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Fix: wmic deprecated and removed in recent Windows versions #245

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Fix: wmic deprecated and removed in recent Windows versions #245

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fc37a05
Use Get-DnsClientServerAddress via Powershell on Windows as an altern…
mechelon Jan 26, 2026
835f3f5
Merge pull request #1 from mechelon/fix/windows-wmic
mechelon Jan 26, 2026
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71 changes: 66 additions & 5 deletions src/Config/Config.php
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Original file line number Diff line number Diff line change
Expand Up @@ -28,9 +28,17 @@ final class Config
*/
public static function loadSystemConfigBlocking()
{
// Use WMIC output on Windows
/* Use WMIC or PowerShell on Windows
* WMIC is faster where available, but was removed in Windows 11 24H2+
* PowerShell is slower, but is available on all Windows versions
*/
if (DIRECTORY_SEPARATOR === '\\') {
return self::loadWmicBlocking();
$config = self::loadWmicBlocking();
if ($config->nameservers) {
return $config;
}

return self::loadPowershellBlocking();;
}

// otherwise (try to) load from resolv.conf
Expand Down Expand Up @@ -100,6 +108,55 @@ public static function loadResolvConfBlocking($path = null)
return $config;
}

/**
* Loads the DNS configurations using Windows PowerShell
*
* Note that this method blocks while loading the given command and should
* thus be used with care! While this should be relatively fast for normal
* PowerShell commands, it remains unknown if this may block under certain
* circumstances. In particular, this method should only be executed before
* the loop starts, not while it is running.
*
* Note that this method will only try to execute the given command and try to
* parse its output, irrespective of whether this command exists. In
* particular, this method requires the DnsClient module which is only available
* on Windows 8/Server 2012 and later. Currently, this will only parse valid
* nameserver entries from the command output and will ignore all other output
* without complaining.
*
* Note that the previous section implies that this may return an empty
* `Config` object if no valid nameserver entries can be found.
*
* @param ?string $command (advanced) should not be given (NULL) unless you know what you're doing
* @return self
* @link https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/powershell/module/dnsclient/get-dnsclientserveraddress
*/
public static function loadPowershellBlocking($command = null)
{
$contents = shell_exec($command === null ? 'powershell -NoLogo -NoProfile -NonInteractive -Command "Get-DnsClientServerAddress | Select-Object -ExpandProperty ServerAddresses"' : $command);

$config = new self();
if ($contents !== null) {
foreach (explode("\n", $contents) as $line) {
$ip = trim($line);
if ($ip === '' || @inet_pton($ip) === false) {
continue;
}

// skip Windows placeholder DNS addresses (fec0:0:0:ffff::1, ::2, ::3)
// these are added to interfaces without explicit DNS configuration and don't resolve anything
if (preg_match('/^fec0:0:0:ffff::/i', $ip)) {
continue;
}

$config->nameservers[] = $ip;
}
$config->nameservers = array_values(array_unique($config->nameservers));
}

return $config;
}

/**
* Loads the DNS configurations from Windows's WMIC (from the given command or default command)
*
Expand All @@ -113,19 +170,23 @@ public static function loadResolvConfBlocking($path = null)
* parse its output, irrespective of whether this command exists. In
* particular, this command is only available on Windows. Currently, this
* will only parse valid nameserver entries from the command output and will
* ignore all other output without complaining.
* ignore all other output swithout complaining.
*
* Note that WMIC has been deprecated and removed in recent Windows versions
* (Windows 11 24H2+). Consider using loadPowershellBlocking() instead.
*
* Note that the previous section implies that this may return an empty
* `Config` object if no valid nameserver entries can be found.
*
* @param ?string $command (advanced) should not be given (NULL) unless you know what you're doing
* @return self
* @link https://ss64.com/nt/wmic.html
* @deprecated WMIC is deprecated on Windows, use loadPowershellBlocking() instead
*/
public static function loadWmicBlocking($command = null)
{
$contents = shell_exec($command === null ? 'wmic NICCONFIG get "DNSServerSearchOrder" /format:CSV' : $command);
preg_match_all('/(?<=[{;,"])([\da-f.:]{4,})(?=[};,"])/i', $contents, $matches);
$contents = shell_exec($command === null ? 'wmic NICCONFIG get "DNSServerSearchOrder" /format:CSV 2>nul' : $command);
preg_match_all('/(?<=[{;,"])([\da-f.:]{4,})(?=[};,"])/i', $contents ?? '', $matches);

