Computer and Software Support


Best practices 

This page is from Microsoft

Updated: January 21, 2005

Best practices

 

Use the WHERE () clause for specific instances to be returned for an alias.

  • The WHERE() clause must include the WHERE clause for a valid WQL query. The parentheses are only required for complex criteria. See the WMI SDK for WQL syntax. The WHERE() clause must immediately follows the alias name. For example: process where (processID>300) list brief
  • When the WHERE clause is WHERE NAME='<value>', it is sufficient to give only the value. For example: SERVICE CLIPSRV

    Instead of:

    SERVICE WHERE NAME='CLIPSRV'

     

Use /OUTPUT, /APPEND, and /RECORD commands to redirect output

  • Commands that output in HTML format (such as CLASS) typically have their output directed to a file. You can then view that file for results of the command. You can redirect the output can by using the /OUTPUT, /APPEND, and /RECORD commands.

Enclose values in quotation marks if the values contain special characters such as dashes, slashes, or spaces.

 

Use these methods of query for large domains or databases

  • ALIAS 
    WMIC ALIAS PROCESS LIST BRIEF
  • USERACCOUNT 
    WMIC USERACCOUNT WHERE "Name='PutUserNameHere' and Domain='PutDomainNameHere'"
  • FSDIR 
    WMIC FSDIR WHERE Name='c:\\WINDOWS'
  • DATAFILE 
    WMIC DATAFILE WHERE Name="c:\\boot.ini"
WMIC DATAFILE WHERE "PATH='\\windows\\' and Extension='exe' and FileSize>'108032'" GET LastAccessed, LastModified, Name, FileSize
  • NTEVENT 
    WMIC NTEVENT WHERE "LogFile='system' and Type>'0'" GET Message, TimeGenerated
WMIC NTEVENT WHERE "LogFile='system' and Type>'0'" GET Message, TimeGenerated /FORMAT:htable >c:\MySystemEvents.htm
  • Querying:

    Use quotes "" to separate WHERE expressions instead of parentheses () :

    WMIC NTEVENT WHERE "LogFile='system' and Type>'4'"

    [  Compare to:

    WMIC NTEVENT WHERE (LogFile='system' and TYPE>4)

    In this case, Command Shell will misinterpret 

    ">4)"

    and will try to redirect output to file named 

    "4)"

     ]

For information about validation of users in WMI, see Managing WMI Security .

For information about WMIC security, authentication, and authorization, see Security with WMIC .

For information about how WMI validates users, see Managing WMI security .

For more information, see Windows Management Instrumentation Command-line .