Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI)

Introduction

A central component of Windows 2000 is Windows Management Instrumentation, a technology designed to provide a unified programming interface for querying and controlling the diverse range of devices and subsystems that constitute a Windows-based computer. Sitting somewhere between the complex web of APIs that programmers typically use to write Windows applications and the high-level graphical and command-line interfaces with which we are all familiar, Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI) provides a relatively simple and consistent “object-based” representation of a computer system that can be accessed easily from almost any modern programming language. Furthermore, the WMI “objects” exposed by a computer can be queried and controlled ...