Retrieving Information About the BIOS | Microsoft Windows 2000 Scripting Guide(c) Automating System Administration 2003

Microsoft® Windows® 2000 Scripting Guide

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Each computer has a BIOS that is used to configure basic computer settings, including fundamental properties such as whether a password is required to start the computer and how memory can be configured. The BIOS also helps determine which hardware can be installed on a computer. For example, before you can add a new CPU or a new motherboard to a computer, you must make sure the computer has the correct version of the BIOS.

BIOS manufacturers routinely issue BIOS upgrades that enable a computer to support new classes of hardware or that add features to the computer. Before installing such an upgrade, you must know which version of a BIOS has been installed on a computer. Attempting to add hardware to a computer that does not support this hardware can cause serious problems. Problems can also occur if you attempt to install a BIOS upgrade on a computer that does not use that particular BIOS to begin with.

Note

The make and model of a computer are not always indicative of which BIOS has been installed on that computer. Two seemingly identical computers from the same manufacturer might use different BIOS.

You can use the Win32_BIOS class to enumerate the properties of the BIOS installed in your computer. Table 8.2 lists some of the more commonly used properties of the Win32_BIOS class, including properties related to the installed version of SMBIOS.

Table 8.2 Win32_BIOS Properties

Property	Description
BIOSCharacteristics	Array of BIOS characteristics supported by the computer as defined by the SMBIOS Reference Specification. The possible values for this property are: 3 BIOS characteristics not supported 4 ISA 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) 15 Boot from CD is supported 16 Selectable boot is supported 17 BIOS ROM is socketed 18 Boot from PC card (PCMCIA) is supported 32 ACPI supported 34 AGP is supported
BuildNumber	Internal identifier for the BIOS.
CurrentLanguage	Name of the current BIOS language.
InstallableLanguages	Number of languages available for installation on this computer.
Manufacturer	Manufacturer of the BIOS.
Name	Name used to identify the BIOS.
PrimaryBIOS	Indicates whether this is the primary BIOS of the computer.
ReleaseDate	Release date of the BIOS. Dates are in the Universal Time Coordinate (UTC) format yyyymmddHHMMSS.xxxxxx-UUU, where: yyyy represents the year mm represents the month dd represents the day HH represents the hour (in 24-hour time format) MM represents the minutes SS represents the seconds xxxxxx represents the milliseconds UUU represents the number of minutes to be subtracted from the current time in order to calculate Greenwich Mean Time For example, a BIOS released on October 31, 2002, at 10:45:39 A.M. Pacific time looks like this: `20021031104539.000000-480`
SerialNumber	Serial number assigned to the BIOS by the manufacturer.
SMBIOSVersion	BIOS version as reported by SMBIOS.
SMBIOSMajorVersion	Major SMBIOS version number.
SMBIOSMinorVersion	Minor SMBIOS version number.
SMBIOSPresent	Indicates whether the SMBIOS is available on this computer.
Version	Version of the BIOS.

Some, but not all, of this information is also available through the System Information snap-in, as shown in Figure 8.2.

Figure 8.2 Win32_BIOS Properties and System Information

Win32_BIOS Properties and System Information

Scripting Steps

Listing 8.2 contains a script that retrieves BIOS information for a computer. To carry out this task, the script must perform the following steps:

Create a variable to specify the computer name.
Use a GetObject call to connect to the WMI namespace root\cimv2, and set the impersonation level to "impersonate."
Use the ExecQuery method to query the Win32_BIOS class.
This query returns a collection consisting of a single object representing the BIOS installed on the computer.
For each BIOS in the collection, echo the retrieved values.
Because the BIOS characteristics are contained within an array, a For Each loop must be used to loop through each element in the array.

Listing 8.2 Retrieving BIOS Information

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strComputer = "." Set objWMIService = GetObject("winmgmts:" _     & "{impersonationLevel=impersonate}!\\" & strComputer & "\root\cimv2") Set colBIOS = objWMIService.ExecQuery _     ("SELECT * FROM Win32_BIOS") For Each objBIOS in colBIOS     Wscript.Echo "Build Number: " & objBIOS.BuildNumber     Wscript.Echo "Current Language: " & objBIOS.CurrentLanguage     Wscript.Echo "Installable Languages: " & objBIOS.InstallableLanguages     Wscript.Echo "Manufacturer: " & objBIOS.Manufacturer     Wscript.Echo "Name: " & objBIOS.Name     Wscript.Echo "Primary BIOS: " & objBIOS.PrimaryBIOS     Wscript.Echo "Release Date: " & objBIOS.ReleaseDate     Wscript.Echo "Serial Number: " & objBIOS.SerialNumber     Wscript.Echo "SMBIOS Version: " & objBIOS.SMBIOSBIOSVersion     Wscript.Echo "SMBIOS Major Version: " & objBIOS.SMBIOSMajorVersion     Wscript.Echo "SMBIOS Minor Version: " & objBIOS.SMBIOSMinorVersion     Wscript.Echo "SMBIOS Present: " & objBIOS.SMBIOSPresent     Wscript.Echo "Status: " & objBIOS.Status     Wscript.Echo "Version: " & objBIOS.Version     For Each intCharacteristic in objBIOS.BiosCharacteristics         Wscript.Echo "BIOS Characteristics: " & intCharacteristic     Next Next

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