system or have manually reinstalled the WMIC feature, here is the classic syntax. Use this only for maintaining legacy scripts.

Classic Help Command:

wmic /?

Common Legacy Examples:

wmic os get caption, version
wmic cpu get name, maxclockspeed
wmic logicaldisk where drivetype=3 get deviceid, freespace

The Problem: WMIC uses a bizarre hybrid of SQL-like syntax (where drivetype=3) paired with command-line switches (/format:csv). It is brittle and slow.

Q: Can I still run WMIC on Windows 11? A: Not by default. You can go to Settings > Optional Features > Add a feature and search for "WMIC". However, Microsoft advises against this for security and reliability.

Q: Is Get-WmiObject the same as Get-CimInstance? A: No. Get-WmiObject (from the Microsoft.PowerShell.Management module) is also deprecated (since PowerShell 5.1). Use Get-CimInstance. It uses the modern CIM standard and works across Linux/macOS with PowerShell 7.

Q: I need a simple csv output like in WMIC. How? A: In the old system you used /format:csv. In the new system: wmic help new

Get-CimInstance Win32_ComputerSystem | Export-Csv -Path "C:\data.csv" -NoTypeInformation

Q: Help! Get-CimInstance is slower than I expected. A: If you are querying 1,000 remote machines, use -OperationTimeoutSec and filter on the server side using -Filter, not Where-Object on the client side.

Similar to Task Manager, but in text format.

wmic process get name, processid

Before we dive into syntax, let's address the elephant in the command line. WMIC (Windows Management Instrumentation Command-line) is officially deprecated.

Why did Microsoft remove WMIC?

The "Help New" summary: The old way is wmic /?. The new way is Get-CimInstance or Get-WmiObject in PowerShell.

If you still need to use WMIC on older Windows versions:

| Command | Description | |---------|-------------| | wmic /? | Basic help & syntax | | wmic /? /full | Full detailed help | | wmic /? /system | System-specific help | | wmic alias /? | Help on an alias (e.g., wmic process /?) | | wmic /output:help.txt /? /full | Export full help to a text file |

wmic /node:"COMPUTER_NAME" /user:"DOMAIN\User" /password:"Pwd" os get caption