$config = new self();
$config->nameservers = $matches[1];
Expand Down
112 changes: 112 additions & 0 deletions tests/Config/ConfigTest.php
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Original file line number Diff line number Diff line change
Expand Up @@ -103,6 +103,103 @@ public function testParsesFileAndIgnoresCommentsAndInvalidNameserverEntries()
$this->assertEquals($expected, $config->nameservers);
}

public function testLoadsFromPowershellOnWindows()
{
if (DIRECTORY_SEPARATOR !== '\\') {
// PowerShell is Windows-only tool and not supported on other platforms
// Unix is our main platform, so we don't want to report a skipped test here (yellow)
// $this->markTestSkipped('Only on Windows');
$this->expectOutputString('');
return;
}

$config = Config::loadPowershellBlocking();

$this->assertInstanceOf(Config::class, $config);
}

public function testLoadsSingleEntryFromPowershellOutput()
{
$contents = '192.168.2.1';
$expected = ['192.168.2.1'];

$config = Config::loadPowershellBlocking($this->echoCommand($contents));

$this->assertEquals($expected, $config->nameservers);
}

public function testLoadsEmptyListFromPowershellOutput()
{
$contents = '';
$expected = [];

$config = Config::loadPowershellBlocking($this->echoCommand($contents));

$this->assertEquals($expected, $config->nameservers);
}

public function testLoadsMultipleEntriesFromPowershellOutput()
{
$contents = "192.168.2.1\n192.168.2.2\n8.8.8.8";
$expected = ['192.168.2.1', '192.168.2.2', '8.8.8.8'];

$config = Config::loadPowershellBlocking($this->echoCommand($contents));

$this->assertEquals($expected, $config->nameservers);
}

public function testLoadsIpv6FromPowershellOutput()
{
$contents = "::1\nfe80::1\n192.168.2.1";
$expected = ['::1', 'fe80::1', '192.168.2.1'];

$config = Config::loadPowershellBlocking($this->echoCommand($contents));

$this->assertEquals($expected, $config->nameservers);
}

public function testIgnoresDuplicatesFromPowershellOutput()
{
$contents = "192.168.2.1\n192.168.2.1\n8.8.8.8";
$expected = ['192.168.2.1', '8.8.8.8'];

$config = Config::loadPowershellBlocking($this->echoCommand($contents));

$this->assertEquals($expected, $config->nameservers);
}

public function testIgnoresInvalidEntriesFromPowershellOutput()
{
$contents = "192.168.2.1\ninvalid\nlocalhost\n8.8.8.8";
$expected = ['192.168.2.1', '8.8.8.8'];

$config = Config::loadPowershellBlocking($this->echoCommand($contents));

$this->assertEquals($expected, $config->nameservers);
}

public function testIgnoresEmptyLinesFromPowershellOutput()
{
$contents = "192.168.2.1\n\n\n8.8.8.8\n";
$expected = ['192.168.2.1', '8.8.8.8'];

$config = Config::loadPowershellBlocking($this->echoCommand($contents));

$this->assertEquals($expected, $config->nameservers);
}

public function testIgnoresWindowsPlaceholderDnsFromPowershellOutput()
{
// Windows uses fec0:0:0:ffff::1/2/3 as placeholder DNS for unconfigured interfaces
$contents = "fec0:0:0:ffff::1\nfec0:0:0:ffff::2\nfec0:0:0:ffff::3\n192.168.178.1\n8.8.8.8";
$expected = ['192.168.178.1', '8.8.8.8'];

$config = Config::loadPowershellBlocking($this->echoCommand($contents));

$this->assertEquals($expected, $config->nameservers);
}


public function testLoadsFromWmicOnWindows()
{
if (DIRECTORY_SEPARATOR !== '\\') {
Expand All @@ -118,6 +215,21 @@ public function testLoadsFromWmicOnWindows()
$this->assertInstanceOf(Config::class, $config);
}

public function testWmicReturnsEmptyWhenCommandFails()
{
$config = Config::loadWmicBlocking($this->echoCommand(''));

$this->assertEquals([], $config->nameservers);
}

public function testPowershellFallbackReturnsValidResults()
{
$contents = "192.168.2.1\n8.8.8.8";
$config = Config::loadPowershellBlocking($this->echoCommand($contents));

$this->assertEquals(['192.168.2.1', '8.8.8.8'], $config->nameservers);
}

public function testLoadsSingleEntryFromWmicOutput()
{
$contents = '
Expand Down