Is there a way to get file metadata from the command line?

Question

Is there a way to get a file's metadata from the command line in Windows XP and above?

Particularly, I'm interested in getting the information one might normally see on the "Details" tab of a file's "Properties" dialog in Windows 7. ("Version" tab in XP.) Screenshots of both are below, to give an idea of what I'm after.

If possible, I'd rather do this through cmd.exe or something else that comes standard with Windows XP SP3 and above. If this is not possible, my preferred alternatives would be:

PowerShell
A SysInternals utility
A Nirsoft utility
Some other tool from a similarly reputable and well-recognized developer.

Windows XP screenshot:
Windows XP - Version tab in File Properties

Windows 7 screenshot:
Windows 7 - Details tab in File Properties

You can install [`FILEVER`](http://support.microsoft.com/kb/913111) from the Windows CD. — William Jackson, Dec 01 '11 at 03:45
@WilliamJackson - That sounds like a possible answer. Mind posting it as one, and maybe fleshing it out a bit with some of the info that's in that KB article? Also, could you suggest something for higher versions of Windows? I understand from some searching that `FILEVER` is not included on those CDs, and so may not be a supported tool for those versions. — Iszi, Dec 01 '11 at 04:07

score 23 · Accepted Answer · answered Dec 01 '11 at 05:44

23

You can use WMIC.exe to get most of the way there:

C:\>wmic datafile where Name="C:\\Windows\\System32\\cmd.exe" get Manufacturer,Name,Version
Manufacturer           Name                         Version
Microsoft Corporation  c:\windows\system32\cmd.exe  6.1.7601.17514

Note the escaping of the backslashes \ in the path (it does not work otherwise).

answered Dec 01 '11 at 05:44

bobbymcr

2,182
1
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extension of this method to compare versions in a batch: http://superuser.com/a/904535/131936 – LogicDaemon Apr 22 '15 at 08:03
You can get just about any OS info you need for most operations through WMI but it comes with a _major_ caveat; it's quite slow. Orders of magnitude slower than most of the more direct routes. That said, it does work for a _lot_ of queries and monitoring. – kayleeFrye_onDeck Oct 17 '16 at 17:35
This give an error: `wmic : Unexpected switch at this level.` on W81, same for Iszi soulution. – not2qubit Mar 09 '17 at 08:25
`wmic datafile get` doesnt really offer most of the info im looking for. any other way to do this? for instance, any way to get the `company`, `authors`, `legal trademark`, `copyright`, etc, fields of a given file? – oldboy Jan 22 '20 at 04:11
1

This seems to no longer be working. Just says "`ERROR: Description = Invalid query`" – Wolfpack'08 Mar 14 '20 at 12:00
Can verify this command is not working for me on Windows 8. `ERROR: Description = Invalid query` – ChickenFeet Mar 30 '20 at 08:10
The solution to make it work on Windows 10 is to get rid of `where Name=`, as in `wmic datafile "C:\\Windows\\System32\\cmd.exe" get Manufacturer,Name,Version` – Jason Gross May 12 '21 at 17:32

score 2 · Answer 2 · answered Jan 11 '17 at 11:46

2

Just to expand on @bobbymcr 's answer above (which I found very helpful, thank you!); you can simplify the command and broaden the results by using the LIST BRIEF or LIST FULL options.

Check > wmic datafile list /? for more details.

This solution helped me:
> wmic datafile "c:\\path\\to\\file.exe" list full

Note: As mentioned by @bobbymcr, remember to escape the \, else it won't work.

answered Jan 11 '17 at 11:46

S3DEV

123
6

This doesn't work... – not2qubit Mar 09 '17 at 08:21
Sorry this isn't working for you. I've just tried it again and it does work. Win7, admin rights. Full file path, and escaped '\'. – S3DEV Mar 21 '18 at 12:16

score 2 · Answer 3 · answered Dec 02 '11 at 09:24

What you are looking for can be pulled with a combination of dsofile.dll (not needed if you have Office installed) and autoit or any .NET language.

I also found a powershell method, but I haven't been able to test it.

I wrote up a little script with autoit that still needs some tweaking. I am on Vista and I can't get the few dsofile.dll calls to function as I would expect, though it still provides some output that you might be interested in. I'll work on this more in the morning when I have access to an XP and win7 VM. Note that you need to change the path in the dll functions to wherever you install dsofile.dll.

