WMI is a very powerfull tool, and once you know how to get what you need, it can

be invaluable as a time saver. When developing Windows applications, developers

often need information a system, either local or remote, that although
commonplace, can be very tough to get. There is using the remote registry, but I
myself do not allow remote registry access as do many network admins. WMI is
usually wide open on networks, assuming you have the privelidges necessary to
query it, just as it is with remote registry querying/editing. And although remote
registry querying is very simple, WMI appeals to developers for yet another reason:
WQL.

WQL allows us to query WMI providers using a SQL-like query language. If you
know the provider classes and the fields available, then you can get the info very
easily.  For instance, if you wanted to get a list of logical drives from a system you
would use the following query:

Select * from Win32_LogicalDisk

You can, however, refine the search by using where clauses and getting specific
"fields" in the query. The following query gets the amount of freespace, the size,
and the name of all fixed disk drives:

Select FreeSpace,Size,Name from Win32_LogicalDisk where DriveType=3

As you can see, constructing a simple WMI query is quite easy.  To get results, you
need and interface, and in .Net it is provided by the System.Management
namespace.  To make it work all you need is a query, and a little bit of code, just as
if you were querying a database.

You need a few different objects to perform WMI queries in .Net.  They include the
following:

(all within System.Management)

 ConnectionOptions 
 ManagementScope
 ObjectQuery
 ManagementObjectSearcher
 ManagementObjectCollection
 ManagementObject

Though this may seem like a lot of objects to perform a simple query, it is quite
easy in practice.  I will not go into great detail on the objects (you can review each
object in the .Net documentation as they are documented very thoroughly).  I will
attempt to show a very easy way of utilizing these objects to query WMI providers
as well as perform intristic methods available on some of the objects.

1
The following code shows use the query above on a remote system (MachineX)
using user JohnDoe and password JohnsPass:

//Connection credentials to the remote computer – not needed if the logged in

account has access
ConnectionOptions oConn = new ConnectionOptions();
oConn.Username = "JohnDoe";
oConn.Password = "JohnsPass";

System.Management.ManagementScope oMs = new

System.Management.ManagementScope("\\MachineX", oConn);    

//get Fixed disk stats

System.Management.ObjectQuery oQuery = new
System.Management.ObjectQuery("select FreeSpace,Size,Name
from Win32_LogicalDisk where DriveType=3");

//Execute the query 

ManagementObjectSearcher oSearcher = new
ManagementObjectSearcher(oMs,oQuery);

//Get the results

ManagementObjectCollection oReturnCollection = oSearcher.Get();   
         
//loop through found drives and write out info
foreach( ManagementObject oReturn in oReturnColl
ection )
{
    // Disk name
    Console.WriteLine("Name : " + oReturn["Name"].ToString());
    // Free Space in bytes
    Console.WriteLine("FreeSpace: " + oReturn["FreeSpace"].ToString());
    // Size in bytes
    Console.WriteLine("Size: " + oReturn["Size"].ToString());
}

As you can see, the code is not that difficult.  This, although a simple query, would
save a lot of time compared to other methods, especially when querying a remote
machine.  Please note that usually the ManagementScope would require a WMI
namespace in addition to the machine name, but .Net kindly defaults to the root
namespace.  If you wish to use it anyway you would use the following scope:

\\MachineX\root\cimv2 (the double \ is required for string literals in C#)

One of the problems I had in using WMI with .Net was not knowing what "fields"
were available for a given object.  I found the class reference on MSDN and all the
problems went away,  at least most of them.  Data type conversions can be a
problem, especially with datetime structures.  Datetime data types from WMI

2
providers are not compatible with .Net DateTime variables.  You must use a
managed function that you can get from my sample code or by using the
mgmtclassgen utility that comes with the .Net SDK (Thanks to Chetan Parmar for
this info and the code).  Also, some objects will return null in some fields, so make
sure to check for it (see sample code i.e WMITest.zip).

WMI Method Invocation

Another interesting feature of WMI is the methods that are available with certain
objects.  For instance, with the Win32_Process object you can use the GetOwner
method to return the name and domain of the user under whom the process is
running.  You must use the Invoke method of the ManagementObject object and
send it the proper parameters.  In this case you are only required to send the name
of the method as a string ("GetUser") and a 2 element string array for the return. 
Don't be fooled.  Even though the array would seem to be used as a ref  variable,
you do not have to declare that way when calling the Invoke method. 

