Classes and namespaces

suggest change

There are many classes available in CIM and WMI which are separated into multiple namespaces. The most common (and default) namespace in Windows is root/cimv2. To find the righ class, it can useful to list all or search.

List available classes

You can list all available classes in the default namespace (root/cimv2) on a computer.

CIM:

Get-CimClass

WMI:

Get-WmiObject -List

Search for a class

You can search for specific classes using wildcards. Ex: Find classes containing the word process.

CIM:

> Get-CimClass -ClassName "*Process*"

   NameSpace: ROOT/CIMV2

CimClassName                        CimClassMethods      CimClassProperties                                                           
------------                        ---------------      ------------------                                                           
Win32_ProcessTrace                  {}                   {SECURITY_DESCRIPTOR, TIME_CREATED, ParentProcessID, ProcessID...}           
Win32_ProcessStartTrace             {}                   {SECURITY_DESCRIPTOR, TIME_CREATED, ParentProcessID, ProcessID...}           
Win32_ProcessStopTrace              {}                   {SECURITY_DESCRIPTOR, TIME_CREATED, ParentProcessID, ProcessID...}           
CIM_Process                         {}                   {Caption, Description, InstallDate, Name...}                                 
Win32_Process                       {Create, Terminat... {Caption, Description, InstallDate, Name...}                                 
CIM_Processor                       {SetPowerState, R... {Caption, Description, InstallDate, Name...}                                 
Win32_Processor                     {SetPowerState, R... {Caption, Description, InstallDate, Name...}
...

WMI:

Get-WmiObject -List -Class "*Process*"

List classes in a different namespace

The root namespace is simply called root. You can list classes in another namespace using the -NameSpace parameter.

CIM:

> Get-CimClass -Namespace "root/SecurityCenter2"   

   NameSpace: ROOT/SecurityCenter2

CimClassName                        CimClassMethods      CimClassProperties                                                           
------------                        ---------------      ------------------
....                                                   
AntiSpywareProduct                  {}                   {displayName, instanceGuid, pathToSignedProductExe, pathToSignedReportingE...
AntiVirusProduct                    {}                   {displayName, instanceGuid, pathToSignedProductExe, pathToSignedReportingE...
FirewallProduct                     {}                   {displayName, instanceGuid, pathToSignedProductExe, pathToSignedReportingE...

WMI:

Get-WmiObject -Class "__Namespace" -Namespace "root"

List available namespaces

To find available child-namespaces of root (or another namespace), query the objects in the __NAMESPACE-class for that namespace.

CIM:

> Get-CimInstance -Namespace "root" -ClassName "__Namespace"

Name            PSComputerName
----            --------------
subscription                  
DEFAULT                       
CIMV2                         
msdtc                         
Cli                           
SECURITY                      
HyperVCluster                 
SecurityCenter2               
RSOP                          
PEH                           
StandardCimv2                 
WMI                           
directory                     
Policy                        
virtualization                
Interop                       
Hardware                      
ServiceModel                  
SecurityCenter                
Microsoft                     
aspnet                        
Appv

WMI:

Get-WmiObject -List -Namespace "root"

Found a mistake? Have a question or improvement idea? Let me know.

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