Microsoft is removing the command-line tool WMIC (Windows Management Instrumentation Command-line) from Windows 11 for good. In versions 24H2 and 25H2, it is already absent by default in new installations and can no longer be reinstalled as a “Feature on Demand”.
Why WMIC is going away
The roughly 25-year-old tool dates back to the Windows 2000 era and has long been considered a security risk: malware and ransomware have abused it for years to move through systems unnoticed. Microsoft deprecated WMIC years ago and replaced it with PowerShell-based WMI management.
Important: WMI stays
It is important to distinguish the tool from the technology behind it: only the command-line tool wmic.exe is being removed. The underlying Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI) itself remains fully supported – administrators will use it through PowerShell going forward.
Who this affects: older scripts, batch files and admin tools that call wmic.exe directly may stop working after the removal. Microsoft recommends tracking down such dependencies and migrating them to PowerShell or other supported WMI interfaces.
Sources: BleepingComputer, Microsoft Support.
