Accessing BcdStore from Delphi

Question

I'm trying to convert this code fragment into Delphi and I got stuck on the for each objWBL in colObjects.

if not objBcdStore.EnumerateObjects( &h10200003, colObjects ) then
    WScript.Echo "ERROR objBcdStore.EnumerateObjects( &h10200003 ) failed."
    WScript.Quit(1)
end if

for each objWBL in colObjects
    WScript.Echo ""
    WScript.Echo "Windows Boot Loader"
    WScript.Echo "-------------------"

    WScript.Echo "identifier              " & GetBcdId( objWBL.Id )

    If objWBL.Id = current then

      if not objWBL.GetElement(BcdOSLoaderInteger_NumberOfProcessors, objElement ) then
          WScript.Echo "ERROR WBL GetElement for " & Hex(BcdOSLoaderInteger_NumberOfProcessors) & " failed."
          WScript.Quit(1)
      end if
      WScript.Echo "numproc              " & objElement.Integer

      if not objWBL.GetElement(BcdOSLoaderBoolean_UseBootProcessorOnly, objElement ) then
          WScript.Echo "ERROR WBL GetElement for " & Hex(BcdOSLoaderBoolean_UseBootProcessorOnly) & " failed."
          WScript.Quit(1)
      end if
      WScript.Echo "onecpu              " & objElement.Boolean

    end if
next

My partial q&d translation (caution, must be Admin to run it):

uses
  OleAuto,
  ActiveX;

function GetObject(const objectName: String): IDispatch;
var
  bindCtx: IBindCtx;
  moniker: IMoniker;
  chEaten: Integer;
begin
  OleCheck(CreateBindCtx(0, bindCtx));
  OleCheck(MkParseDisplayName(bindCtx, StringToOleStr(objectName), chEaten, moniker));
  OleCheck(moniker.BindToObject(bindCtx, nil, IDispatch, Result));
end;

procedure TForm44.btnClick(Sender: TObject);
var
  colObjects   : OleVariant;
  objBcdStore  : OleVariant;
  objWMIService: OleVariant;
begin
  objWMIService := GetObject('winmgmts:{impersonationlevel=Impersonate,(Backup,Restore)}!root/wmi:BcdStore');
  if not objWMIService.OpenStore('', objBcdStore) then
    Caption := 'error'
  else begin
    objBcdStore.EnumerateObjects($10200003, colObjects);
    //???
  end;
end;

EnumerateObjects is defined as

boolean EnumerateObjects(
  [in]   uint32 Type,
  [out]  BcdObject Objects[]
);

I have no idea how to walk over the BcdObject array in Delphi.

Massage

I take it you tried "for x in y do z()" syntax, and that didn't work? – Appetizing

Actually, I didn't. However, it doesn't work: "[DCC Error] Unit44.pas(55): E2430 for-in statement cannot operate on collection type 'OleVariant'" – Massage

I kind of thought OleVariant-variant-arrays and for-in wouldn't work, but I just wondered. – Appetizing

Answer 1

you must use the VarArrayLowBound and VarArrayHighBound functions to get the bounds of the variant array returned by the EnumerateObjects function and then you can use a for loop to iterate over the elements of the array.

check this sample

Uses
 ComObj,
 ActiveX;

function GetObject(const objectName: String): IDispatch;
var
  bindCtx: IBindCtx;
  moniker: IMoniker;
  chEaten: Integer;
begin
  OleCheck(CreateBindCtx(0, bindCtx));
  OleCheck(MkParseDisplayName(bindCtx, StringToOleStr(objectName), chEaten, moniker));
  OleCheck(moniker.BindToObject(bindCtx, nil, IDispatch, Result));
end;


procedure TForm44.Button1Click(Sender: TObject);
var
  colObjects   : OleVariant;
  objBcdStore  : OleVariant;
  objWMIService: OleVariant;

  i : Integer;
  objWBL : OleVariant;
begin
  objWMIService := GetObject('winmgmts:{impersonationlevel=Impersonate,(Backup,Restore)}!root/wmi:BcdStore');
  if not objWMIService.OpenStore('', objBcdStore) then
    Caption := 'error'
  else
  begin
    objBcdStore.EnumerateObjects($10200003, colObjects);
       if not VarIsNull(colObjects) and VarIsArray(colObjects) then
       for i := VarArrayLowBound(colObjects, 1) to VarArrayHighBound(colObjects, 1) do
       begin
          objWBL:=colObjects[i];
          //do your stuff here


       end;
  end;
end;

Meares

Answer 2

Thanks to RRUZ for answer - I learned something new - but sadly the correct answer was "Don't do that" (how typical!).

