2026-09-10 Thursday - WMIC removed from Windows 11

Windows Management Instrumentation Command-line (WMIC) removal from Windows

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/servicing/os/windows/docs/2025/09/windows-management-instrumentation-command-line-wmic-removal-from-windows

Published: 2025-12-09 

KB ID: 5067470 

[...] 

See Timeline:  

[...] 

"2026: The WMIC utility has been removed from currently supported versions of Windows 11. The removal is reflected in Windows Insider Preview builds and will be included in the August 2026 preview update for Windows 11, versions 24H2 and 25H2. WMIC is also removed from Windows 11, version 26H1. It is no longer available as a Feature on Demand (FoD)."

 

See Take action: 

"If you have been using the WMIC utility for administrative tasks or in applications, we recommend you migrate away from the WMIC utility and use supported alternatives." 

[...] 

"Use PowerShell for WMI tasks. WMI in PowerShell includes built-in cmdlets for Windows Management Instrumentation that can do everything WMIC did (and more). Common WMIC queries can be directly replaced with PowerShell commands."

For example, to return a list of process names:

• Replace the WMIC query: wmic path win32_process get Name.
• Use the PowerShell command instead: Get-CimInstance Win32_Process | Select-Object Name.

[...] 

"If you have batch files or scripts that call WMIC, plan to rewrite them using PowerShell cmdlets (such as Get-CimInstance, Get-WmiObject, Invoke-CimMethod, and so forth). If needed, run PowerShell from a CMD prompt using powershell -c "<command>" syntax. So, even in command-line contexts, you can invoke PowerShell commands to replace WMIC."

[...]

Other Articles: 

1. https://www.scworld.com/brief/microsoft-removes-wmic-tool-from-windows-11 
2. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_features_removed_in_Windows_11 
3. https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-server/get-started/removed-deprecated-features-windows-server?tabs=ws25 

 

References:

WMIC: WMI command-line utility

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_Management_Instrumentation 
• "Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI) is a set of extensions to the Windows Driver Model that provides an operating system interface through which instrumented components provide information and notification. WMI is Microsoft's implementation of the Web-Based Enterprise Management (WBEM) and Common Information Model (CIM) standards from the Distributed Management Task Force (DMTF)."
• "Also included with Windows was Windows Management Instrumentation Command-line (WMIC), a CLI utility to interface with WMI. However, starting with Windows 10, version 21H1 and Windows Server 2022, WMIC is deprecated in favor of PowerShell"
• https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/win32/wmisdk/wmic 

 

WMI Code Creator v1.0 

• "The WMI Code Creator tool allows you to generate VBScript, C#, and VB .NET code that uses WMI to complete a management task such as querying for management data, executing a method from a WMI class, or receiving event notifications using WMI."
• "The tool is meant to help IT Professionals quickly create management scripts and to help developers learn WMI scripting and WMI .NET. The tool helps take the complexity out of writing code that uses WMI and helps developers and IT Professionals understand how powerful and useful WMI can be for managing computers."
• Published: 2024-07-15