2

while programming throughout the years I have never posted a question on this website, but I have encounted numerous of problems that had been addressed here before. Now, however, I encountered a problem that I can't seem to find an answer to.

I am creating an application in which I need information from the ShadowCopies on the system. I am trying to achieve this by using WMI (in C#). This is however giving me an "Initialization Failure"-exception. Here's the code: ManagementScope scope = new ManagementScope("\\.\ROOT\cimv2");

//create object query
ObjectQuery query = new ObjectQuery("SELECT * FROM Win32_ShadowCopy");

//create object searcher
ManagementObjectSearcher searcher =
                        new ManagementObjectSearcher(scope, query);

//get collection of WMI objects
ManagementObjectCollection queryCollection = searcher.Get();

//enumerate the collection.
foreach (ManagementObject m in queryCollection) 
{
// access properties of the WMI object
  Console.WriteLine("ClientAccessible : {0}", m["ClientAccessible"]);

}

Whenever the foreach line is reached, a ManagementException is thrown with the message "Initialization Failure". I have absolutely no clue why this is happening. If I use the exact same code and change the WMI-class (to Win32_Processor/Win32_LogicalDisk/...) I am not getting this exception and the foreach-loop just works. I also noticed that the exception comes forth from the statement "searcher.Get();". I have tried this code on a Windows Server 2008-machine as well as on a Windows 7 Enterprise-machine, both generating the same exception.

I have also tried using this class in a vb-script and that worked. Code of VBS:

Set objWMIService = GetObject("winmgmts:\\" + ComputerName + "\root\cimv2")
Set colItems = objWMIService.ExecQuery("SELECT * FROM Win32_ShadowCopy")

For Each objItem in colItems
    Wscript.Echo objItem.ClientAccessible
Next

I am really clueless on what is generating this exception, especially since the WMI-class is working when I use a VB-script. Does anybody see what I am doing wrong here? Any help is appreciated and if you need more information to resolve this issue, just let me know!

Greetz, Simon

//NOTE: I got this code from http://include.wutils.com/wmi/ROOT%5Ccimv2/CIM_ManagedSystemElement/CIM_LogicalElement/Win32_ShadowCopy/cs-samples.html

Simon
  • 871
  • 1
  • 11
  • 23
  • I have the same error with the query : ``SELECT Dependent FROM Win32_ShadowVolumeSupport`` The error goes away if I run my app as admin. – Scover Jul 03 '23 at 10:37

3 Answers3

5

Assuming you are running a 64-bit version of Windows, in Project Properties, un-check "Prefer 32-bit" under General. I found that this, in addition to running Visual Studio as Administrator, was necessary to prevent the "Initialization Failure" exception being thrown. I believe you cannot call the WMI method from a 32-bit application on 64-bit platforms.

Grumbles
  • 106
  • 1
  • 4
4

I had the same issue with a script I wrote that performs live WIM backups. Is the system you're running this on have UAC? If so, try either turning it off or running the app as Administrator - as soon as I did that it sprung to life.

Hope this helps

Aaron Mason
  • 68
  • 6
  • I am going to trust davor on this and mark this answer as "correct". I can't check though because I am no longer involved in the project where I encountered this issue. – Simon Mar 12 '15 at 14:33
0

Working on Windows Server 2008 R2, I had the same problem.

Here is what I discovered:

mshta.exe exists in 2 versions in my system:
- C:\Windows\System32\mshta.exe (64 bits)
- C:\Windows\SysWOW64\mshta.exe (32 bits)

In registry, the application associated with hta files (HKCR\htafile\Shell\Open\Command) is C:\Windows\SysWOW64\mshta.exe, with which the Win32_ShadowCopy query does not work.
On the other hand, the hta file containing the query works as expected when run with C:\Windows\System32\mshta.exe.

In a word : run hta applications containing a Win32_ShadowCopy wmi query with the 64 bit version of mshta.exe.

Hope this helps

frob59
  • 1
  • 2