Patent ID: 7676815

Claim:
A method comprising: receiving at an executable file a command entered into a command line interface; switching from at least a first namespace to a second namespace in response to a global switch in the command, wherein the global switch permits a user to set an authentication level that the command line interface is configured to authenticate when Application Program Interface calls are made; retrieving Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI) data through an application program interface (API) call that is placed based on at least the second namespace specified by the global switch; transforming the retrieved WMI data into an extensible markup language (XML) form and returning the XML form to the command line interface; applying an extensible style sheet language (XSL) to the XML form to format the WMI data, wherein the XSL style sheet is based on an XSL file designated through format specifications; and presenting the formatted WMI data through the command line interface; wherein a WMI command line enables a user to enter a command to go into an interactive mode, wherein the interactive mode enables the user to enter multiple commands while sharing a same WMI connection, and to terminate the interactive mode with an exit command; wherein the receiving, switching, retrieving, transforming, applying and presenting are performed by at least one processor.