There are all sorts of commands that WMIC accepts, such as
WMIC Path Win32_Battery
WMIC Path Win32_Processor
WMIC Class Win32_Battery
WMIC Class ComputerSystem
et cetera.
Is there any way to list all of these potential "path"s and "class"es, etc. from the command line?
As you list them here, you are asking for a list of WMI object classes (primarily from the Win32 section); the "Path" could be that, that plus sub-node, that plus sub-node plus value, etc. See Here:
Conceptually similar to a Uniform Resource Locator (URL), a WMI object path is a string that uniquely identifies the namespace on a server, a class within a namespace, or instances of a class
Which classes are available will depend on the version of Windows (amongst other things, since I believe custom WMI classes can be registered within the WMI system), so you can't assume that all classes will be available for all versions of Windows.
Having said that:
There's no way I know of to list them from the stock command-line. With PowerShell you can get the entire list of Win32 WMI classes by using the following command:
Get-WMIObject -List| Where{$_.name -match "^Win32_"} | Sort Name | Format-Table Name
You should also be able to use Windows scripting (ie: VBScript) to get it as well.
Win32 is one of about 10 different sections of classes.
You can get the current WMI section/class/method/property lists from MS' MSDN pages.
Here is a list of (most of) the Win32 WMI classes:
There are some WMI providers, which provide with lots of classes. It's possible to discover WMI classes through WMI as mentioned in the other answer. The list of classes is not that hard-coded within wmic, it can be extended dynamically via registering custom providers.
Probably, what you wanted to ask was "what can I do with WMI and wmic". There are a lot of possibilities: managing OS settings, devices, file system. (Although you cannot create a file with data, but you can rename or delete a file.) A solution may involve setting properties, invoking methods and working with associations. To find out how to accomplish something with WMI, try searching in internet for "wmi do something". Another options is to look for related classes in documentation.
These are the wmi class aliases wmic has (including "alias", which is "Msft_CliAlias" under the ROOT\Cli namespace), which are likely to be the wmi classes you use the most (aside from win32_userprofile). I sorted them in an editor. You can always use get-wmiobject or get-ciminstance in powershell instead with far more options ("get-wmiobject win32_operatingsystem").
wmic alias get friendlyname,target
FriendlyName Target
Alias Select * from Msft_CliAlias
BIOS Select * from Win32_BIOS
BaseBoard Select * from Win32_BaseBoard
BootConfig Select * from Win32_BootConfiguration
CDROM Select * from Win32_CDROMDrive
CPU Select * from WIN32_PROCESSOR
CSProduct Select * from Win32_ComputerSystemProduct
ComputerSystem Select * from Win32_ComputerSystem
DCOMAPP Select * from WIN32_DCOMApplication
DESKTOP Select * from WIN32_DESKTOP
DMAChannel Select * from Win32_DMAChannel
DataFile Select * from CIM_DataFile
DesktopMonitor Select * from WIN32_DESKTOPMONITOR
DeviceMemoryAddress Select * from Win32_DeviceMemoryAddress
DiskDrive Select * from Win32_DiskDrive
DiskQuota Select * from Win32_DiskQuota
Environment Select * from Win32_Environment
FSDir Select * from Win32_Directory
Group Select * from Win32_Group
IDECONTROLLER Select * from Win32_IDEController
IRQ Select * from Win32_IRQResource
Job Select * from Win32_ScheduledJob
LOGON Select * from Win32_LogonSession
LoadOrder Select * from Win32_LoadOrderGroup
LogicalDisk Select * from Win32_LogicalDisk
MEMCACHE Select * from WIN32_CACHEMEMORY
MemPhysical Select * from Win32_PhysicalMemoryArray
MemoryChip Select * from Win32_PhysicalMemory
NIC Select * from Win32_NetworkAdapter
NICConfig Select * from Win32_NetworkAdapterConfiguration
NTDOMAIN Select * from Win32_NTDomain
NTEvent Select * from Win32_NTLogEvent
NTEventLog Select * from Win32_NTEventlogFile
NetClient Select * from WIN32_NetworkClient
NetLogin Select * from Win32_NetworkLoginProfile
NetProtocol Select * from Win32_NetworkProtocol
NetUse Select * from Win32_NetworkConnection
OS Select * from Win32_OperatingSystem
OnBoardDevice Select * from Win32_OnBoardDevice
PageFile Select * from Win32_PageFileUsage
PageFileSet Select * from Win32_PageFileSetting
Partition Select * from Win32_DiskPartition
Port Select * from Win32_PortResource
PortConnector Select * from Win32_PortConnector
PrintJob Select * from Win32_PrintJob
Printer Select * from Win32_Printer
PrinterConfig Select * from Win32_PrinterConfiguration
Process Select * from Win32_Process
Product Select * from Win32_Product
QFE Select * from Win32_QuickFixEngineering
QuotaSetting Select * from Win32_QuotaSetting
RDAccount Select * from Win32_TSAccount
RDNIC Select * from Win32_TSNetworkAdapterSetting
RDPermissions Select * from Win32_TSPermissionsSetting
RDToggle Select * from Win32_TerminalServiceSetting
RecoverOS Select * from Win32_OSRecoveryConfiguration
Registry Select * from Win32_Registry
SCSICONTROLLER Select * from Win32_SCSIController
Server Select * from Win32_PerfRawData_PerfNet_Server
Service Select * from Win32_Service
ShadowCopy Select * from Win32_ShadowCopy
ShadowStorage Select * from Win32_ShadowStorage
Share Select * from Win32_Share
SoftwareElement Select * from Win32_SoftwareElement
SoftwareFeature Select * from Win32_SoftwareFeature
SoundDev Select * from WIN32_SoundDevice
Startup Select * from Win32_StartupCommand
SysAccount Select * from Win32_SystemAccount
SysDriver Select * from Win32_SystemDriver
SystemEnclosure Select * from Win32_SystemEnclosure
SystemSlot Select * from Win32_SystemSlot
TapeDrive Select * from Win32_TapeDrive
Temperature Select * from Win32_TemperatureProbe
TimeZone Select * from Win32_TimeZone
UPS Select * from Win32_UninterruptiblePowerSupply
UserAccount Select * from Win32_UserAccount
Voltage Select * from Win32_VoltageProbe
Volume Select * from Win32_Volume
VolumeQuotaSetting Select * from Win32_VolumeQuotaSetting
VolumeUserQuota Select * from Win32_VolumeUserQuota
WMISet Select * from Win32_WMISetting
Different namespace for the top three, and the bottom one is gone. You need to be admin for the shadow ones. I would use get-package over win32_product.
get-wmiobject -n Root\CIMV2\TerminalServices Win32_TerminalServiceSetting
get-wmiobject -n Root\CIMV2\TerminalServices Win32_TSAccount
get-wmiobject -n Root\CIMV2\TerminalServices Win32_TSPermissionsSetting
get-wmiobject Win32_UninterruptiblePowerSupply # Invalid class without a hardware ups?