Below is a sample of getting all processes along with the name, user and domain,
memory used, priority, and process id for each process.  This information is similar
to what you see in the task manager.  If you want CPU usage you have to use the
Win32_PerfFormattedData_PerfProc_Process class which is actually a WMI
interface for the perfomance counters.  I do not use this class because the
GetOwner method is not available with it.

//Connection credentials to the remote computer – not needed if the logged in

account has access
ConnectionOptions oConn = new ConnectionOptions();
oConn.Username = "JohnDoe";
oConn.Password = "JohnsPass";

System.Management.ManagementScope oMs = new

System.Management.ManagementScope("\\MachineX", oConn);    

//get Process objects

System.Management.ObjectQuery oQuery = new
System.Management.ObjectQuery("Select * from Win32_Process");
foreach( ManagementObject oReturn in oReturnCollection )
{
    //Name of process
    Console.WriteLine(oReturn["Name"].ToString().ToLower());
    //arg to send with method invoke to return user and domain – below is link to
SDK doc on it
    string[] o = new String[2];                
    //Invoke the method and populate the o var with the user name and domain
    oReturn.InvokeMethod("GetOwner",(object[])o);
    //write out user info that was returned
    Console.WriteLine("User: " + o[1]+ "\" + o[0]);
    Console.WriteLine("PID: " + oReturn["ProcessId"].ToString());

3
    //get priority
    if(oReturn["Priority"] != null)
        Console.WriteLine("Priority: " + oReturn["Priority"].ToString());
    
    //get creation date – need managed code function to convert date –
    if(oReturn["CreationDate"] != null)
    {
        //get datetime string and convert
        string s = oReturn["CreationDate"].ToString();
            //see ToDateTime function in sample code
        DateTime dc = ToDateTime(s);                        
        //write out creation date
        Console.WriteLine("CreationDate: " + dc.AddTicks(-
TimeZone.CurrentTimeZone.GetUtcOffset(DateTime.Now).Ticks).ToLocalTime().ToS
tring());
    }
    
    //this is the amount of memory used
    if(oReturn["WorkingSetSize"] != null)
    {
         ass="keyword">long mem =
Convert.ToInt64(oReturn["WorkingSetSize"].ToString()) / 1024;
        Console.WriteLine("Mem Usage: {0:#,###.##}Kb",mem);
    }
}

There is a wealth of information waiting to be gleaned from WMI and it is far easier
than using several API calls or remote registry calls.  WMI simplifies things by
making all common information handy in one place.  You can get all system info,
partition info, processor stats, profile settings, and much more using WMI.  WMI
can replace performance counters as well.  Once you get used to it, browse through
the MSDN WMI class reference and you are sure to find what you are looking for in
most cases.

How To: Connect to a Remote Computer

Remote connections for WMI in .NET Framework are accomplished through the
ManagementScope object.

WMI is intended to monitor the hardware and software on remote computers.

Remote connections for WMI in .NET Framework are accomplished through the
ManagementScope object.

4
Connecting remotely using classes in the System.Management namespace uses
DCOM as the underlying remote mechanism. WMI remote connections must comply
with DCOM security requirements for impersonation and authentication.
Connections between different operating systems, for example, a connection
initiated from a Windows 2000 computer to a Windows Server 2003 computer, may
require a different impersonation and authentication level than a connection
between two Windows 2000 computers. For more information, see "Connecting to
WMI on a Remote Computer" in the Windows Management Instrumentation
documentation in the MSDN Library at http://msdn.microsoft.com/library.

By default, a scope is bound to the local computer and the root\cimv2 system
namespace. However, you can either change the namespace in the string that
specifies the constructor path or use a ManagementPath object. The string used for
the path follows the same rules as other WMI paths and backslashes (\) must be
escaped. For more information, see "Describing the Location of a WMI Object" in
the Windows Management Instrumentation documentation in the MSDN Library at
http://msdn.microsoft.com/library.

In addition, when connecting remotely, you can specify credentials for a user other
than the currently logged-on user, and the operations on that remote machine will
be performed in the context of the specified user. This can be done using a
ConnectionOptions object.

