In this post we are going to see a few command-line methods to get BIOS Information with PowerShell and CMD. This could be useful if you are looking to update the BIOS and need to know the existing version details.
Get BIOS Information with PowerShell
In PowerShell, we can use the Get-WmiObject cmdlet to get all information related to the BIOS:
Get-WmiObject -Class Win32_BIOS
Above command will present to you a small subset of properties that exist for the Win32_BIOS class. To see a list of all the properties and their results use this:
Get-WmiObject -Class Win32_BIOS | Format-List *
Other classes, if you need, are:
- CIM_BIOSElement
- CIM_BIOSFeature
- CIM_BIOSFeaturedBIOSElements
- CIM_BIOSLoadedlnNV
- CIM_VideoBIOSElemnt
- CIM_VideoBIOSFeatureVideoBIOSElements
- Win32_SMBIOSMemory
- Class Win32_SystemBIOS
Get BIOS Information on Remote Systems with PowerShell
Similarly, we can use PowerShell to get BIOS version for remote systems like this:
Get-WmiObject -Class Win32_BIOS -ComputerName COMPUTERNAME
It’s possible to specify multiple computers by separating each with a comma: -ComputerName computer1, computer2
Get BIOS Details with Windows Management Instrumentation Command-line (WMIC)
To get the BIOS version and manufacturer information using WMIC, run the following command in Command Prompt:
WMIC BIOS GET Manufacturer, SMBIOSBIOSVersion
The following properties are available:
- BiosCharacteristics
- BuildNumber
- CodeSet
- CurrentLanguage
- Description
- IdentificationCode
- InstallDate
- InstallableLanguages
- LanguageEdition
- ListOfLanguages
- Manufacturer
- Name
- OtherTargetOS
- PrimaryBIOS
- ReleaseDate
- SMBIOSBIOSVersion
- SMBIOSMajorVersion
- SMBIOSMinorVersion
- SMBIOSPresent
- SerialNumber
- SoftwareElementID
- SoftwareElementState
- Status
- TargetOperatingSystem
- Version
For the entire set of information, just enter WMIC BIOS. Do note that output of this command would be unformatted.
Retrieve BIOS Details from Windows Registry
BIOS information is stored at this location in the registry: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\HARDWARE\DESCRIPTION\System\BIOS. Enter the following command in console to see the information directly:
REG QUERY HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\HARDWARE\DESCRIPTION\System\BIOS
View BIOS Version with System Information Command
The System information tool is a free Windows tool that allows users to view information about the computer, its hardware, drivers, and software related data. By running the command systeminfo we can launch the command line equivalent of the System information utility.
By default, running the command shows the whole information of your computer. To filter BIOS details, run this in the command-line:
SYSTEMINFO | FINDSTR /C:BIOS