Getting Advanced System Information
When you want to get detailed system information or check computer information on remote systems, use System
Information (Msinfo32.exe). You can access system information by
tapping or clicking System Information on the Apps screen or by typing msinfo32 into the Apps Search box, and then pressing Enter. As shown in Figure 6, you can view system summaries by selecting the System
Summary node. All the configuration statistics provided are collected
using the Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI) service.
The System Information tool provides detailed information on several major areas of the operating system:
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Hardware Resources
Provides detailed information on I/O, interrupt requests (IRQs),
memory, direct memory access (DMA), and Plug and Play devices. A key
area you’ll want to check if a system is having a device problem is the
Conflicts/Sharing node. This area provides a summary of devices that are
sharing resources or causing system conflicts.
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Components
Provides detailed information on installed components, from audio
codecs to input devices to USB ports. A key area you’ll want to check if
a system is having a component problem is the Problem Devices node.
This area provides information on components that have errors.
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Software Environment
Provides detailed information on the running configuration of the
operating system. When you are troubleshooting problems with a remote
system, you’ll find the Software Environment area to be extremely
useful. In addition to drivers, environment variables, print jobs, and
network connections, you can check running tasks, services, program
groups, and startup programs.
If you want to browse configuration information for a remote computer, follow these steps:
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Open System Information. Select Remote Computer on the View menu. This displays the Remote Computer dialog box.
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In the Remote Computer dialog box, select Remote Computer On The Network.
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Type the computer name in the text box provided, and then tap or click OK.
The account you use must have
appropriate administrator access permissions for the domain or the
local machine. If you have other problems obtaining information from a
remote system,
you may need to check the namespace used by the WMI service, as
discussed in the following section. You’ll know that you are looking at system information for a remote computer because the System Summary node shows the computer name in parentheses.
Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI) is a key part of the Windows 8 operating system. It is used to gather system statistics, monitor system health, and manage system components. To work properly, WMI relies on the WMI service. This service must be running and properly configured for the environment.
You control the configuration of the WMI service through WMI Control, which can be accessed on a local or remote system by using the following steps:
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Open Computer Management from the Apps screen (or Start if you’ve added the Administrative Tools).
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Press and hold or right-click the
Computer Management entry in the console tree, and then select Connect
To Another Computer. You can now choose the system that has the services
you want to manage.
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Expand the Services And Applications
node by double tapping or double-clicking. Next, tap or click WMI
Control to select it. (This is required for the control to be read in.)
Press and hold or right-click WMI Control, and then select Properties.
You can now use the WMI Control Properties dialog box to configure WMI.
As shown in Figure 7, the WMI Control Properties dialog box has the following tabs:
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General
Items on this tab provide summary information for the system and WMI.
WMI uses the credentials of the current user to obtain system
information.
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Backup/Restore
Statistics gathered by WMI are stored in a repository. By default, this
repository is located in %SystemRoot%\System32\Wbem\Repository. These
statistics are automatically backed up at regular intervals. You can
back up or restore the repository manually by using the Back Up Now or
Restore Now options on this tab.
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Security
Security settings determine who has access to different levels of WMI
statistics. By default, the Administrators group has full access to WMI,
and the Authenticated Users group has permissions to execute methods,
enable accounts, and write gathered statistics.
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Advanced
Advanced settings determine the default namespace for WMI. The default
namespace is used in WMI scripting when a full namespace path isn’t set
for a WMI object. You can change the default setting by tapping or
clicking Change, selecting a new default namespace, and then tapping or
clicking OK.
Note
WMI maintains error
logs that can be used for troubleshooting problems with the WMI
service. These logs are stored by default in
%SystemRoot%\System32\Wbem\Logs. WMI maintenance files, logs, and
repositories can use a considerable amount of disk space on a system. On
average, these files used 65 MB on my test systems—the bulk of this
(40–50 MB) to maintain repository backup files.
Information gathered by WMI is stored in a collection of system files called a repository.
By default, the repository files are stored under
%SystemRoot%\System32\Wbem\Repository. The repository is the heart of
WMI and the Help And Support services framework. Information is moved
through the repository by using a staging file. If repository data or
the staging file becomes corrupt, WMI might not function properly. This
condition is usually temporary, but you can safeguard against it by
backing up the repository file manually.
To back up the WMI repository manually, complete the following steps:
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Open the WMI Control Properties dialog box, and then tap or click the Backup/Restore tab.
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Tap or click Back Up Now. Next, use the Specify A
Name For Your Backup File dialog box to set the file location and name
of the WMI backup file. Tap or click Save.
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The Backup In Progress dialog box is
displayed while the recovery file is being created. The recovery file is
saved with a .rec extension, and its size depends on how much
information is being stored. Usually this file is between 20–30 MB in
size.
If you later need to restore the WMI repository from a backup file, complete these steps:
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Open the WMI Control Properties dialog box, and then tap or click the Backup/Restore tab.
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Tap or click Restore Now. Next, use the Specify A Backup File To Restore dialog box to set the location and name of the existing recovery file. Then tap or click Open.
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The Restore In Progress dialog box is displayed temporarily, and then you’ll see a warning prompt. Tap or click OK.
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Your connection to WMI
Control is broken. Once the restore operation is complete, you can
reconnect to the computer. To do this, close and reopen the WMI Control Properties dialog box. This forces WMI Control to reconnect to the local or remote computer, but you can do this only if the restore operation is complete.
Note
If the connection fails,
it usually means that WMI Control hasn’t finished restoring the
repository. Wait for another 30 to 60 seconds, and then try again.