Example
The following code example connects to a remote computer in the same domain as
the user and displays information about the operating system on the remote
computer. The user must be an administrator on the remote computer for the
connection to be made.

using System;
using System.Management;
public class RemoteConnect
{
public static void Main()
{
/*// Build an options object for the remote connection
// if you plan to connect to the remote
// computer with a different user name
// and password than the one you are currently using

ConnectionOptions options =
new ConnectionOptions();

// and then set the options.Username and

// options.Password properties to the correct values
// and also set

5
 // options.Authority = "ntdlmdomain:DOMAIN";
// and replace DOMAIN with the remote computer's
// domain. You can also use kerberose instead
// of ntdlmdomain.
*/

// Make a connection to a remote computer.

// Replace the "FullComputerName" section of the
// string "\\\\FullComputerName\\root\\cimv2" with
// the full computer name or IP address of the
// remote computer.
ManagementScope scope =
new ManagementScope(
"\\\\FullComputerName\\root\\cimv2");
scope.Connect();

// Use this code if you are connecting with a

// different user name and password:
//
// ManagementScope scope =
// new ManagementScope(
// "\\\\FullComputerName\\root\\cimv2", options);
// scope.Connect();

//Query system for Operating System information

ObjectQuery query = new ObjectQuery(
"SELECT * FROM Win32_OperatingSystem");
ManagementObjectSearcher searcher =
new ManagementObjectSearcher(scope,query);

ManagementObjectCollection queryCollection = searcher.Get();

foreach ( ManagementObject m in queryCollection)
{
// Display the remote computer information
Console.WriteLine("Computer Name : {0}",
m["csname"]);
Console.WriteLine("Windows Directory : {0}",
m["WindowsDirectory"]);
Console.WriteLine("Operating System: {0}",
m["Caption"]);
Console.WriteLine("Version: {0}", m["Version"]);
Console.WriteLine("Manufacturer : {0}",
m["Manufacturer"]);
}
}
}

6
The ConnectionOptions object also controls the impersonation and authentication
levels used by WMI in the remote DCOM operations. The default settings for these
parameters are Impersonate and Unchanged respectively.

The Unchanged value means that the client defaults to the server's requirements
for authentication, using the standard DCOM negotiation process. On Windows
2000, Windows NT 4.0, and Windows 98, the WMI service will request Connect level
authentication, while on Windows XP Home Edition, Windows XP Professional,
Windows Server 2003 and Windows Server 2003 it will request Packet level
authentication. If the client requires a specific authentication setting, the
Authentication property on the ConnectionOptions object can be used to control
the authentication level on this particular connection.

The Impersonate value means that the client allows the WMI data provider to
impersonate its identity when gathering the requested information. This default
setting is advantageous when the provider is a trusted application or service
because it eliminates the need for the provider to perform explicit identity and
access checks when retrieving information for this client. However, if the addressed
provider or instrumented application cannot be trusted for some reason, allowing it
to impersonate the client may constitute a security threat. In such cases, we
recommend that the impersonation level be changed by the client application to a
lower value, such as Identify. Note that this may lead to the inability to access
information from certain providers, in cases where the provider does not perform
access checks or does not have sufficient permissions in its own running context to
retrieve the requested information.

The following code example connects to a remote computer and displays

information about the operating system on the remote computer. The code also
creates a form to gather the user name and password information for the
connection.

using System;
using System.Drawing;
using System.Collections;
using System.ComponentModel;
using System.Windows.Forms;
using System.Data;
using System.Management;

namespace WMISample
{
public class MyQuerySample : System.Windows.Forms.Form
{
private System.Windows.Forms.Label userNameLabel;
private System.Windows.Forms.TextBox userNameBox;
private System.Windows.Forms.TextBox passwordBox;
private System.Windows.Forms.Label passwordLabel;
private System.Windows.Forms.Button OKButton;

7
private System.Windows.Forms.Button cancelButton;

private System.ComponentModel.Container components = null;

public MyQuerySample()
{
InitializeComponent();
}

protected override void Dispose( bool disposing )

{
if( disposing )
{
if (components != null)
{
components.Dispose();
}
}
base.Dispose( disposing );
}

private void InitializeComponent()

