PowerShell: Adding filter or query to Get-WmiObject

Question

I'm trying to add a filter or query to a line of PowerShell code, but I am getting weird results. I can replicate this problem using any WMI query. Here is an example:

C:\Windows\System32\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0\powershell.exe -command "Get-WmiObject -class Win32_Processor -Namespace root\cimv2 -filter 'Status = `"OK`"'"

That gives me this error: Get-WmiObject : Invalid query "select * from Win32_Processor where Status = OK". But if I run it in a PowerShell window that is already open, like this:

Get-WmiObject -class Win32_Processor -Namespace root\cimv2 -filter 'Status = "OK"'

That works fine. So I am not understanding this behavior. I tried every manner of single quotes, double quotes, and escape characters, but nothing seems to work.

Your syntax for the query is wrong: -Filter 'Name LIKE "Drivers - %"' — Maximilian Burszley
– Maximilian Burszley, Commented Jun 4, 2018 at 22:43
I tried it with LIKE too but it did not work. For some reason it works fine without using powershell.exe -command to start it, but not with. — Chris
– Chris, Commented Jun 5, 2018 at 3:09
Your statement didn't make any sense. How are you actually calling this? — Maximilian Burszley
– Maximilian Burszley, Commented Jun 5, 2018 at 3:11

Maximilian Burszley · Accepted Answer · 2018-06-05 14:10:07Z

1

Your problem is a misunderstanding of quoting with the cmd parser (as that's what is used when calling powershell.exe):

powershell.exe -Command ""

Everything between the double-quotes will be passed to -Command. In your case, the easiest route to go will be escaping single-quotes (by doubling the count) since cmd handles double-quotes in a special way (usually, by removing them):

powershell.exe -Command "Get-WmiObject -Class Win32_Processor -Filter 'Status = ''OK'''"

As a footnote, root/cimv2 is the default namespace for Get-WmiObject

answered Jun 5, 2018 at 14:10

Maximilian Burszley

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1 Comment

Chris Over a year ago

I think that was my problem, I didn't know you could escape single quotes by doubling them. I thought you had to use the tilde just like you do for double quotes.

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