When working with Wmic (Windows Management Instrumentation Command-line) it is important to understand the difference between ANSI and Unicode output formatting. ANSI output formatting is the default format when using Wmic, and can be used to retrieve information from the local computer or from a remote computer. Unicode output formatting is used when retrieving information from multiple computers at once, and can provide more detailed output than ANSI.
To combine ANSI and Unicode output formatting when using Wmic, the /format switch must be used. The /format switch allows the user to specify the output format of the command. The syntax for using the /format switch is as follows:
wmic
Where
For example, to retrieve detailed system information from the local computer in ANSI format, the following command can be used:
wmic computersystem get /format:ansi
Similarly, to retrieve detailed system information from multiple computers in Unicode format, the following command can be used:
wmic /node:computername,computername2 computersystem get /format:unicode
In both cases, the output format of the command can be further customized by adding additional parameters to the command. For example, to limit the output to only certain fields, the /filter switch can be used. To output the information in a comma-separated value (csv) format, the /output switch can be used.
When combining ANSI and Unicode output formatting, it is important to remember that ANSI output formatting can only be used when retrieving information from the local computer, and Unicode output formatting can only be used when retrieving information from multiple computers. Additionally, any additional parameters used to customize the output must be specified separately for each output format.
Overall, combining ANSI and Unicode output formatting when using Wmic is a simple and straightforward process. By using the /format switch and any additional parameters, the user can easily specify the output format of their command in order to retrieve detailed information from either the local computer or multiple computers.
