retrieving hardware info
Sascha Herpers
this is a hard one :)
Does anybody know how to retrieve bios information using visual basic?
Sascha
Randy Birch
data, but whether the BIOS exposes it to Windows on a particular machine is
another matter ... check out http://www.mvps.org/vbnet/code/wmi/wmibios.htm
--
Randy Birch
MVP Visual Basic
http://www.mvps.org/vbnet/
Please respond only to the newsgroups so all can benefit.
"Sascha Herpers" <s.he...@brainpowered.de> wrote in message
news:au0su8$3gb7m$2...@ID-144102.news.dfncis.de...
Sascha Herpers
Thanks Randy
Sascha Herpers
> http://www.mvps.org/vbnet/code/wmi/wmibios.htm
I tried it and it works. I can even get the UUID of the bios. Great.
Another question: is there a documentation about the existance of certain
key/valu-pairs on the various bios versions? For example is the UUID always
present regardless of manufacturer or version? Or will the UUID only be
accessable my current system configuration?
Sascha
Randy Birch
Properties
The Win32_BIOS class defines the following properties.
BiosCharacteristics
Data type: uint16 array
Access type: Read-only
Array of BIOS characteristics supported by the system as defined by the
System Management BIOS Reference Specification.
Value Meaning
0 Reserved
1 Reserved
2 Unknown
3 BIOS Characteristics Not Supported
4 ISA is supported
5 MCA is supported
6 EISA is supported
7 PCI is supported
8 PC Card (PCMCIA) is supported
9 Plug and Play is supported
10 APM is supported
11 BIOS is Upgradable (Flash)
12 BIOS shadowing is allowed
13 VL-VESA is supported
14 ESCD support is available
15 Boot from CD is supported
16 Selectable Boot is supported
17 BIOS ROM is socketed
18 Boot From PC Card (PCMCIA) is supported
19 EDD (Enhanced Disk Drive) Specification is supported
20 Int 13h - Japanese Floppy for NEC 9800 1.2mb (3.5, 1k
Bytes/Sector, 360 RPM) is supported
21 Int 13h - Japanese Floppy for Toshiba 1.2mb (3.5, 360 RPM) is
supported
22 Int 13h - 5.25 / 360 KB Floppy Services are supported
23 Int 13h - 5.25 /1.2MB Floppy Services are supported
24 Int 13h - 3.5 / 720 KB Floppy Services are supported
25 Int 13h - 3.5 / 2.88 MB Floppy Services are supported
26 Int 5h, Print Screen Service is supported
27 Int 9h, 8042 Keyboard services are supported
28 Int 14h, Serial Services are supported
29 Int 17h, printer services are supported
30 Int 10h, CGA/Mono Video Services are supported
31 NEC PC-98
32 ACPI supported
33 USB Legacy is supported
34 AGP is supported
35 I2O boot is supported
36 LS-120 boot is supported
37 ATAPI ZIP Drive boot is supported
38 1394 boot is supported
39 Smart Battery supported
BIOSVersion
Data type: string array
Access type: Read-only
Array of the complete system BIOS information. In many computers, there
can be several version strings stored in the registry that represent the
system BIOS information. This property was added for Windows XP.
BuildNumber
Data type: string
Access type: Read-only
Internal identifier for this compilation of this software element. This
property is inherited from CIM_SoftwareElement.
Caption
Data type: string
Access type: Read-only
Short description (one-line string) of the object. This property is
inherited from CIM_ManagedSystemElement.
CodeSet
Data type: string
Access type: Read-only
Qualifiers: MaxLen(64)
Code set used by this software element. This property is inherited from
CIM_SoftwareElement.
CurrentLanguage
Data type: string
Access type: Read-only
Name of the current BIOS language.
Description
Data type: string
Access type: Read-only
Description of the object. This property is inherited from
CIM_ManagedSystemElement.
IdentificationCode
Data type: string
Access type: Read-only
Qualifiers: MaxLen(64)
Manufacturer's identifier for this software element. Often this will be a
stock keeping unit (SKU) or a part number. This property is inherited from
CIM_SoftwareElement.
InstallableLanguages
Data type: uint16
Access type: Read-only
Number of languages available for installation on this system. Language
may determine properties such as the need for Unicode and bi-directional
text.
InstallDate
Data type: datetime
Access type: Read-only
Date and time the object was installed. A lack of a value does not
indicate that the object is not installed. This property is inherited from
CIM_ManagedSystemElement.
LanguageEdition
Data type: string
Access type: Read-only
Qualifiers: MaxLen(32)
Language edition of this software element. The language codes defined in
ISO 639 should be used. Where the software element represents multilingual
or international version of a product, the string "multilingual" should be
used. This property is inherited from CIM_SoftwareElement.
ListOfLanguages
Data type: String array
Access type: Read-only
Array of names of available BIOS-installable languages.
Manufacturer
Data type: string
Access type: Read-only
Manufacturer of this software element. This property is inherited from
CIM_SoftwareElement.
