Hi Dan,
Here's some information on WBEM.
Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI) is a component of the Microsoft Windows
operating system and is the Microsoft implementation of Web-Based Enterprise
Management (WBEM). WBEM is an industry initiative to develop a standard
technology for accessing management information in an enterprise environment.
You can use WMI to automate administrative tasks (such as editing the registry)
in an enterprise environment. You can use WMI in scripting languages that have
an engine on Windows and that handle Microsoft ActiveX objects. You can also use
the WMI Command-Line utility (Wmic.exe) to modify the Windows registry.
For additional information about WMI, visit the following Microsoft Web site:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/en-us/wmisdk/wmi/wmi_start_page.asp
There's also a newsgroup for WBEM.
newsgroup microsoft.public.wbem