How do I get total physical memory size using PowerShell without WMI?

Question

I'm trying to get the physical memory size using PowerShell, but without using get-wmiobject.

I have been using the following PS cmdlet to get the physical memory size, but the value changes with each new poll.

(get-counter -counter "\Memory\Available Bytes").CounterSamples[0].CookedValue + 
(get-counter -counter "\Memory\Committed Bytes").CounterSamples[0].CookedValue

In general, this gives me a value around: 8605425664 bytes

I'm also testing the value I get from adding these counters with the returned value from

(get-wmiobject -class "win32_physicalmemory" -namespace "root\CIMV2").Capacity

This gives me the value: 8589934592 bytes

So, not only is the total physical memory calculated from counters changing, but it's value differs from the WMI value by a couple megabytes. Anyone have any ideas as to how to get the physical memory size without using WMI?

Answer 1

If you don't want to use WMI, I can suggest systeminfo.exe. But, there may be a better way to do that.

(systeminfo | Select-String 'Total Physical Memory:').ToString().Split(':')[1].Trim()

Answer 2

Let's not over complicate things...:

(Get-CimInstance Win32_PhysicalMemory | Measure-Object -Property capacity -Sum).sum /1gb

Answer 3

I'd like to make a note of this for people referencing in the future.

I wanted to avoid WMI because it uses a DCOM protocol, requiring the remote computer to have the necessary permissions, which could only be setup manually on that remote computer.

So, I wanted to avoid using WMI, but using get-counter often times didn't have the performance counter I wanted.

The solution I used was the Common Information Model (CIM). Unlike WMI, CIM doesn't use DCOM by default. Instead of returning WMI objects, CIM cmdlets return PowerShell objects.

CIM uses the Ws-MAN protocol by default, but it only works with computers that have access to Ws-Man 3.0 or later. So, earlier versions of PowerShell wouldn't be able to issue CIM cmdlets.

The cmdlet I ended up using to get total physical memory size was:

get-ciminstance -class "cim_physicalmemory" | % {$_.Capacity}

Answer 4

Id like to say that instead of going with the systeminfo this would help over to get the total physical memory in GB's the machine

Get-CimInstance Win32_PhysicalMemory | Measure-Object -Property capacity -Sum | Foreach {"{0:N2}" -f ([math]::round(($_.Sum / 1GB),2))}

you can pass this value to the variable and get the gross output for the total physical memory in the machine

   $totalmemory = Get-CimInstance Win32_PhysicalMemory | Measure-Object -Property capacity -Sum | Foreach {"{0:N2}" -f ([math]::round(($_.Sum / 1GB),2))}
   $totalmemory

Answer 5

For those coming here from a later day and age and one a working solution:

(Get-WmiObject -class "cim_physicalmemory" | Measure-Object -Property Capacity -Sum).Sum

this will give the total sum of bytes.

$bytes = (Get-WmiObject -class "cim_physicalmemory" | Measure-Object -Property Capacity -Sum).Sum

$kb = $bytes / 1024
$mb = $bytes / 1024 / 1024
$gb = $bytes / 1024 / 1024 / 1024

I tested this up to windows server 2008 (winver 6.0) even there this command seems to work

Answer 6

This gives you the total amount from another WMI class:

$cs = get-wmiobject -class "Win32_ComputerSystem"
$Mem = [math]::Ceiling($cs.TotalPhysicalMemory / 1024 / 1024 / 1024)

Hope this helps.

Answer 7

Maybe not the best solution, but it worked for me.

[System.Reflection.Assembly]::LoadWithPartialName("Microsoft.VisualBasic")
$VBObject=[Microsoft.VisualBasic.Devices.ComputerInfo]::new()
$SystemMemory=$VBObject.TotalPhysicalMemory

Answer 8

Below gives the total physical memory.

gwmi Win32_OperatingSystem | Measure-Object -Property TotalVisibleMemorySize -Sum | % {[Math]::Round($_.sum/1024/1024)}

Answer 9

Using Get-CimInstance gives you the individual sizes of each RAM stick which you have to manually add up. Thus I prefer Get-WMIObject when possible:

(Get-WMIObject Win32_OperatingSystem).TotalVisibleMemorySize  # in KB

38326300

(Get-WMIObject Win32_OperatingSystem).TotalVisibleMemorySize / 1MB  # in GB

31.8008079528809

Answer 10

This is not my creation but I found this and it displays the data beautifully in a human-readable format.

[Cmdletbinding()] 
Param( 
    [string]$Computername = "."
) 
cls 
$PysicalMemory = Get-WmiObject -class "win32_physicalmemory" -namespace "root\CIMV2" -ComputerName $Computername 
 
Write-Host "Memore Modules:" -ForegroundColor Green 
$PysicalMemory | Format-Table Tag,BankLabel,@{n="Capacity(GB)";e={$_.Capacity/1GB}},Manufacturer,PartNumber,Speed -AutoSize 
 
Write-Host "Total Memory:" -ForegroundColor Green 
Write-Host "$((($PysicalMemory).Capacity | Measure-Object -Sum).Sum/1GB)GB" 
 
$TotalSlots = ((Get-WmiObject -Class "win32_PhysicalMemoryArray" -namespace "root\CIMV2" -ComputerName $Computername).MemoryDevices | Measure-Object -Sum).Sum 
Write-Host "`nTotal Memory Slots:" -ForegroundColor Green 
Write-Host $TotalSlots 
 
$UsedSlots = (($PysicalMemory) | Measure-Object).Count  
Write-Host "`nUsed Memory Slots:" -ForegroundColor Green 
Write-Host $UsedSlots 
 
If($UsedSlots -eq $TotalSlots)
{ 
    Write-Host "All memory slots are in use. No available slots!" -ForegroundColor Yellow 
} 

Powershell ISE Screenshot

Answer 11

Tested and win32_computerSystem(cim_computerSystem) and win32_operatingSystem(cim_operatingSystem) both work when remotely querying virtual machines. The other options give fake results.

Answer 12

 Get-ComputerInfo | select -Property OsTotalVisibleMemorySize

Answer 13

There's lots of interesting answers here. On review I came up with:

(Get-CimInstance -ClassName "cim_physicalmemory").Capacity/1gb

Principally, it can be converted simply by selecting the required scalar value, i.e. 1kb, 1mb, 1pb or 1eb