Win32_DisplayControllerConfiguration - powershell.one

The Win32_DisplayControllerConfiguration WMI class represents the video adapter configuration information of a computer system running Windows. This class is obsolete. In place of this class, you should use the properties in the Win32_VideoController, Win32_DesktopMonitor, and CIM_VideoControllerResolution classes.

Methods

Win32_DisplayControllerConfiguration has no methods.

Properties

Win32_DisplayControllerConfiguration returns 14 properties:

'BitsPerPixel','Caption','ColorPlanes','Description','DeviceEntriesInAColorTable',
'DeviceSpecificPens','HorizontalResolution','Name','RefreshRate','ReservedSystemPaletteEntries',
'SettingID','SystemPaletteEntries','VerticalResolution','VideoMode'

Unless explicitly marked as writeable, all properties are read-only. Read all properties for all instances:

Get-CimInstance -ClassName Win32_DisplayControllerConfiguration -Property *

Most WMI classes return one or more instances.

When Get-CimInstance returns no result, then apparently no instances of class Win32_DisplayControllerConfiguration exist. This is normal behavior.

Either the class is not implemented on your system (may be deprecated or due to missing drivers, i.e. CIM_VideoControllerResolution), or there are simply no physical representations of this class currently available (i.e. Win32_TapeDrive).

BitsPerPixel

UINT32

Either the number of bits used to represent the color in this configuration, or the bits in each pixel.

Example: 8

Get-CimInstance -ClassName Win32_DisplayControllerConfiguration | Select-Object -Property Name, BitsPerPixel

Caption

STRING MAX 64 CHAR

Short textual description of the current object.

Get-CimInstance -ClassName Win32_DisplayControllerConfiguration | Select-Object -Property Name, Caption

ColorPlanes

UINT32

Current number of color planes used in the display configuration. A color plane is another way to represent pixel colors. Instead of assigning a single RGB value to each pixel, color planes separate the graphic into each of the primary color components (red, green, blue), and stores them in their own planes. This allows for greater color depths on 8-bit and 16-bit video systems. Present graphics systems have the bitwidth large enough to store color depth information, meaning only one color plane is needed.

Example: 1

Get-CimInstance -ClassName Win32_DisplayControllerConfiguration | Select-Object -Property Name, ColorPlanes

Description

STRING

Textual description of the current object.

Get-CimInstance -ClassName Win32_DisplayControllerConfiguration | Select-Object -Property Name, Description

DeviceEntriesInAColorTable

UINT32

Number of color indexes in a color table of a display device (if the device has a color depth of no more than 8 bits per pixel). For devices with greater color depths, -1 is returned.

Example: 256

Get-CimInstance -ClassName Win32_DisplayControllerConfiguration | Select-Object -Property Name, DeviceEntriesInAColorTable

DeviceSpecificPens

UINT32

Current number of device-specific pens. A value of 0xFFFFFFFF means the device does not support pens. Pens are logical properties that can be assigned by the display controller to display devices, and are used to draw lines, borders of polygons, and text.

Example: 3

Get-CimInstance -ClassName Win32_DisplayControllerConfiguration | Select-Object -Property Name, DeviceSpecificPens

HorizontalResolution

UINT32 “PIXELS”

Current number of pixels in the horizontal direction (x-axis) of the display.

Example: 1024

Get-CimInstance -ClassName Win32_DisplayControllerConfiguration | Select-Object -Property Name, HorizontalResolution

Name

KEY PROPERTY STRING

Name of the adapter used in this configuration.

Get-CimInstance -ClassName Win32_DisplayControllerConfiguration | Select-Object -Property Name

RefreshRate

SINT32 “HERTZ”

Refresh rate of the video adapter. A value of 0 (zero) or 1 (one) indicates a default rate is being used. A value of -1 indicates that an optimal rate is being used.

Example: 72

Get-CimInstance -ClassName Win32_DisplayControllerConfiguration | Select-Object -Property Name, RefreshRate

ReservedSystemPaletteEntries

UINT32

Current number of color index entries reserved for system use. This value is only valid for display settings that use an indexed palette. Indexed palettes are not used for color depths greater than 8 bits per pixel. If the color depth is more than 8 bits per pixel, this value is set to NULL.

Example: 20

Get-CimInstance -ClassName Win32_DisplayControllerConfiguration | Select-Object -Property Name, ReservedSystemPaletteEntries

SettingID

STRING MAX 256 CHAR

Identifier by which the current object is known.

Get-CimInstance -ClassName Win32_DisplayControllerConfiguration | Select-Object -Property Name, SettingID

SystemPaletteEntries

UINT32

Example: 20

Get-CimInstance -ClassName Win32_DisplayControllerConfiguration | Select-Object -Property Name, SystemPaletteEntries

VerticalResolution

UINT32 “PIXELS”

Current number of pixels in the vertical direction (y-axis) of the display.