It turned out that by enumerating the Windows Boot Loader objects, one can't find out which of the objects is the "current" one. As I finally found out (thanks to the Hey, Scripting Guy! article from the July 2008 issue of the TechNet Magazine), the correct way is to open the loader object directly by it's well-known ID. (Which is, again, well-hidden and not well-known. The only official documentation I managed to find on the well-known BCD GUIDs is Boot Configuration Data in Windows Vista document.)

The sample code below first opens BCD WMI object. Then it opens the default store and shows the information for the {current} boot entry object (accessed by the well-known ID).

Next it opens the Windows Boot Manager object (by using its well-known ID), reads its DefaultObject element to determine the GUID of the default boot entry, opens this object by its GUID and shows the information.

ShowLoaderInfo displays only ID (GUID), Description and NumberOfProcessors (which was an information I wanted to get from the BCD). A funny trick here is that the latter is of the BcdIntegerElement type, which returns its value through the Integer property, with a "feature" that the returned value is not an integer but a string. A note from the MSDN explains:

The integer value of the element. The value is passed as a string because Automation does not natively support 64-bit integers.

(Yeah, great! Why does it have to be 64-bit anyway? Are 2 billion processors not enough?)

For a full list of supported Windows Boot Loader elements see BcdOSLoaderElementTypes.

program ShowBCDInfo;

{$APPTYPE CONSOLE}

uses
  SysUtils,
  ComObj,
  ActiveX;

const
  Description                 = $12000004; //http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/aa362652(v=VS.85)
  UseBootProcessorOnly        = $26000060; //http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/aa362641(v=VS.85)
  NumberOfProcessors          = $25000061;
  ForceMaximumProcessors      = $26000062;
  ProcessorConfigurationFlags = $25000063;
  DefaultObject               = $23000003; //http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/aa362641(v=VS.85)

  CurrentGUID = '{fa926493-6f1c-4193-a414-58f0b2456d1e}'; //http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/hardware/gg463059.aspx
  WBMGUID     = '{9dea862c-5cdd-4e70-acc1-f32b344d4795}';

function GetObject(const objectName: String): IDispatch;
var
  bindCtx: IBindCtx;
  moniker: IMoniker;
  chEaten: Integer;
begin
  OleCheck(CreateBindCtx(0, bindCtx));
  OleCheck(MkParseDisplayName(bindCtx, StringToOleStr(objectName), chEaten, moniker));
  OleCheck(moniker.BindToObject(bindCtx, nil, IDispatch, Result));
end;

procedure ShowLoaderInfo(const name: string; const obj: OleVariant);
var
  objElement: OleVariant;
begin
  Writeln(Format('%s ID: %s', [name, string(obj.id)]));
  if obj.GetElement(Description, objElement) then
    Writeln(Format('Description: %s', [objElement.String]));
  if obj.GetElement(NumberOfProcessors, objElement) then
    Writeln(Format('NumProc: %s', [objElement.Integer]));
end;

procedure ShowBcdInfo;
var
  objBcdStore  : OleVariant;
  objWBL       : OleVariant;
  objWBM       : OleVariant;
  objWMIService: OleVariant;
begin
  objWMIService := GetObject('winmgmts:{(Backup,Restore)}\\.\root\wmi:BcdStore');
  if not objWMIService.OpenStore('', objBcdStore) then
    Writeln('*** error opening store')
  else begin
    if objBcdStore.OpenObject(CurrentGUID, objWBL) then
      ShowLoaderInfo('{current}', objWBL);
    if objBcdStore.OpenObject(WBMGuid, objWBM) and
       objWBM.GetElement(DefaultObject, objWBL) and
       objBcdStore.OpenObject(string(objWBL.ID), objWBL)
    then
      ShowLoaderInfo('{default}', objWBL);
  end;
end;

begin
  try
    OleInitialize(nil);
    try
      ShowBCDInfo;
    finally OleUninitialize; end;
    Readln;
  except
    on E:Exception do
      Writeln(E.Classname, ': ', E.Message);
  end;
end.

Massage