{
this.userNameLabel = new System.Windows.Forms.Label();
this.userNameBox = new System.Windows.Forms.TextBox();
this.passwordBox = new System.Windows.Forms.TextBox();
this.passwordLabel = new System.Windows.Forms.Label();
this.OKButton = new System.Windows.Forms.Button();
this.cancelButton = new System.Windows.Forms.Button();
this.SuspendLayout();
//
// userNameLabel
//
this.userNameLabel.Location = new System.Drawing.Point(16, 8);
this.userNameLabel.Name = "userNameLabel";
this.userNameLabel.Size = new System.Drawing.Size(160, 32);
this.userNameLabel.TabIndex = 0;
this.userNameLabel.Text =
"Enter the user name for the remote computer:";
//
// userNameBox
//
this.userNameBox.Location = new System.Drawing.Point(160, 16);
this.userNameBox.Name = "userNameBox";
this.userNameBox.Size = new System.Drawing.Size(192, 20);
this.userNameBox.TabIndex = 1;
this.userNameBox.Text = "";
//

8
// passwordBox
//
this.passwordBox.Location = new System.Drawing.Point(160, 48);
this.passwordBox.Name = "passwordBox";
this.passwordBox.PasswordChar = '*';
this.passwordBox.Size = new System.Drawing.Size(192, 20);
this.passwordBox.TabIndex = 3;
this.passwordBox.Text = "";
//
// passwordLabel
//
this.passwordLabel.Location = new System.Drawing.Point(16, 48);
this.passwordLabel.Name = "passwordLabel";
this.passwordLabel.Size = new System.Drawing.Size(160, 32);
this.passwordLabel.TabIndex = 2;
this.passwordLabel.Text =
"Enter the password for the remote computer:";
//
// OKButton
//
this.OKButton.Location = new System.Drawing.Point(40, 88);
this.OKButton.Name = "OKButton";
this.OKButton.Size = new System.Drawing.Size(128, 23);
this.OKButton.TabIndex = 4;
this.OKButton.Text = "OK";
this.OKButton.Click +=
new System.EventHandler(this.OKButton_Click);
//
// cancelButton
//
this.cancelButton.DialogResult =
System.Windows.Forms.DialogResult.Cancel;
this.cancelButton.Location = new System.Drawing.Point(200, 88);
this.cancelButton.Name = "cancelButton";
this.cancelButton.Size = new System.Drawing.Size(128, 23);
this.cancelButton.TabIndex = 5;
this.cancelButton.Text = "Cancel";
this.cancelButton.Click +=
new System.EventHandler(this.cancelButton_Click);
//
// MyQuerySample
//
this.AcceptButton = this.OKButton;
this.AutoScaleBaseSize = new System.Drawing.Size(5, 13);
this.CancelButton = this.cancelButton;
this.ClientSize = new System.Drawing.Size(368, 130);
this.ControlBox = false;
this.Controls.Add(this.cancelButton);

9
 this.Controls.Add(this.OKButton);
this.Controls.Add(this.passwordBox);
this.Controls.Add(this.passwordLabel);
this.Controls.Add(this.userNameBox);
this.Controls.Add(this.userNameLabel);
this.Name = "MyQuerySample";
this.StartPosition =
System.Windows.Forms.FormStartPosition.CenterScreen;
this.Text = "Remote Connection";
this.ResumeLayout(false);

[STAThread]
static void Main()
{
Application.Run(new MyQuerySample());
}

private void OKButton_Click(object sender, System.EventArgs e)

{
try
{
ConnectionOptions connection = new ConnectionOptions();
connection.Username = userNameBox.Text;
connection.Password = passwordBox.Text;
connection.Authority = "ntlmdomain:DOMAIN";

ManagementScope scope = new ManagementScope(

"\\\\FullComputerName\\root\\CIMV2", connection);
scope.Connect();

ObjectQuery query= new ObjectQuery(

"SELECT * FROM Win32_Service");

ManagementObjectSearcher searcher =
new ManagementObjectSearcher(scope, query);

foreach (ManagementObject queryObj in searcher.Get())

{
Console.WriteLine("-----------------------------------");
Console.WriteLine("Win32_Service instance");
Console.WriteLine("-----------------------------------");
Console.WriteLine("Caption: {0}", queryObj["Caption"]);
Console.WriteLine("Description: {0}", queryObj["Description"]);
Console.WriteLine("Name: {0}", queryObj["Name"]);
Console.WriteLine("PathName: {0}", queryObj["PathName"]);
Console.WriteLine("State: {0}", queryObj["State"]);