Example: 768

Get-CimInstance -ClassName Win32_DisplayControllerConfiguration | Select-Object -Property Name, VerticalResolution

VideoMode

STRING

User-readable description of the current screen resolution and color setting of the display.

Example: “1024 768 with 256 colors”

Get-CimInstance -ClassName Win32_DisplayControllerConfiguration | Select-Object -Property Name, VideoMode

Examples

List all instances of Win32_DisplayControllerConfiguration

Get-CimInstance -ClassName Win32_DisplayControllerConfiguration

Learn more about Get-CimInstance and the deprecated Get-WmiObject.

View all properties

Get-CimInstance -ClassName Win32_DisplayControllerConfiguration -Property *

View key properties only

Get-CimInstance -ClassName Win32_DisplayControllerConfiguration -KeyOnly

Selecting Properties

To select only some properties, pipe the results to Select-Object -Property a,b,c with a comma-separated list of the properties you require. Wildcards are permitted.

Get-CimInstance always returns all properties but only retrieves the ones that you specify. All other properties are empty but still present. That’s why you need to pipe the results into Select-Object if you want to limit the visible properties, i.e. for reporting.

Selecting Properties

The code below lists all available properties. Remove the ones you do not need:

$properties = 'BitsPerPixel',
              'Caption',
              'ColorPlanes',
              'Description',
              'DeviceEntriesInAColorTable',
              'DeviceSpecificPens',
              'HorizontalResolution',
              'Name',
              'RefreshRate',
              'ReservedSystemPaletteEntries',
              'SettingID',
              'SystemPaletteEntries',
              'VerticalResolution',
              'VideoMode'
Get-CimInstance -ClassName Win32_DisplayControllerConfiguration | Select-Object -Property $properties

Limiting Network Bandwidth

If you work remotely, it makes sense to limit network bandwidth by filtering the properties on the server side, too:

Get-CimInstance -Class Win32_DisplayControllerConfiguration -Property $property | 
Select-Object -Property $property

Selecting Instances

To select some instances, use Get-CimInstance and a WMI Query. The wildcard character in WMI Queries is % (and not “*”).

The parameter -Filter runs a simple query.

Listing all instances where the property Caption starts with “A”

Get-CimInstance -Class Win32_DisplayControllerConfiguration -Filter 'Caption LIKE "a%"' 

Using a WQL Query

The parameter -Query uses a query similar to SQL and combines the parameters -Filter and -Property. This returns all instances where the property Caption starts with “A”, and returns the properties specified:

Get-CimInstance -Query "SELECT RefreshRate, Name, ColorPlanes, ReservedSystemPaletteEntries FROM Win32_DisplayControllerConfiguration WHERE Caption LIKE 'a%'"

Any property you did not specify is still present but empty. You might need to use Select-Object to remove all unwanted properties:
Get-CimInstance -Query "SELECT RefreshRate, Name, ColorPlanes, ReservedSystemPaletteEntries FROM Win32_DisplayControllerConfiguration WHERE Caption LIKE 'a%'" | Select-Object -Property RefreshRate, Name, ColorPlanes, ReservedSystemPaletteEntries

Accessing Remote Computers

To access remote systems, you need to have proper permissions. User the parameter -ComputerName to access one or more remote systems.

Authenticating as Current User

# one or more computer names or IP addresses:
$list = 'server1', 'server2'

# authenticate with your current identity:
$result = Get-CimInstance -ClassName Win32_DisplayControllerConfiguration -ComputerName $list 
$result

Authenticating as Different User

Use a CIMSession object to authenticate with a new identity:

# one or more computer names or IP addresses:
$list = 'server1', 'server2'

# authenticate with a different identity:
$cred = Get-Credential -Message 'Authenticate to retrieve WMI information:'
$session = New-CimSession -ComputerName $list -Credential $cred

$result = Get-CimInstance Win32_DisplayControllerConfiguration -CimSession $session

# remove the session after use (if you do not plan to re-use it later)
Remove-CimSession -CimSession $session

$result

Learn more about accessing remote computers.

Requirements

To use Win32_DisplayControllerConfiguration, the following requirements apply:

PowerShell

Get-CimInstance was introduced with PowerShell Version 3.0, which in turn was introduced on clients with Windows 8 and on servers with Windows Server 2012.

If necessary, update Windows PowerShell to Windows PowerShell 5.1, or install PowerShell 7 side-by-side.

Operating System

Win32_DisplayControllerConfiguration was introduced on clients with Windows Vista and on servers with Windows Server 2008.

Namespace

Win32_DisplayControllerConfiguration lives in the Namespace Root/CIMV2. This is the default namespace. There is no need to use the -Namespace parameter in Get-CimInstance.

Implementation

Win32_DisplayControllerConfiguration is implemented in CIMWin32.dll and defined in CIMWin32.mof. Both files are located in the folder C:\Windows\system32\wbem:

explorer $env:windir\system32\wbem
notepad $env:windir\system32\wbem\CIMWin32.mof

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