Develop Reference

Detect what VPN I'm connected to

I'm currently working on an desktop tool to automate VPN connections to customers. I'd like to have a good way to know for sure I'm indeed connected to a VPN. I'm currently thinking about using the routing table as it's shown in netstat-rn and comparing it to the IP I should be connected to.
My question is, how would I be able to get these IP's in my C# application, or is there a better way to determine if I'm connected to a VPN.
Thanks in advance!

This is so classic, I spend a couple of hours looking for the solution, and when I ask for help I find it myself.
For those who wonder, this as the solution.
try
{
ManagementObjectSearcher searcher = new ManagementObjectSearcher("root\\CIMV2", "SELECT * FROM Win32_IP4RouteTable");
ListViewItem buf;
foreach (ManagementObject queryObj in searcher.Get())
{
string destination = queryObj["Destination"].ToString();
string mask = queryObj["Mask"].ToString();
string metric = queryObj["Metric1"].ToString();
string interfaceIndex = queryObj["InterfaceIndex"].ToString();
string nexthop = queryObj["NextHop"].ToString();
string protocol =queryObj["Protocol"].ToString();
string type = queryObj["Type"].ToString();
string status;
if (queryObj["Status"]!=null)
{
status = queryObj["Status"].ToString();
}
else
{
status = string.Empty;
}
buf = new ListViewItem(new string[] {destination,mask,metric,interfaceIndex,nexthop,protocol,status,typ});
list_route.Items.Add(buf);
}
}
catch (ManagementException ex)
{
MessageBox.Show("An error occurred while querying for WMI data: " + ex.Message);
}
Anyway, thanks everyone who took the time to try and help me!

Unable to get system hard drive SerialNumber using Win32_DiskDrive

I'm using the following code to get my drive serial number. It's working fine with Windows 7, 8, 8.1, and 10 Professional, but I'm getting an error on Windows 10 Home.
ManagementObjectSearcher searcher = new ManagementObjectSearcher("SELECT * FROM Win32_DiskDrive");
foreach (ManagementObject wmi_HD in searcher.Get())
{
if (wmi_HD["SerialNumber"] == null)
hddId = null;
else
hddId = wmi_HD["SerialNumber"].ToString();
}
I'm getting
System.NullReferenceException : Object reference not set to an instance of an object.
Does anyone know why? What do I need to do to get the serial number in this case?
One more question: if I boot the OS from my pendrive, will this code work? How could I know that the OS is running from a pendrive or disk or any other resource?
When I go to the Device Manager, I see this:

I am adding this as an answer because it can save lot of time while debugging scenarios like System.NullReferenceException in WMI.
Windows+R (run command)
Type wbemtest
And connect to the machine for which you want to fetch information. Fire the query for Win32_DiskDrive and check the output for properties that you can fetch.

This is what I'm using on Windows 10 v1809:
using System;
using System.Management;
namespace GetSerialNo
{
class Program
{
static void Main(string[] args)
{
ManagementObjectSearcher searcher =
new ManagementObjectSearcher("SELECT * FROM Win32_DiskDrive");
foreach (ManagementObject info in searcher.Get())
{
Console.WriteLine("DeviceID: " + info["DeviceID"].ToString());
Console.WriteLine("Model: " + "Model: " + info["Model"].ToString());
Console.WriteLine("Interface: " + "Interface: " + info["InterfaceType"].ToString());
Console.WriteLine("Serial#: " + "Serial#: " + info["SerialNumber"].ToString());
}
Console.ReadLine();
}
}
}
For details please see http://csharphelper.com/blog/2017/10/get-hard-drive-serial-number-c/
For the associated link Get Hard disk serial Number given by #ADreNaLiNe-DJ I wasn't able to find the required assembly reference for HardDrive hd = new HardDrive();

Getting system information using c#

I have some problem (c#).
I can retrieve some mainboard info from win32-baseboard but when I want to get Model
but an error accrued.
How can we get a list of installed software on windows (like xp).
How can we get a list of installed Peripheral device on Windows (with detail) (like scanner, webcam).
How to obtain total amount of ram (just) directly.

Use WMI (I suspect you already using it):
Model is blank. Try Manufacturer property. Also get the Product property to get the model.
Installed software: Get the Win32_Product class.
Try Win32_PnPSignedDriver class and iterate through.
Use Win32_ComputerSystem class and get TotalPhysicalMemory property.
Get WMIEXPLORER and play with it. LINK
Sample for C#:
If you require to connect to remote computer with credentials (strUsername and strPassword variables):
private ManagementScope CreateNewManagementScope(string server)
{
string serverString = #"\\" + server + #"\root\cimv2";
ManagementScope scope = new ManagementScope(serverString);
if (!chkUseCurrentUser.Checked)
{
ConnectionOptions options = new ConnectionOptions
{
Username = strUsername,
Password = strPassword,
Impersonation = ImpersonationLevel.Impersonate,
Authentication = AuthenticationLevel.PacketPrivacy
};
scope.Options = options;
}
return scope;
}
Get the services:
private void GetServicesForComputer(string computerName)
{
ManagementScope scope = CreateNewManagementScope(computerName);
SelectQuery query = new SelectQuery("select * from Win32_Service");
try
{
using (ManagementObjectSearcher searcher = new ManagementObjectSearcher(scope, query))
{
ManagementObjectCollection services = searcher.Get();
List<string> serviceNames =
(from ManagementObject service in services select service["Caption"].ToString()).ToList();
lstServices.DataSource = serviceNames;
}
}
catch (Exception exception)
{
lstServices.DataSource = null;
lstServices.Items.Clear();
lblErrors.Text = exception.Message;
Console.WriteLine(Resources.MainForm_GetServicesForServer_Error__ + exception.Message);
}
}
Some screens from wmiexplorer:

