Using Get-CimInstance as an Alternative to Get-WmiObject
PowerShell 3.0 added an alternative to Get-WmiObject: Get-CimInstance seems to work very similar and can retrieve information from the internal WMI service:
PS C:\> Get-WmiObject -Class Win32_BIOS SMBIOSBIOSVersion : A03 Manufacturer : Dell Inc. Name : A03 SerialNumber : 5TQLM32 Version : DELL - 1072009 PS C:\> Get-CimInstance -Class Win32_BIOS SMBIOSBIOSVersion : A03 Manufacturer : Dell Inc. Name : A03 SerialNumber : 5TQLM32 Version : DELL - 1072009
While Get-WmiObject still works, Get-CimInstance is definitely the way to go. This cmdlet supports IntelliSense completion for WMI classes (in PowerShell ISE), and the returned data has a more readable format: dates for example appear as human readible dates whereas Get-WmiObject displays the internal raw WMI date format.
Key Differences Between Get-WmiObject and Get-CimInstance
The most important difference, though, is how they work across remote connections. Get-WmiObject always uses the old DCOM protocol whereas Get-CimInstance defaults to the new WSMan protocol, yet is flexible and can still fall back to DCOM when needed.
Here is a sample function that retrieves BIOS information remotely via Get-CimInstance. The function defaults to DCOM, and with the -Protocol parameter you can choose the protocol you’d like to use:
#requires -Version 3 function Get-BIOS { param ( $ComputerName = $env:COMPUTERNAME, [Microsoft.Management.Infrastructure.CimCmdlets.ProtocolType] $Protocol = 'DCOM' ) $option = New-CimSessionOption -Protocol $protocol $session = New-CimSession -ComputerName $ComputerName -SessionOption $option Get-CimInstance -CimSession $session -ClassName Win32_BIOS }