PowerShell WMI and CIM
Remarks
CIM vs WMI
As of PowerShell 3.0, there are two ways to work with management classes in PowerShell, WMI and CIM. PowerShell 1.0 and 2.0 only supported the WMI-module which is now superseeded by the new and improved CIM-module. In a later release of PowerShell, the WMI-cmdlets will be removed.
Comparison of CIM and WMI-modules:
| CIM-cmdlet | WMI-cmdlet | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| Get-CimInstance | Get-WmiObject | Gets CIM/WMI-objects for a class |
| Invoke-CimMethod | Invoke-WmiMethod | Invokes a CIM/WMI-class method |
| Register-CimIndicationEvent | Register-WmiEvent | Registers event for a CIM/WMI-class |
| Remove-CimInstance | Remove-WmiObject | Remove CIM/WMI-object |
| Set-CimInstance | Set-WmiInstance | Updates/Saves CIM/WMI-object |
| Get-CimAssociatedInstance | N/A | Get associated instances (linked object/classes) |
| Get-CimClass | Get-WmiObject -List | List CIM/WMI-classes |
| New-CimInstance | N/A | Create new CIM-object |
| Get-CimSession | N/A | Lists CIM-sessions |
| New-CimSession | N/A | Create new CIM-session |
| New-CimSessionOption | N/A | Creates object with session options; protocol, encoding, disable encryption etc. (for use with New-CimSession) |
| Remove-CimSession | N/A | Removes/Stops CIM-session |
Additional resources
Should I use CIM or WMI with Windows PowerShell? @ Hey, Scripting Guy! Blog