Name
Data type: string
Access type: Read-only
Qualifiers: Key, MaxLen(256)
Name used to identify this software element. This property is inherited
from CIM_ManagedSystemElement.
OtherTargetOS
Data type: string
Access type: Read-only
Qualifiers: MaxLen(64)
Records the manufacturer and operating system type for a software element
when the TargetOperatingSystem property has a value of 1 (Other). When
TargetOperatingSystem has a value of 1, OtherTargetOS must have a non-null
value. For all other values of TargetOperatingSystem, OtherTargetOS is NULL.
This property is inherited from CIM_SoftwareElement.
PrimaryBIOS
Data type: boolean
Access type: Read-only
If TRUE, this is the primary BIOS of the computer system. This property is
inherited from CIM_BIOSElement.
ReleaseDate
Data type: datetime
Access type: Read-only
Release date of the Windows BIOS in the Coordinated Universal Time (UTC)
format of YYYYMMDDHHMMSS.MMMMMM(+-)OOO.
SerialNumber
Data type: string
Access type: Read-only
Assigned serial number of the software element. This property is inherited
from CIM_SoftwareElement.
SMBIOSBIOSVersion
Data type: string
Access type: Read-only
BIOS version as reported by SMBIOS.
SMBIOSMajorVersion
Data type: uint16
Access type: Read-only
Major SMBIOS version number. This property is NULL if SMBIOS is not found.
SMBIOSMinorVersion
Data type: uint16
Access type: Read-only
Minor SMBIOS version number. This property is NULL if SMBIOS is not found.
SMBIOSPresent
Data type: boolean
Access type: Read-only
If TRUE, the SMBIOS is available on this computer system.
SoftwareElementID
Data type: string
Access type: Read-only
Identifier for this software element; designed to be used in conjunction
with other keys to create a unique representation of this
CIM_SoftwareElement instance. This property is inherited from
CIM_SoftwareElement.
SoftwareElementState
Data type: uint16
Access type: Read-only
State of a software element. This property is inherited from
CIM_SoftwareElement.
Value Meaning
0 Deployable
1 Installable
2 Executable
3 Running
Status
Data type: string
Access type: Read-only
Qualifiers: MaxLen(10)
Current status of the object. Various operational and non-operational
statuses can be defined. Operational statuses include: "OK", "Degraded", and
"Pred Fail" (an element, such as a SMART-enabled hard drive, may be
functioning properly but predicting a failure in the near future).
Non-operational statuses include: "Error", "Starting", "Stopping", and
"Service". The latter, "Service", could apply during mirror-resilvering of a
disk, reload of a user permissions list, or other administrative work. Not
all such work is online, yet the managed element is neither "OK" nor in one
of the other states. This property is inherited from
CIM_ManagedSystemElement.
Values are:
"OK"
"Error"
"Degraded"
"Unknown"
"Pred Fail"
"Starting"
"Stopping"
"Service"
"Stressed"
"NonRecover"
"No Contact"
"Lost Comm"
TargetOperatingSystem
Data type: uint16
Access type: Read-only
Target operating system of the owning software element. This property is
inherited from CIM_SoftwareElement. The possible values for this property
are as follows.
Value Meaning
0 Unknown
1 Other
2 MACOS
3 ATTUNIX
4 DGUX
5 DECNT
6 Digital Unix
7 OpenVMS
8 HPUX
9 AIX
10 MVS
11 OS400
12 OS/2
13 JavaVM
14 MSDOS
15 WIN3x
16 WIN95
17 WIN98
18 WINNT
19 WINCE
20 NCR3000
21 NetWare
22 OSF
23 DC/OS
24 Reliant UNIX
25 SCO UnixWare
26 SCO OpenServer
27 Sequent
28 IRIX
29 Solaris
30 SunOS
31 U6000
32 ASERIES
33 TandemNSK
34 TandemNT
35 BS2000
36 LINUX
37 Lynx
38 XENIX
39 VM/ESA
40 Interactive UNIX
41 BSDUNIX
42 FreeBSD
43 NetBSD
44 GNU Hurd
45 OS9
46 MACH Kernel
47 Inferno
48 QNX
49 EPOC
50 IxWorks
51 VxWorks
52 MiNT
53 BeOS
54 HP MPE
55 NextStep
56 PalmPilot
57 Rhapsody
58 Windows 2000
59 Dedicated
60 VSE
61 TPF
Version
Data type: string
Access type: Read-only
Qualifiers: Key, MaxLen(64)
Version of the BIOS. This string is created by the BIOS manufacturer. This
property is inherited from CIM_SoftwareElement.
Remarks
The Win32_BIOS class is derived from CIM_BIOSElement.
Requirements
Windows NT/2000/XP: Included in Windows NT 4.0 SP4 or later.
Header: Declared in Cimwin32.mof.
Namespace: Included in \root\cimv2.
--
Randy Birch
MVP Visual Basic
http://www.mvps.org/vbnet/
Please respond only to the newsgroups so all can benefit.
"Sascha Herpers" <s.he...@brainpowered.de> wrote in message
news:au6d2s$4ph1g$1...@ID-144102.news.dfncis.de...