10
 Console.WriteLine("Status: {0}", queryObj["Status"]);
}
Close();
}
catch(ManagementException err)
{
MessageBox.Show("An error occured while querying for WMI data: "
+ err.Message);
}
catch(System.UnauthorizedAccessException unauthorizedErr)
{
MessageBox.Show("Connection error " +
"(user name or password might be incorrect): " +
unauthorizedErr.Message);
}
}

private void cancelButton_Click(object sender, System.EventArgs e)

{
Close();
}
}
}

How To: Call a Method Asynchronously

A client application may call a method asynchronously and carry on other
operations while the method is executing.

You can asynchronously call a method using WMI in .NET Framework by passing in
an instance of the ManagementOperationObserver class into the InvokeMethod
method. By calling a method asynchronously, you can complete other tasks while
the method is being called and executed. If you call the method semisynchronously,
you must wait for the method to finish executing before you start any other tasks.
For information on calling a method semisynchronously, see How To: Execute a
Method.

Example

The following code calls a method asynchronously. The Win32_Process.Create

method is called to create a new process for Calc.exe.

using System;
using System;
using System.Management;

11
public class InvokeMethodAsync
{

public InvokeMethodAsync()
{

// Get the object on which the method

// will be invoked
ManagementClass processClass =
new ManagementClass("Win32_Process");

// Create a results and completion handler

ManagementOperationObserver handler =
new ManagementOperationObserver();
handler.Completed +=
new CompletedEventHandler(Completed);

// Invoke method asynchronously

ManagementBaseObject inParams =
processClass.GetMethodParameters("Create");
inParams["CommandLine"] = "calc.exe";
processClass.InvokeMethod(
handler, "Create", inParams, null);

// Do something while method is executing

while(!isComplete)
{
System.Threading.Thread.Sleep(1000);
}
}

private bool isComplete = false;

private ManagementBaseObject returnObject;

// Delegate called when the method completes

// and results are available
private void NewObject(object sender,
ObjectReadyEventArgs e)
{
Console.WriteLine("New Object arrived!");
returnObject = e.NewObject;
}

private void Completed(object sender,

CompletedEventArgs e)
{
isComplete = true;
}

12
 public static void Main()
{
InvokeMethodAsync wmiMethod = new InvokeMethodAsync();
}

How To: Receive Management Events Without Waiting

A client application may set up an asynchronous subscription and carry on other
operations while waiting for events.

To subscribe to events asynchronously

1. Create an event query specifying the events using either the EventQuery
class or the WqlEventQuery class.

2. Create a new ManagementEventWatcher instance to subscribe to events

matching the query.

3. Set up a listener for events using the EventArrived and the Stopped events of
the ManagementEventWatcher class.

4. Create an event handler class with a method that receives the

EventArrivedEventArgs class.

5. Create an instance of the EventArrivedEventHandler delegate that uses the

event handler method.

6. Start listening for the events by calling the Start method of the
ManagementEventWatcher class.

This is the same operation as calling

IWbemServices::ExecNotificationQueryAsync or
SWbemServices::ExecNotificationQueryAsync in unmanaged WMI. For
more information see, "IWbemServices::ExecNotificationQueryAsync" and
"SWbemServices::ExecNotificationQueryAsync" in the Windows Management
Instrumentation documentation in the MSDN Library at
http://msdn.microsoft.com/library.

7. Perform other operations.

13
 8. Call the Stop method of the ManagementEventWatcher class to stop
listening.

This call terminates the subscription.

Example

The following asynchronous code example sets up a WMI timer to raise an event
every second, and removes it when it is no longer needed. The
ManagementEventWatcher object defines several .NET Framework events, which
are raised when WMI events are delivered. Delegates are attached to these events
for handling the incoming data.

using System;
using System.Management;

// This example shows asynchronous consumption of events.

