Preface

I am very passionate about using PowerShell to automate the administration of Windows systems. This will become apparent very quickly if you talk to me, listen to me at conferences, or read my other books or blogs. WMI has a reputation for being powerful but hard to use. PowerShell is the way forward for system administrators, and WMI is that horrible, old technology that no one really knows how to use. So why do we need a book on PowerShell and WMI?

In reality, PowerShell and WMI are made for each other. They are both powerful, but put them together and you have low-level access to just about every facet of your Windows system. WMI is a first-class citizen in the PowerShell world, with a set of cmd-lets to make using WMI easier and to provide the ability to work over WSMAN or DCOM protocols. The great strength of the pairing of PowerShell and WMI is that you can work with both local and remote systems. The other point to remember is that Microsoft is putting a lot of effort into WMI for the Windows 8 family of products. There are big changes coming regarding what you can do with WMI and how you can use it.

In short, it seemed that now was the time to bring WMI in from the cold and into mainstream administration where it belongs.