Querying for BIOS password with WMI

Question

_{Tuesday, October 2, 2012 10:01 AM}

Wonder if it's possible to use WMI query to check if BIOS password is present or not?

Marius A. Skovli | MCP/MCTS/MCITP | Twitter: @mariusskovli

All replies (4)

_{Tuesday, October 2, 2012 1:47 PM ✅Answered}

Hi,

I have never seen a generic solution, however the different vendors like Dell for instance have extensions to WMI and vbscript examples you can use, https://support.dell.com/support/edocs/software/smcliins/cli74/en/ug/7app.htm

regards,
Jörgen

-- My System Center blog ccmexec.com -- Twitter @ccmexec

_{Tuesday, October 2, 2012 2:07 PM ✅Answered}

I concur with Jorgen. The BIOS and settings in the BIOS are not controlled by Windows, they are the realm of the hardware vendors and although Microsoft has accounted for collecting *some* information from the BIOS of a system, configuration and advanced features are not among them: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/aa394077(v=vs.85).aspx The top three hardware vendors all provide custom extensions to do this however (as Jorgen points out).

Jason | http://blog.configmgrftw.com

_{Wednesday, October 3, 2012 7:01 AM}

Thank you guys for verifying what I suspected.

Marius A. Skovli | MCP/MCTS/MCITP | Twitter: @mariusskovli

_{Thursday, May 23, 2013 6:07 PM}

This thread is a few months old but it isn't marked as solved. The conversation sounds like it has came to an end, but I wanted to share my thoughts on this.

Jorgen and Jason's points appear to be correct, but from a deployment scenario, I have found somewhat of a workaround that works for me, as far as setting BIOS options such as this, even if they already exist, using the Dell Client Configuration Toolkit (CCTK). It should also be noted that my company is an all-Dell shop currently.

Using the CCTK, I have two identical BIOS configuration packages that set the BIOS Admin Password to a value, and enable a few other settings. This package supports all of Dell's client hardware - desktops and laptops.

The first package doesn't have a password on it for access into the BIOS, meaning the package is configured to access a BIOS that does not have an Admin password currently. This first package will set the Admin password and the other settings I have.

The second package, identical to the first, has a password set to access the BIOS. This password is the one I have set in the first package, and my current standard. This sounds redundant, but follow my flow here.

I place both CCTK packages in an MDT Task Sequence (could work in SCCM also) after Windows has been deployed to the machine. Both packages write to a log on the machine also. When the deployment is done, the settings I wish to have in the BIOS are set, regardless if the machine has those settings (BIOS password included) previously or not. This allows me to image machines to set the password the first time, and get into the BIOS to apply new settings later on.

If you just want to know if it is set well this might be a little overblown. I wanted to share anyway because this forum post came up in my search for your question. I was looking for the same information at one point.

Cheers.

- T.