// In this example you are listening for timer events.
// The first part of the example sets up the timer.
public class EventWatcherAsync
{
public EventWatcherAsync()
{
// Set up a timer to raise events every 1 second
//=============================================
ManagementClass timerClass =
new ManagementClass("__IntervalTimerInstruction");
ManagementObject timer = timerClass.CreateInstance();
timer["TimerId"] = "Timer1";
timer["IntervalBetweenEvents"] = 1000;
timer.Put();

// Set up the event consumer

//==========================
// Create event query to receive timer events
WqlEventQuery query =
new WqlEventQuery("__TimerEvent",
"TimerId=\"Timer1\"");

// Initialize an event watcher and

// subscribe to timer events
ManagementEventWatcher watcher =
new ManagementEventWatcher(query);

// Set up a listener for events

watcher.EventArrived +=
new EventArrivedEventHandler(HandleEvent);

14
 // Start listening
watcher.Start();

// Do something in the meantime

System.Threading.Thread.Sleep(10000);

// Stop listening
watcher.Stop();

private void HandleEvent(object sender,

EventArrivedEventArgs e)
{
Console.WriteLine("Event arrived !");
}

public static void Main()

{
EventWatcherAsync eventWather = new EventWatcherAsync();
}
}

How To: Receive Management Information Without Waiting

Management operations can be performed asynchronously.

Access to management information often occurs in distributed environments, and

might involve large amounts of data. To support this, management operations can
also be performed asynchronously.

The method used to invoke an operation asynchronously is an overload of the

synchronous method, with an additional parameter of type
ManagementOperationObserver for handling the callbacks for results. This object
defines events for notification when results arrive and on completion. You can
create handlers and include them in the subscription that execute when these
events are generated.

Example

The following code example demonstrates how to query for management

information asynchronously. The query is for instances of the Win32_Service class
(services running on the local computer), and the name and state of instances of
the Win32_Service class are displayed.

using System;

15
using System.Management;

// This example demonstrates how

// to perform an asynchronous instance enumeration.

public class EnumerateInstancesAsync

{
public EnumerateInstancesAsync()
{
// Enumerate asynchronously using Object Searcher
// ===============================================

// Instantiate an object searcher with the query

ManagementObjectSearcher searcher =
new ManagementObjectSearcher(new
SelectQuery("Win32_Service"));

// Create a results watcher object

ManagementOperationObserver results = new
ManagementOperationObserver();

// Attach handler to events for results and completion

results.ObjectReady += new
ObjectReadyEventHandler(NewObject);
results.Completed += new
CompletedEventHandler(Done);

// Call the asynchronous overload of Get()

// to start the enumeration
searcher.Get(results);

// Do something else while results

// arrive asynchronously
while (!isCompleted)
{
System.Threading.Thread.Sleep (1000);
}

Reset();
}

private bool isCompleted = false;

private void NewObject(object sender,

ObjectReadyEventArgs obj)
{
Console.WriteLine("Service : {0}, State = {1}",
obj.NewObject["Name"],

16
 obj.NewObject["State"]);
}

private void Reset()

{
isCompleted = false;
}

private void Done(object sender,

CompletedEventArgs obj)
{
isCompleted = true;
}

public static void Main()

{
EnumerateInstancesAsync asyncQuery =
new EnumerateInstancesAsync();
}

How To: Update a Security Descriptor of a WMI Namespace

This example updates the security descriptor information for a namespace so that
certain users can access and modify the namespace.

A security descriptor identifies a securable object's owner and primary group. A

functional security descriptor is in binary format, but security descriptors can also
be in string format to store and transmit security descriptor information. By
changing a security descriptor, you can grant a group certain rights to access a
securable object. This example updates the security descriptor information for a
namespace so that certain users can access and modify the namespace.

Example

The following code example grants all rights to the Power Users group for a given
namespace. To change the namespace name, change the value of the
namespaceName variable in the Sample class.

using System;
using System.Management;
using System.ComponentModel;
using System.Runtime.InteropServices;

namespace ManagementSample
{

17
class Sample
{
private readonly string namespaceName =
"TestNamespaceSecurity";

public void Run()

{
IntPtr stringSecurityDescriptorPtr = IntPtr.Zero;
IntPtr securityDescriptorPtr = IntPtr.Zero;
int stringSecurityDescriptorSize = 0;
int securityDescriptorSize = 0;

try
{
// Create a test namespace
this.CreateTestNamespace();

