Retrieving Documentation for Raw and Formatted Performance Data Objects

The following topic describes how to retrieve the on-line programming documentation for a dynamically-created raw or formatted data object.

WMI contains a number of objects that track performance. Classes derived from Win32_PerfRawData contain raw, or "uncooked" performance data, and are supported by the Performance Counter provider. In contrast, classes derived from Win32_PerfFormattedData contain "cooked", or formatted data, and are supported by the Formatted Performance Data Provider.

However, both providers support a number of dynamically-created child classes. Because the properties are added at run-time, these classes may contain undocumented properties. You can use the following code to identify what properties a given dynamically-created class has.

To retrieve a description of a dynamically-created class

1. Create an instance of the item, and set the amended qualifier to true.

   $osClass = New-Object System.Management.ManagementClass Win32_ClassNameHere 
   $osClass.Options.UseAmendedQualifiers = $true
   

2. Retrieve the properties of the class.

   $properties = $osClass.Properties 
   "This class has {0} properties as follows:" -f $properties.count
   

3. Display the properties.

   foreach ($property in $properties) { 
   "Property Name: {0}" -f $property.Name 
   "Description: {0}" -f $($property.Qualifiers["Description"].Value) 
   "Type: {0}" -f $property.Type 
   "-------"
   }
   

The following code retrieves the property descriptions for the specified Win32_PerfFormattedData object.

$osClass = New-Object System.Management.ManagementClass Win32_PerfFormattedData_APPPOOLCountersProvider_APPPOOLWAS 
$osClass.Options.UseAmendedQualifiers = $true 
 
# Get the Properties in the class 
$properties = $osClass.Properties 
"This class has {0} properties as follows:" -f $properties.count 
 
 
# display the Property name, description, type, qualifiers and instance values 
 
foreach ($property in $properties) { 
"Property Name: {0}" -f $property.Name 
"Description: {0}" -f $($property.Qualifiers["Description"].Value) 
"Type: {0}" -f $property.Type 
"-------" 
}