Getting ready

In this example, we will be listing the NT groups on the local computer. To do this we will be querying the Win32_Group WMI class. This class however, returns all local computer groups, as well all domain groups. If you have a domain environment with a large number of groups, this process can be extensive.

How to do it...

Carry out the following steps:

How it works...

Both of these commands perform the same task, querying WMI for local groups on our server.

In this situation, the first command took several minutes to complete, while the second command took only 79 milliseconds. Both commands result in returning the same data, so this suggests the second method is more ideal for my current situation.

There's more...

Neither of these tasks is right nor wrong, they simply differ where the filtering process took place. However, the first method may be preferred based on what else is being done. For instance, if I was doing a large amount of work with groups and group membership, both in the domain and local system, the first method may be preferred.

If the results of the first WMI command were saved to a variable prior to filtering, then different filtering could be applied after. This one object could be filtered multiple times to provide different information, instead of requiring multiple queries against WMI.