Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI)

Directories in WMI

Every directory on a filesystem is represented in WMI by a Win32_Directory object, whose primary key is a Name property. Unsurprisingly, the value of this property, just like that of a CIM_DataFile, corresponds to the fully-qualified directory name. For example, the Win32_Directory object representing C:\Winnt on a system has the name C:\winnt.

The similarity between a Win32_Directory and a CIM_DataFile does not stop with the fact that both have a Name property. In fact, a Win32_Directory possesses every single property and method that a CIM_DataFile does, and vice versa. In other words, our entire discussion of CIM_DataFile objects applies equally to Win32_Directory objects. This similarity is not a coincidence. The reason ...