// Retreive SD of a namespace
ManagementClass systemSecurity =
new ManagementClass("root/" +
namespaceName + ":__SystemSecurity");
ManagementBaseObject outParams =
systemSecurity.InvokeMethod("GetSD",
null, null);
if ((uint)outParams["ReturnValue"] != 0)
{
Console.WriteLine("GetSD returns an error: " +
outParams["ReturnValue"]);
return;
}

// Convert SD to string SD
this.ConvertSDtoStringSD((byte[])outParams["SD"],
out stringSecurityDescriptorPtr,
out stringSecurityDescriptorSize);
string stringSecurityDescriptor =
Marshal.PtrToStringAuto(
stringSecurityDescriptorPtr);
Console.WriteLine("Original string security " +
"descriptor of the {0} namespace:",
namespaceName);
Console.WriteLine(stringSecurityDescriptor);

// Grant all permissions to Power Users Group

stringSecurityDescriptor +=
"(A;;CCDCLCSWRPWPRCWD;;;PU)";

//Convert string SD to SD

18
 Console.WriteLine(
"\nNew String Security Descriptor:");
Console.WriteLine(stringSecurityDescriptor);
this.ConvertStringSDtoSD(stringSecurityDescriptor,
out securityDescriptorPtr,
out securityDescriptorSize);
byte[] securityDescriptor =
new byte[securityDescriptorSize];
Marshal.Copy(securityDescriptorPtr,
securityDescriptor, 0, securityDescriptorSize);

//Set the new SD for the namespace

ManagementBaseObject inParams =
systemSecurity.GetMethodParameters("SetSD");
inParams["SD"] = securityDescriptor;
outParams = systemSecurity.InvokeMethod("SetSD",
inParams, null);
if ((uint)outParams["ReturnValue"] != 0)
{
Console.WriteLine("SetSD returns error: " +
outParams["ReturnValue"]);
return;
}
Console.WriteLine("\nNew string security descriptor"
+ " is set. Press Enter to exit.");
Console.ReadLine();
}
finally
{
// Free unmanaged memory
if (securityDescriptorPtr != IntPtr.Zero)
{
Marshal.FreeHGlobal(securityDescriptorPtr);
securityDescriptorPtr = IntPtr.Zero;
}
if (stringSecurityDescriptorPtr != IntPtr.Zero)
{
Marshal.FreeHGlobal(stringSecurityDescriptorPtr);
stringSecurityDescriptorPtr = IntPtr.Zero;
}
this.DeleteTestNamespace();
}
}

public void ConvertSDtoStringSD(byte[] securityDescriptor,

out IntPtr stringSecurityDescriptorPtr,
out int stringSecurityDescriptorSize)
{

19
 bool result =
ConvertSecurityDescriptorToStringSecurityDescriptor(
securityDescriptor,
1,
SecurityInformation.DACL_SECURITY_INFORMATION |
SecurityInformation.GROUP_SECURITY_INFORMATION |
SecurityInformation.OWNER_SECURITY_INFORMATION |
SecurityInformation.SACL_SECURITY_INFORMATION,
out stringSecurityDescriptorPtr,
out stringSecurityDescriptorSize);
if (!result)
{
Console.WriteLine( "Fail to convert" +
" SD to string SD:" );
throw new Win32Exception(
Marshal.GetLastWin32Error());
}
}

public void ConvertStringSDtoSD(

string stringSecurityDescriptor,
out IntPtr securityDescriptorPtr,
out int securityDescriptorSize)
{
bool result =
ConvertStringSecurityDescriptorToSecurityDescriptor(
stringSecurityDescriptor,
1,
out securityDescriptorPtr,
out securityDescriptorSize);
if (!result)
{
Console.WriteLine(
"Fail to convert string SD to SD:" );
throw new Win32Exception(
Marshal.GetLastWin32Error());
}
}

private enum SecurityInformation : uint

{
OWNER_SECURITY_INFORMATION= 0x00000001,
GROUP_SECURITY_INFORMATION= 0x00000002,
DACL_SECURITY_INFORMATION= 0x00000004,
SACL_SECURITY_INFORMATION= 0x00000008,
PROTECTED_DACL_SECURITY_INFORMATION= 0x80000000,
PROTECTED_SACL_SECURITY_INFORMATION= 0x40000000,
UNPROTECTED_DACL_SECURITY_INFORMATION= 0x20000000,

