Microsoft turns off WMIC in Windows 11, plans to remove it from next-gen Windows

Microsoft deprecated the Windows Management Instrumentation Command Line tool (WMIC) in Windows Server in 2016, with Windows 10 following suit in 2021. Although it is still available in Windows 11 as a feature-on-demand (FoD), Microsoft plans to remove it from its next-gen operating system. The company has published a new document detailing further plans regarding WMIC deprecation.

WMIC is a command-line interface for Windows Management Instrumentation, a method for IT Admins to manage their systems and retrieve information about hardware, software, services, and more. After deprecating WMIC in 2016, Microsoft turned the tool into a feature-on-demand, leaving it turned on by default and available when necessary. Now, Microsoft is ready to change that.

According to a post on the Tech Community forums, the software giant will turn off WMIC after January 29, 2024, starting with Windows 11 preview builds. The utility will ship disabled by default in the next Windows 11 release (likely version 24H2, which is coming later this year) and its successors. Eventually, Microsoft will remove WMIC from future Windows releases.

Microsoft replaced WMIC with Windows PowerShell for WMI (WMIC and WMI are different things), giving administrators a more efficient way to query Windows Management Instrumentation. Microsoft says removing deprecated features helps reduce code complexity and keep users "secure and productive."

If you are an admin or app developer whose project depends on WMIC, it is time to take action. The forum post published by Microsoft offers workarounds and different ways to deal with WMIC's deprecation and future removal.

Microsoft deprecated a lot of Windows features and components in 2023. We recently published a comprehensive list of all the capabilities Microsoft is no longer developing. They include Windows Mixed Reality, WordPad, Cortana, Steps Recorder, Windows Speech Recognition, and more. Some features may affect you directly, so be sure to check what is going on.

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