WmiSet Components: configuration for different Operating Systems

This section describes how to configure different operating systems for WmiSet components to work properly. The components rely on Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI) subsystem. The purpose of the configuration is to properly install this subsystem when it is not installed by default. Click on the name of operating system to see the appropriate instructions.

Windows Vista	Windows 98, Windows ME	Windows NT 4.0
Windows 2000	Windows XP	Server 2003

Windows Vista

Windows Vista implements a new security model. According to this model the user may have to authorize the processes that need to run with administrative privileges. If you use a component that performs an administrative action, you may have to explicitly specify that your executable needs privileges. You may do it by including a special type of resource into your project, called "manifest". For example, if you project produces an executable file named "WmiQuery.exe", you have to include this resource:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="yes"?>
<assembly xmlns="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:asm.v1" manifestVersion="1.0">
  <assemblyIdentity version="1.0.0.0"
     processorArchitecture="X86"
     name="WmiQuery"
     type="win32"/> 

  <description> Demo application from Online-Admin.com</description> 
  <!-- Identify the application security requirements. -->
  <trustInfo xmlns="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:asm.v3">
    <security>
      <requestedPrivileges>
        <requestedExecutionLevel
          level="requireAdministrator"
          uiAccess="false"/>
        </requestedPrivileges>
       </security>
  </trustInfo>
</assembly>

You may include such a resource using a directive for resource compiler, which should be in the project file (*.dpr):

{$R 'WmiQuery.manifest.res' 'WmiQuery.manifest.rc'}
{$R *.res}

Here the file WmiQuery.manifest.rc contains the line

CREATEPROCESS_MANIFEST_RESOURCE_ID RT_MANIFEST "WmiQuery.exe.manifest"

and the WmiQuery.exe.manifest file contains the XML fragment posted above. Most Borland compilers will automatically compile the manifest into the executable. If the build produces the error "WmiQuery.manifest.res not fond", then you may explicitly invoke the Borland resource compiler to create the required *.res file:

bbrcc32.exe WmiQuery.manifest.rc

Windows 2000, Windows XP, Server 2003

WmiSet components should run without additional configuration on these operating systems. Please note that Windows XP Home edition does not support remote WMI connections.

Windows NT 4.0

Download and install WMI Core version 1.5 for Windows NT. This is a free download from Microsoft web site.
Run dcomcnfg.exe utility and make sure that distributed COM is enabled on the computer.

Windows 98, Windows ME

The following software has to be installed:

WMI Core version 1.5 for Windows 98. This is a free download from Microsoft web site.
Active Directory Service (ADS) Extensions for Windows 98. (optional). If this software is not installed, SystemInfo property of the components will fail. The rest of the functionality should not be affected. ADS installation may be downloaded from Microsoft web site.
DCOM for Windows 98, version 1.3. This component is required when Windows 98/ME workstations is to be accessed remotely. DCOM installation may be downloaded from Microsoft web site.

Once all the required software is installed, you will have to perform a number of configuration steps, some of them may be omitted if the appropriate software was not installed:

Configure WinMgmt server to start at system startup.
This is required since Windows 98 system cannot start DCOM server on demand. WinMgmt.exe is usually located in C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM\WBEM directory.

Configure the workstation for user-level access

Go to control panel, double click on the Network applet;
Go to Access Control tab. Select User-level access control and provide name of Windows NT or higher workstation or server. The user accounts will be fetched from the specified computer. You may also specify name of the domain.
Reboot the workstation.

Configure DCOM to allow remote connections.

start dcomcnfg.exe utility
Go to Default Properties tab, set Default Authentication Level to Connect, select Enable Distributed COM on this computer.
Go to Default Security tab, edit the list of accounts that can access the COM object on this computer. Some of the examples are shown below. Contact your system administrator to discuss the security implications.

_{* Windows 98, Windows ME, Windows NT, Windows 2000, Windows XP are registered trademarks of Microsoft Corp.

* Borland, Delphi, C++Builder are registered trademarks of Borland Corp.}