WMI (Windows Management Instrumentation) lets you use SQL-like statements to ask the computer about itself. This example uses it to get:

• The serial number(s) for the system's mother board(s)
• The ID(s) for the system's CPU(s)

The GetBoardSerialNumbers function shown in the following code returns a list containing the mother board serial numbers.

// Use WMI to return the system's base board serial numbers.
private List GetBoardSerialNumbers()
{
    List results = new List();

    string query = "SELECT * FROM Win32_BaseBoard";
    ManagementObjectSearcher searcher =
        new ManagementObjectSearcher(query);
    foreach (ManagementObject info in searcher.Get())
    {
        results.Add(info.GetPropertyValue("SerialNumber").ToString());
    }

    return results;
}

The code uses the WMI query "SELECT * FROM Win32_BaseBoard" to get information about the system's mother boards (base boards). The code loops through the resulting collection of Win32_BaseBoard ManagementObjects and adds their SerialNumber values to the result list.

The GetCpuIds function shown in the following code returns a list containing the system's CPU IDs.

// Use WMI to return the CPUs' IDs.
private List GetCpuIds()
{
    List results = new List();

    string query = "Select * FROM Win32_Processor";
    ManagementObjectSearcher searcher =
        new ManagementObjectSearcher(query);
    foreach (ManagementObject info in searcher.Get())
    {
        results.Add(info.GetPropertyValue("ProcessorId").ToString());
    }

    return results;
}

The code uses the WMI query "SELECT * FROM Win32_Processor" to get information about the system's processors. The code loops through the resulting collection of Win32_Processor ManagementObjects and adds their ProcessorId values to the result list.

The following code shows how the main program displays the results in ListBoxes.

// Display the mother board serial numbers and the CPU IDs.
private void Form1_Load(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
    lstBoardSerialNumbers.DataSource = GetBoardSerialNumbers();
    lstCpuIds.DataSource = GetCpuIds();
}