20
 UNPROTECTED_SACL_SECURITY_INFORMATION= 0x10000000,
};

[DllImport("Advapi32.dll", CharSet=CharSet.Auto,
SetLastError=true, ExactSpelling=false)]
private static extern bool
ConvertSecurityDescriptorToStringSecurityDescriptor(
[In] byte[] SecurityDescriptor,
[In] int RequestedStringSDRevision,
[In] SecurityInformation SecurityInformation,
[Out] out IntPtr StringSecurityDescriptor,
[Out] out int StringSecurityDescriptorLen
);

[DllImport("Advapi32.dll", CharSet=CharSet.Auto,
SetLastError=true, ExactSpelling=false)]
private static extern bool
ConvertStringSecurityDescriptorToSecurityDescriptor(
[In] string StringSecurityDescriptor,
[In] uint StringSDRevision,
[Out] out IntPtr SecurityDescriptor,
[Out] out int SecurityDescriptorSize
);

private void CreateTestNamespace()

{
ManagementClass rootNamespace =
new ManagementClass("root:__namespace");
ManagementObject testNamespace =
rootNamespace.CreateInstance();
testNamespace["Name"] = namespaceName;
testNamespace.Put();
}

private void DeleteTestNamespace()

{
ManagementObject testNamespace =
new ManagementObject("root:__namespace.Name='"
+ namespaceName + "'");
try
{
testNamespace.Get();
testNamespace.Delete();
}
catch (ManagementException e)
{
if (e.ErrorCode == ManagementStatus.NotFound)

21
 return;
}
}

[STAThread]
static void Main(string[] args)
{
try
{
new Sample().Run();
}
catch (Win32Exception e)
{
Console.WriteLine(e);
}
}
}
}

How To: Use Strongly-Typed Objects

WMI provides the ability to automatically generate early-bound wrappers for WMI
objects.

To serve customer extensibility needs, WMI objects are typically late-bound, which
does not force strong typing. In the .NET Framework environment, WMI provides
the ability to automatically generate early-bound wrappers for WMI objects.

Strongly-typed wrappers allow applications to take advantage of all the available

Microsoft Visual Studio assistance features, such as Intellisense and object
browsing, for strongly-typed objects. For example, you can generate an early-
bound wrapper for the Win32_Service class so that you can use Intellisense to
quickly find the class members in the Win32_Service class. The following list
contains the tools and methods that generate wrappers for WMI objects.

 The MgmtClassGen.exe tool in the .NET Framework SDK.

For more information, see Management Strongly Typed Class Generator
(Mgmtclassgen.exe). For more information about the code generated by the
MgmtClassGen.exe tool, see Code Generated from MgmtClassGen.exe.
 The Server Explorer Management extension in Visual Studio .NET, which
automatically generates the wrapper when dragging a management class into
your designer. To download the Server Explorer Management extension for
Visual Studio, go to http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?
familyid=62d91a63-1253-4ea6-8599-68fb3ef77de1

22
  Programmatically through the GetStronglyTypedClassCode methods.

The wrappers are implemented as managed code classes, and as such provide
multilanguage support so that they can be used with any programming language.

Example

The following code example includes the strongly-typed Service class, which is a
wrapper for the Win32_Service class. Before running this example, you must
generate a specific class using the following command in the Visual Studio 2005
command prompt (change the value of the code language depending on whether
you want to generate a C# or Visual Basic .NET code file):

C:\> MgmtClassGen Win32_Service /L CS /N root\cimv2 /P

C:\temp\service.cs

The output of the generator tool will be the service.cs code file, which you should
then add to your project along with the code below. Notice the usage of the
strongly typed "Service" class in the foreach statement instead of the generic
ManagementObject class, and the simplified standard dot notation access to the
properties of the returned objects.

using System;
using ROOT.CIMV2.Win32;
// Contains the strongly typed generated class "Service"
// in ROOT.CIMV2.Win32 namespace. This namespace was
// generated using the MgmtClassGen tool for
// the Win32_Service class

class Sample
{
// Enumerate instances of Win32_Service class
void EnumerateServices()
{
Console.WriteLine("List services and their state");
foreach(Service ser in Service.GetInstances())
Console.WriteLine(
"Service: "+ ser.Name + " is " + ser.State);
}

public static void Main(string[] args)

{
Sample test = new Sample();
test.EnumerateServices();
return;
}
}

23
24