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I'm trying to get the physical memory size using PowerShell, but without using get-wmiobject.

I have been using the following PS cmdlet to get the physical memory size, but the value changes with each new poll.

(get-counter -counter "\Memory\Available Bytes").CounterSamples[0].CookedValue + 
(get-counter -counter "\Memory\Committed Bytes").CounterSamples[0].CookedValue

In general, this gives me a value around: 8605425664 bytes

I'm also testing the value I get from adding these counters with the returned value from 

(get-wmiobject -class "win32_physicalmemory" -namespace "root\CIMV2").Capacity

This gives me the value: 8589934592 bytes

So, not only is the total physical memory calculated from counters changing, but it's value differs from the WMI value by a couple megabytes. Anyone have any ideas as to how to get the physical memory size without using WMI?

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what do you want? Physical Disk or Physical memory? Your example shows physical memory and your question is about physical disk. –  ravikanth Jul 16 at 15:53
 
Sorry. I got them confused. I want physical memory size. I'll edit my question. Thanks! –  Fsun Jul 16 at 15:57
1  
Just out of curiosity, why do you want to avoid WMI? –  Keith Hill Jul 16 at 16:42
 
I'm avoiding WMI because it requires DCOM permissions, so a user without permissions wouldn't be able to get this information. –  Fsun Jul 16 at 17:11

2 Answers

up vote 3 down vote accepted

If you don't want to use WMI, I can suggest systeminfo.exe. But, there may be a better way to do that.

(systeminfo | Select-String 'Total Physical Memory:').ToString().Split(':')[1].Trim()
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Interesting, on my system which has 8GB installed (or exactly 8192MB), system info reports that I have a total of 8155MB. I suspect that not all of the 8GB is usable by the system which could account for the difference. –  Keith Hill Jul 16 at 16:43
 
Yes. Your BIOS may be mapping certain amount of memory for BIOS shadowing functions. –  ravikanth Jul 16 at 16:44
 
So the question is - what is the OP actually after? Installed memory or total memory available for use by the computer? –  Keith Hill Jul 16 at 16:47
 
I guess installed memory. Using systeminfo.exe, you cannot actually get the accurate value but that is the only option without WMI, AFAIK. –  ravikanth Jul 16 at 16:48
 
Yes. I'm looking for installed memory. Thank you ravikanth. –  Fsun Jul 16 at 17:15
up vote 1 down vote

I'd like to make a note of this for people referencing in the future.

I wanted to avoid WMI because it uses a DCOM protocol, requiring the remote computer to have the necessary permissions, which could only be setup manually on that remote computer.

So, I wanted to avoid using WMI, but using get-counter often times didn't have the performance counter I wanted.

The solution I used was the Common Information Model (CIM). Unlike WMI, CIM doesn't use DCOM by default. Instead of returning WMI objects, CIM cmdlets return PowerShell objects.

CIM uses the Ws-MAN protocol by default, but it only works with computers that have access to Ws-Man 3.0 or later. So, earlier versions of PowerShell wouldn't be able to issue CIM cmdlets.

The cmdlet I ended up using to get total physical memory size was:

get-ciminstance -class "cim_physicalmemory" | % {$_.Capacity}
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