Windows Management Instrumentation - not so "vital"?

[LeveL]

On Eldergeek, with regards to Windows Management Instrumentation

it says in a joking manner "Disable this if you don't want your computer to work"

Well, that sounds like one hell of an important service!

So then how come I can disable Windows Management Instrumentation

and IE6/IE7 still works, Windows Media Player works and Outlook Express

works?

Thats all Windows Management Instrumentation is for huh, Windows programs?

But they WORK with Windows Management Instrumentation disabled!

I know this might be related somehow to the Windows Firewall - but is it,

because under the Windows Management Instrumentation service, it has

no dependencies. The Windows Firewall/Internet Connection Sharing (ICS)

service also has no dependencies.

So then why does eldergeek say "Disable this if you don't want your computer to work"

when this isn't true? I know eldergeek services guide is not the be-all-and-end-all but still,

the guy behind that site isn't stupid.

Edited February 15, 2007 by LeveL

[nuhi]

I thought so too before that it's one of the crucial services but in essence it's main point is WMI classes, that's useful in lets say CPU/Memory information, for example I miss CPU utilization bar in the Speedfan program, but the program works and I use it every day.

Windows Firewall needs it, but it's also the only Firewall which needs it and it's closest thing to no firewall.

DHCP service needed it before or I remembered it wrong because some user said to me that it doesn't need it (any more?). Or the removal removed the dependency string from the reg...

Windows built-in Internet Connection Sharing needs it, and that's the only thing which can make me keep the service, but I got the router with the WAN port so no reason any more.

One more thing which people seem not to get...you can remove all components and the majority of programs would work just fine.

Keep IE Core and DirectX and you're almost completely safe from reinstall. Then when you get some error popup or missing functionality you see what it needs then write it down, that day try all your usual programs, see what else is needed and then reinstall, but of course you have to be into all that backup important data stuff or you'll be sorry.