Guide Says Type WMIC? That Command Is Being Removed

You found a guide, it told you to type a command starting with wmic, and either it worked fine or Windows told you there is no such thing.

Both of those are correct answers right now. Microsoft has removed the tool, the removal arrives with an update, and until that update reaches you the old command keeps working.

I ran it on this machine expecting a failure and got an answer instead, which turned out to be the interesting part.

What Microsoft has removed, in its own words

The precision matters more than usual here, and Microsoft states it in its WMIC removal notice.

"The WMIC utility has been removed from currently supported versions of Windows 11." It is also no longer something you can add back, and it "is no longer available as a Feature on Demand (FoD)".

Upgrading removes it: it "is removed, if already installed, when upgrading to Windows 11, version 25H2". The change is reflected in the August 2026 preview update, which is why guides written last month work for some people and not others.

What is not being removed

One distinction stops this being alarming. Microsoft says "Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI) itself remains a supported and integral part of Windows."

WMI is the system underneath your PC. WMIC was one way of talking to it, an old one. Everything WMIC could read is still readable, and when I checked the information had not moved.

Only the command has. So a guide that uses wmic is out of date rather than wrong about the facts. It just needs the newer phrasing.

What this machine actually says

Measured here, and it contradicts the headline in a way that is ours to explain. WMIC is still here, and the file sits in the System32 Wbem folder, with a second copy for 32 bit programs.

And it runs. Asking for the operating system name returned Microsoft Windows 11 Home, with no warning and no error.

This machine is on 25H2 build 26200.9168, the 11 August cumulative rather than the 27 August preview that carries the change. It is not gone yet here, and it will be. That gap is the whole reason people get different answers this week.

Check your own in one line

Ten seconds, and it tells you which side of the change you are on. Open Terminal and run this. It changes nothing:

Get-Command wmic -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue | Select-Object Source

A path means you still have it. Nothing at all means it has already gone from your machine. Either answer is normal in August 2026, depending entirely on which updates you have taken.

Do not go hunting for an installer if it is missing. It is no longer offered, and anything claiming otherwise is not from Microsoft.

What to type instead

Microsoft names the replacement, and you already have it. PowerShell is the answer. Microsoft says its recommendation is "using PowerShell, WMI APIs, and other modern management tools".

Its own example is Get-CimInstance, as in Get-CimInstance Win32_Process | Select-Object Name, which you can paste as it stands. Nothing needs installing. Both PowerShell and Get-CimInstance ship with Windows and always have.

The pattern translates directly. Where a guide says wmic bios get serialnumber, the modern form asks Get-CimInstance for Win32_BIOS instead.

Three commands worth knowing

These three are what old guides use most, and collecting them is ours. For your model and manufacturer, Get-CimInstance Win32_ComputerSystem | Select-Object Manufacturer, Model.

For your BIOS and its date, Get-CimInstance Win32_BIOS | Select-Object Manufacturer, SMBIOSBIOSVersion, ReleaseDate. For your drives and their sizes, Get-CimInstance Win32_DiskDrive | Select-Object Model, Size.

All three are read only. They ask Windows a question and change nothing, which is worth knowing before pasting anything from a page like this.

What this changes for you

Almost nothing changes, unless you follow written guides. No consumer feature depends on WMIC, nothing in Settings, no app you use, no part of Windows itself. Anything published before this year may tell you to type it.

Old guides are the only casualty, and there are a lot of them. If a command fails with a message about wmic not being recognized, that is this. It is not a broken installation.

If you are checking specifications rather than running scripts, there is an easier route entirely. Most of it is on one Settings page.

Status: WMIC presence and behavior checked here on 29 August 2026, on a 25H2 machine at build 26200.9168, against Microsoft's own removal notice and its August 2026 message center entry. Nothing was installed, removed or changed, and no serial number, model or identifier read by any command here is published.

Has WMIC been removed from Windows 11?

Microsoft says the WMIC utility has been removed from currently supported versions of Windows 11, and that it is no longer available as a Feature on Demand.

The change is reflected in the August 2026 preview update, so machines that have not installed it may still have a working copy.

What should I use instead of WMIC?

PowerShell. Microsoft recommends using PowerShell, WMI APIs and other modern management tools, and gives Get-CimInstance as its example.

Everything WMIC could read is still readable, because WMI itself remains a supported and integral part of Windows.

Why does wmic still work on my PC?

Because the removal arrives with an update you may not have installed yet. On this machine, running Windows 11 25H2 at build 26200.9168, WMIC is still present and still answers.

Checking with one line in Terminal tells you which side of the change your own machine is on.

The Short Version

• Microsoft says WMIC has been removed from supported Windows 11 versions.
• It is no longer available as a Feature on Demand, so you cannot add it back.
• Upgrading to 25H2 removes it if it was already installed.
• The change is reflected in the August 2026 preview update.
• WMI itself is untouched and remains a supported part of Windows.
• On this machine WMIC is still present and still runs, on build 26200.9168.
• One line in Terminal tells you whether yours still has it.
• Use Get-CimInstance in PowerShell instead. It ships with Windows.

Where to Next

Run the one line check and see whether your machine still has it. Either answer is normal this month.

If a guide tells you to type wmic and it fails, translate the command to Get-CimInstance rather than assuming something is broken.

Keep the three read only commands above somewhere. They cover what most old guides were using WMIC for.

Do not look for a download. It is no longer offered by Microsoft, and anything claiming to supply it is not Microsoft.

And if you hit an old guide whose wmic command has no obvious modern equivalent, say which one in the comments. Those are worth collecting while the guides catch up.