Jon’s Geek Stuff … & Stuff - studerje

WHS Client Info Add-in | How to get WMI info from Windows Vista This post assumes you already have the Add-In installed and are familiar with it.

Steps to get the Client Info tool to pull WMI information from Windows Vista

(These step were only tested on Windows Vista Ultimate)

1.       Enable the Administrator Account

a.       Enable the Administrator Account

                                                   i.      Click ‘Start’ -> Right Click ‘Computer’ -> Click ‘Manage’

                                                 ii.      Click ‘Continue’ to accept the UAC prompt

                                                iii.      Expand ‘Local Users and Groups’ -> Click ‘Users’

                                               iv.      Double click the Administrator Account -> Uncheck the ‘Account is disabled’ check Box -> Click ‘OK’

b.      Set the Password for the Administrator Account

                                                   i.      Right click on the Administrator Account -> Select ‘Set Password’ -> Click ‘Proceed’ to accept the password reset warning

                                                 ii.      Set the password the same as your WHS Console Administrator password (if you don’t want to set this the same as your WHS, set your desired password, then you can add the credentials to the Client Info tool in the WHS Console)

2.       Add an exception to the Windows Vista Firewall to allow WMI to be queried from the WHS

a.       Firewall Exception

                                                   i.      Click ‘Start’ -> Click ‘Control Panel’ -> Click ‘Classic View’ -> Double Click ‘Windows Firewall’

                                                 ii.      On the left side click ‘Allow a Program through Windows Firewall’ -> Click ‘Continue’ to accept the UAC message

                                                iii.      Scroll down and check the box ‘Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI)’

                                               iv.      Click ‘OK’ -> close Firewall -> Close Control Panel

3.       Check the Client Info for the Vista Machine in the WHS (if you set a different password for the Administrator account you should configure it by selecting the machine name from the Client drop down list under Client Info in the WHS.)

a.       Once you set it, click ‘Refresh’

You should now see the info for your Vista machine

My favorite thing to look at is the Hard Drive SMART information.

It’s nice to be able to see the predictive Failure status.

Also, I built my own WHS, I knew that I didn’t have adequate air flow in the case and the SMART monitor was able to tell me the temperature of each of my 3 drives.