#include <file.au3>
Dim $file, $objFile, $Path, $encoding, $attrib, $attributes, $dt, $stamp, $szDrive, $szDir, $szFName, $szExt

If $CmdLine[0] = 0 Then
    ConsoleWrite("You must specify a file")
Else
    $file = $CmdLine[1]
    If FileExists($file) Then
        _DLLstartup()
        $objFile = ObjCreate("DSOFile.OleDocumentProperties")
        If Not IsObj($objFile) Then Exit
        $objFile.Open(FileGetLongName($file))
        $Path = _PathSplit($file, $szDrive, $szDir, $szFName, $szExt)
        ConsoleWrite("Filename: " & $Path[3] & $Path[4] & @CRLF)
        ConsoleWrite("Size: " & FileGetSize($file) & " bytes" & @CRLF)
        ConsoleWrite("Version: " & FileGetVersion($file) & @CRLF)
        ConsoleWrite("Company: " & $objFile.SummaryProperties.Company & @CRLF)
        ConsoleWrite("Author: " & $objFile.SummaryProperties.Author & @CRLF)
        $encoding = FileGetEncoding($file)
            Select
            Case $encoding = 0
                $encoding = "ANSI"
            Case $encoding = 32
                $encoding = "UTF16 Little Endian"
            Case $encoding = 64
                $encoding = "UTF16 Big Endian"
            Case $encoding = 128
                $encoding = "UTF8 (with BOM)"
            Case $encoding = 256
                $encoding = "UTF8 (without BOM)"
            EndSelect
        ConsoleWrite("Encoding: " & $encoding & @CRLF)
        $attrib = FileGetAttrib($file)
        $attributes = ""
            If StringInStr($attrib, "R") <> 0 Then
                $attributes = $attributes & " READONLY"
            EndIf
            If StringInStr($attrib, "A") <> 0 Then
                $attributes = $attributes & " ARCHIVE"
            EndIf
            If StringInStr($attrib, "S") <> 0 Then
                $attributes = $attributes & " SYSTEM"
            EndIf
            If StringInStr($attrib, "H") <> 0 Then
                $attributes = $attributes & " HIDDEN"
            EndIf
            If StringInStr($attrib, "N") <> 0 Then
                $attributes = $attributes & " NORMAL"
            EndIf
            If StringInStr($attrib, "D") <> 0 Then
                $attributes = $attributes & " DIRECTORY"
            EndIf
            If StringInStr($attrib, "O") <> 0 Then
                $attributes = $attributes & " OFFLINE"
            EndIf
            If StringInStr($attrib, "C") <> 0 Then
                $attributes = $attributes & " COMPRESSED"
            EndIf
            If StringInStr($attrib, "T") <> 0 Then
                $attributes = $attributes & " TEMPORARY"
            EndIf
        ConsoleWrite("Attributes:" & $attributes & @CRLF)
        $dt = FileGetTime($file, 1)
        $stamp = $dt[0] & "-" & $dt[1] & "-" & $dt[2] & " " & $dt[3] & ":" & $dt[4] & ":" & $dt[5]
        ConsoleWrite("Created: " & $stamp & @CRLF)
        $dt = FileGetTime($file, 0)
        $stamp = $dt[0] & "-" & $dt[1] & "-" & $dt[2] & " " & $dt[3] & ":" & $dt[4] & ":" & $dt[5]
        ConsoleWrite("Accessed: " & $stamp & @CRLF)
        $dt = FileGetTime($file, 2)
        $stamp = $dt[0] & "-" & $dt[1] & "-" & $dt[2] & " " & $dt[3] & ":" & $dt[4] & ":" & $dt[5]
        ConsoleWrite("Modified: " & $stamp & @CRLF)
        ConsoleWrite("Short Name: " & FileGetShortName($file, 1) & @CRLF)
        ConsoleWrite("Long Name: " & FileGetLongName($file, 1))
        $objFile.Close
        _DLLshutdown()
    Else
        ConsoleWrite("Can't find file")
    EndIf
EndIf

Func _DLLstartup($DLLpath = '')  ;borrowed from Andrew Goulart
    If $DLLpath = Default Or $DLLpath = '' Then $DLLpath = "C:\DsoFile\dsofile.dll";@ScriptDir & '\dsofile.dll'
    ShellExecuteWait('regsvr32', '/s /i ' & $DLLpath, @WindowsDir, 'open', @SW_HIDE)
EndFunc

Func _DLLshutdown($DLLpath = '') ;borrowed from Andrew Goulart
    If $DLLpath = Default Or $DLLpath = '' Then $DLLpath = "C:\DsoFile\dsofile.dll";@ScriptDir & '\dsofile.dll'
    ShellExecuteWait('regsvr32', ' /s /u ' & $DLLpath, @WindowsDir, 'open', @SW_HIDE)
EndFunc

score 1 · Answer 4 · answered Jul 15 '20 at 16:57

1

To get all metadata:

wmic datafile where name="c:\\path\\to\\file.ext"

To view neatly in separate lines:

wmic datafile where name="c:\\path\\to\\file.ext" get /value

answered Jul 15 '20 at 16:57

Zimba

1,051
11
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Is there a way to get file metadata from the command line?

4 Answers4

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