Here's a quick how-to on setting up a static port for Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI). I'm assuming that you have specific reasons to do so, in my case, I wanted to limit the firewall rule scope to a single port instead of the default range of ports. Microsoft allows you to run a quick command and after restarting the WMI services, you end up with the fixed port
24158 for WMI. While that's the default fixed port, there are ways of changing to one of your liking and I'll also demonstrate that.
Step 1 - Elevated Command Prompt
winmgmt -standalonehost
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| Step 1 |
Step 2 - Restart WMI Services
Stop and restart the WMI service (also from an elevated command prompt):
net stop winmgmt && net start winmgmt
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| Step 2 |
At this point, if you're not using the Windows 2012 firewall, you are done. WMI has been set to static port 24158. The following steps are optional, depending on your configurations and needs.
Step 3 - Set Preferred TCP Port (Optional)
Launch Component Services from Run or the command prompt.
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| Step 3a |
From Component Services, navigate to Computers\My Computer\DCOM Config\Windows Management & Instrumentation
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| Step 3b |
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| Step 3c |
Right click on Windows Management and Instrumentation and select Properties.
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| Step 3d |
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| Step 3e |
Change the TCP port to the one of your choice.
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| Step 3f |
Step 4 - Add Firewall Rule (Optional)
If you're using the built in Windows firewall, you'll need to add a new incoming rule to allow WMI traffic on the newly designated static port. On the following command, we're assuming that the static port is 24158 and that the new firewall rule is called WMIFixedPort, although you can name it anything you want. Make sure you run the following from an elevated command prompt.
netsh firewall add portopening TCP 24158 WMIFixedPort
Undo WMI Changes
If you would like to go back to default WMI port/behavior, run the following from an elevated command prompt.
winmgmt -sharedhost
Sources
Binary2Dec -
WMI Fixed Port
MSDN -
winmgmt
