If you want to get the BIOS version of a pc without rebooting or the Dell service tag then use the following useful command(s)
wmic bios >c:\temp\1.txt
notepad c:\temp\1.txt
The reason I pipe to 1.txt and then display in notepad is that the formatting looks all messed up in a dos prompt due to line wrapping but looks ok in notepad. The BIOS version and service tag will be displayed (among other things).
This beats my previous preferred method when doing remote support of going to Dell’s support site, going to warranty information and then loading their activex component to detect the hardware information.
Update: You do need to have admin rights to run this command.
Comments
I would go for the following powershell code, below!
You can of course do it as a one liner, and of course use the >c:\temp1.txt as well, here you will get it formatted as you probably would like to expect !
$computer = “LocalHost”
$namespace = “root\CIMV2”
Get-WmiObject -class Win32_BIOS -computername $computer -namespace $namespace
Regards,
Jörgen
MCT
Thanks, although that assumes that powershell is installed on the computer (which in most cases it isn’t). That’s also a lot more typing and harder to remember than just “wmic bios”. I do acknowledge that your solution is good for scripting and could also be run on multiple machines remotely though.
You are so right, of course. But I´m just at the moment of teaching some PowerShell classes, and I always give my students the advise of start using the Scriptomatic for powershell, application. Then their life getting really easy …
http://119.18.142.170:3002/technet/scriptcenter/tools/psomatic.mspx
Jörgen
Even simpler: C:\wmic bios get /format:list
Author
Thanks DK – awesome tip and a lot simpler too. Note that you don’t need the c:\ either.