display running services in web page

I have a need to be able to grab services from a server and display them in a web page for testers to check instead of having them log into the remote server, open up services and check for specific services.
I've looked at a bunch of ways of doing it in the command line using tasklist, sc query, and even a get-service in powershell.
What I'd like to do is hit the remote server and display the running servives in a webpage. Is it possible to do this from a c# page?

I believe what you're looking for is ServiceController.GetServices():
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/hde9d63a.aspx
This will allow you to get a list of all the services on a machine. There's an overload that takes a machine name as well: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/s21fd6th.aspx

you can do this with the help of WMI, you can use System.Management namespace and try with following code by browsing Win32_Service class :
DataTable dt = new DataTable();
dt.Columns.Add("Name");
dt.Columns.Add("InstallDate");
dt.Columns.Add("State");
dt.Columns.Add("ServiceType");
try
{
ManagementObjectSearcher searcher =
new ManagementObjectSearcher("root\\CIMV2",
"SELECT * FROM Win32_Service");
foreach (ManagementObject queryObj in searcher.Get())
{
DataRow dr = dt.NewRow();
dr["Name"] = queryObj["Name"];
dr["InstallDate"] = queryObj["InstallDate"];
dr["ServiceType"] = queryObj["ServiceType"];
dr["State"] = queryObj["State"];
dt.Rows.Add(dr);
}
GridView1.DataSource = dt;
GridView1.DataBind();
}
catch (ManagementException ex)
{
//"An error occurred while querying for WMI data: " + e.Message;
}

Get PC's Monitor Information Using .NET / WMI

Is there anyway using WMI/.Net to grab monitor information such as Manufacturer, Serial Number, Monitor Size etc.?
Using a script is an option as well, or can I query the registry directly to get this information?
SELECT * FROM Win32_DesktopMonitor doesn't really return any useful information for me in this case.

Hey, I use this tool for a lot of my WMI work, especially when prototyping and creating POCs....
Microsoft WMI Code Generator
This tool is great for creating quick console app code for any wmi query or method invocation in both C# and VB.NET
try
{
ManagementObjectSearcher searcher =
new ManagementObjectSearcher("root\\CIMV2",
"SELECT * FROM Win32_DesktopMonitor");
foreach (ManagementObject queryObj in searcher.Get())
{
Console.WriteLine("-----------------------------------");
Console.WriteLine("Win32_DesktopMonitor instance");
Console.WriteLine("-----------------------------------");
Console.WriteLine("Description: {0}", queryObj["Description"]);
}
}
catch (ManagementException e)
{
MessageBox.Show("An error occurred while querying for WMI data: " + e.Message);
}
The code above will get you the make and model of the monitor.

You may want to try this
https://raw.githubusercontent.com/MaxAnderson95/Get-Monitor-Information/master/Get-Monitor.ps1
Cheers

That select query should give you what you want. Here is the documentation which contains the details of the query.
Then you could do something like this:
public void GetMonitorDetails()
{
using(ManagementObjectSearcher searcher = new ManagementObjectSearcher("SELECT * FROM Win32_DesktopMonitor")
{
foreach(ManagementObject currentObj in searcher.Get())
{
String name = currentObj("Name").ToString();
String device_id = currentObj("DeviceID").ToString();
// ...
}
}
}

This post, combined with the answer below about the WMI management tool had my answer. Here is the code that returns your monitor resolutions.
try {
ManagementObjectSearcher searcher =
new ManagementObjectSearcher("root\\WMI",
"SELECT * FROM WmiMonitorBasicDisplayParams");
foreach (ManagementObject queryObj in searcher.Get()) {
Debug.WriteLine("-----------------------------------");
Debug.WriteLine("WmiMonitorBasicDisplayParams instance");
Debug.WriteLine("-----------------------------------");
Debug.WriteLine("Description: {0}", queryObj["SupportedDisplayFeatures"]);
}
} catch (ManagementException e) {
MessageBox.Show("An error occurred while querying for WMI data: " + e.Message);
}
In my case, I'm still stuck, because it is returning the "scaled down" resolution of each monitor. One of mine is a 4K display, being reported as 2560x1440.