WMI/WBEM remotely against Win9x

[Fred]

In Win9x machines with WBEM/WMI installed is it possible to access anything
from them remotely?

We have tried numerous vbscripts that work just fine against Win2K/XP
machines and query different information from them from another 2K/XP
machine on the network. But all the Win9x machines return an "RPC
unavailable" error.

What good is WBEM installed on win9x if it can't be used remotely?

If it can be, can someone please point me to resources with samples and
maybe explanation of items that are accessible in win9x.

TIA
Fred

[Torgeir Bakken (MVP)]

Fred wrote:

Hi

Some input for you:

Starting the Windows Management Service
http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/en-us/wmisdk/wmi/starting_the_windows_management_service.asp

Automatically Invoking WMI on Windows 95/98
http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/en-us/wmisdk/wmi/automatically_invoking_wmi_on_windows_95_98.asp

From: Jerald R. Rawdon Jr.
Subject: Re: WMI & remote reboot
Newsgroups: microsoft.public.wbem
Date: 2001-02-11 13:16:39 PST
http://groups.google.com/groups?hl=en&lr=&selm=t8e09is8aaai8f%40corp.supernews.com

- and -

from an earlier posting by Raman:

<quote>
From: Raman \(Microsoft WMI Dev Support\)
Subject: WMI Information Series - [ How to configure Win9x for remote
connections]
Newsgroups: microsoft.public.wbem
Date: 2001-09-24 10:21:40 PST

As part of taking a more pro-active role in community newsgroups, the wmi
developer support group will be posting useful wmi information from time to
time to this newsgroup. This will include things like sample code, tips, new
KB articles and general wmi information.

The following is the first post in this series. Stay tuned for periodic future
posts.

Title : How to configure Win9x for remote connections

To get wmi working on Win9x please do the following steps
1. Set user-level access control
a. Right click on Network Neigborhood and select properties
b. Select 'Access Conrol' tab
c. Choose 'User-level access control'
d. Set 'Obtain list of users and groups from' to approriate Domain

2. Set DCOM permissions
You can either set using the registry or dcomcnfg

Using the registry
a. Start->Run->regedit.exe
b. Goto HKLM\Software\Microsoft\OLE
c. Set EnableDCOM to 'Y'
d. Set EnableRemoteConnect to 'Y'

Using dcomcnfg
a. Start->Run->dcomcnfg.exe
b. Select 'Default Properties Tab'
c. Check 'Enable Distributed COM on this computer'
d. Select 'Default Security Tab'
e. Check 'Enable Remote Connection'

3. Set WMI permissions
a. Goto c:\windows\system\wbem
b. Double click on wbmecntl.exe
c. Select Security Tab
d. Select Root in the namespace list
e. Click on security and add the appropriate users and give them all
permissions

f. Select Advanced Tab
g. Uncheck 'Enable anonymous connection with share level security'
h. Select 'Always auto restart' in the 'Winmgmt process restart' frame

--
Raman
Microsoft WMI Developer Support

</qoute>

--
torgeir
Microsoft MVP Scripting and WMI, Porsgrunn Norway
Administration scripting examples and an ONLINE version of the 1328 page
Scripting Guide: http://www.microsoft.com/technet/scriptcenter

[Fred]

Thanks, there was some info there I had never found. Although the Task
Manager says the winmgmt.exe is running and I have made my reg entries as
described I am now getting a different set of error messages.

This is the script saved as list processes.vbs :

1. dim strComputer
2. Set objArgs = WScript.Arguments
3. if objArgs.count = 1 then strComputer = "!//" & objArgs(0)
4. for each Process in
GetObject("winmgmts:{impersonationLevel=impersonate}"&
strComputer).InstancesOf ("Win32_process")
5. WScript.Echo Process.Name
6. Next

When run from the command prompt on a win2K desktop logged in as a user with
domain Admin priviledge against a Win95 PC configured as stated in the
Articles you pointed me to, this is the message returned :

listprocesses.vbs(5, 1) (null): The authentication service is unknown.

If, on the Win95 or 98 machines, I change the reg entry in
HKLM\Softtware\Microsoft\WBEM\CIMOM -EnableAnonConnections from "0" to "1"
it all works like a champ.

But I don't really want to do this do I?

And if I don't want to enable Anonymous connections, how do I specify the
credentials I want to use?

Thanx
Fred

"Torgeir Bakken (MVP)" <Torgeir.B...@hydro.com> wrote in message
news:3FE354F7...@hydro.com...