Using WMI/CIM from C# and PowerShell — A Practical Guide to Hardware Info Retrieval, Process Monitoring, and Remote Queries (archived 2026-08-30)

Abstract

WMI/CIM is the standard way to get a PC's serial number, monitor free disk space, and detect process launches. This article covers how to use CIM cmdlets such as Get-CimInstance, migration from the old Get-WmiObject, when to use System.Management versus the CIM API in C#, plus practical recipes and pitfalls. Archived version of https://comcomponent.com/en/blog/wmi-cim-practical-guide/, as published on 2026-08-30. The live article is maintained and may change after this date. First published 2026-08-01.