The WMI Framework
Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI) is included in all modern versions of Windows and Windows Server. Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI) CORE 1.5 was once available from Microsoft to install WMI on computers running Windows 95/98 or Windows NT 4.0.
Even though all Windows computers have WMI, not all WMI Providers, Classes, or even Methods and Properties are included in every version of Windows. For example, the Win32_WinSAT class is not available in versions of Windows greater than 8.1 and the Win32_Service class is not supported on versions of Windows prior to Vista.
WMI Development
Any language that can handle ActiveX objects (.NET, VBScript, PowerShell, Python, JScript, etc) can interact with WMI.