Accessing hardware information

  • Thread starter Thread starter Stephen Corey
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Stephen Corey

How can I access the hardware information of a system, like hard
drive(s) model & serial numbers, video card model, etc...?

Thanks!
 
Stephen Corey said:
How can I access the hardware information of a system, like hard drive(s)
model & serial numbers, video card model, etc...?

There are a number of ways, any of which is likely to make your head hurt.
:-)

One thing that you can do is to use Windows Management Instrumentation
(WMI). I might be wrong but I think WMI was intended to be used in scripts,
where it is reasonably straightforward. In C++ it is just downright homely,
IMO.

In any event there is a WMI sample in C++ here:

http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/d..._getting_wmi_data_from_the_local_computer.asp

Once you read that link you can navigate back to the overview of WMI to get
up to speed on the various "classes" of information that you can query
against.

I started with that sample, and oh-so-mechanically changed the query against
the Win32 operating system class to one against the disk drive class and
replaced the display of the operating system name with the name,
manufacturer and model of each drive it found. It succeeds in enumerating
the drives on this box and is appended below.

You might want to scan the docs to find the other classes of info that you
need.

Regards,
Will

#define _WIN32_DCOM
#include <iostream>
using namespace std;
#include <comdef.h>
#include <Wbemidl.h>

# pragma comment(lib, "wbemuuid.lib")

int main(int argc, char **argv)
{
HRESULT hres;

// Step 1: --------------------------------------------------
// Initialize COM. ------------------------------------------

hres = CoInitializeEx(0, COINIT_MULTITHREADED);
if (FAILED(hres))
{
cout << "Failed to initialize COM library. Error code = 0x"
<< hex << hres << endl;
return 1; // Program has failed.
}

// Step 2: --------------------------------------------------
// Set general COM security levels --------------------------
// Note: If you are using Windows 2000, you need to specify -
// the default authentication credentials for a user by using
// a SOLE_AUTHENTICATION_LIST structure in the pAuthList ----
// parameter of CoInitializeSecurity ------------------------

hres = CoInitializeSecurity(
NULL,
-1, // COM authentication
NULL, // Authentication services
NULL, // Reserved
RPC_C_AUTHN_LEVEL_DEFAULT, // Default authentication
RPC_C_IMP_LEVEL_IMPERSONATE, // Default Impersonation
NULL, // Authentication info
EOAC_NONE, // Additional capabilities
NULL // Reserved
);


if (FAILED(hres))
{
cout << "Failed to initialize security. Error code = 0x"
<< hex << hres << endl;
CoUninitialize();
return 1; // Program has failed.
}

// Step 3: ---------------------------------------------------
// Obtain the initial locator to WMI -------------------------

IWbemLocator *pLoc = NULL;

hres = CoCreateInstance(
CLSID_WbemLocator,
0,
CLSCTX_INPROC_SERVER,
IID_IWbemLocator, (LPVOID *) &pLoc);

if (FAILED(hres))
{
cout << "Failed to create IWbemLocator object."
<< " Err code = 0x"
<< hex << hres << endl;
CoUninitialize();
return 1; // Program has failed.
}

// Step 4: -----------------------------------------------------
// Connect to WMI through the IWbemLocator::ConnectServer method

IWbemServices *pSvc = NULL;

// Connect to the root\cimv2 namespace with
// the current user and obtain pointer pSvc
// to make IWbemServices calls.
hres = pLoc->ConnectServer(
_bstr_t(L"ROOT\\CIMV2"), // Object path of WMI namespace
NULL, // User name. NULL = current user
NULL, // User password. NULL = current
0, // Locale. NULL indicates current
NULL, // Security flags.
0, // Authority (e.g. Kerberos)
0, // Context object
&pSvc // pointer to IWbemServices proxy
);

if (FAILED(hres))
{
cout << "Could not connect. Error code = 0x"
<< hex << hres << endl;
pLoc->Release();
CoUninitialize();
return 1; // Program has failed.
}

cout << "Connected to ROOT\\CIMV2 WMI namespace" << endl;


// Step 5: --------------------------------------------------
// Set security levels on the proxy -------------------------

hres = CoSetProxyBlanket(
pSvc, // Indicates the proxy to set
RPC_C_AUTHN_WINNT, // RPC_C_AUTHN_xxx
RPC_C_AUTHZ_NONE, // RPC_C_AUTHZ_xxx
NULL, // Server principal name
RPC_C_AUTHN_LEVEL_CALL, // RPC_C_AUTHN_LEVEL_xxx
RPC_C_IMP_LEVEL_IMPERSONATE, // RPC_C_IMP_LEVEL_xxx
NULL, // client identity
EOAC_NONE // proxy capabilities
);

if (FAILED(hres))
{
cout << "Could not set proxy blanket. Error code = 0x"
<< hex << hres << endl;
pSvc->Release();
pLoc->Release();
CoUninitialize();
return 1; // Program has failed.
}

// Step 6: --------------------------------------------------
// Use the IWbemServices pointer to make requests of WMI ----

// For example, get the name of the operating system
IEnumWbemClassObject* pEnumerator = NULL;
hres = pSvc->ExecQuery(
bstr_t("WQL"),
// bstr_t("SELECT * FROM Win32_OperatingSystem"),
bstr_t("SELECT * FROM Win32_DiskDrive"),
WBEM_FLAG_FORWARD_ONLY | WBEM_FLAG_RETURN_IMMEDIATELY,
NULL,
&pEnumerator);

if (FAILED(hres))
{
cout << "Query for operating system name failed."
<< " Error code = 0x"
<< hex << hres << endl;
pSvc->Release();
pLoc->Release();
CoUninitialize();
return 1; // Program has failed.
}

// Step 7: -------------------------------------------------
// Get the data from the query in step 6 -------------------

IWbemClassObject *pclsObj;
ULONG uReturn = 0;

while (pEnumerator)
{
HRESULT hr = pEnumerator->Next(WBEM_INFINITE, 1,
&pclsObj, &uReturn);

if(0 == uReturn)
{
break;
}

VARIANT vtProp;
VariantInit(&vtProp);

// Get the value of the Name property
//hr = pclsObj->Get(L"Name", 0, &vtProp, 0, 0);
//wcout << " OS Name : " << vtProp.bstrVal << endl;
hr = pclsObj->Get(L"Name", 0, &vtProp, 0, 0);
wcout << " Name : " << vtProp.bstrVal << endl;
VariantClear(&vtProp);
hr = pclsObj->Get(L"Manufacturer", 0, &vtProp, 0, 0);
wcout << " Manufacturer : " << vtProp.bstrVal << endl;
VariantClear(&vtProp);
hr = pclsObj->Get(L"Model", 0, &vtProp, 0, 0);
wcout << " Model : " << vtProp.bstrVal << endl;
VariantClear(&vtProp);

}

// Cleanup
// ========

pSvc->Release();
pLoc->Release();
pEnumerator->Release();
pclsObj->Release();
CoUninitialize();

return 0; // Program successfully completed.

}
 
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