How to Remove a Category from a Windows Driver

Article
10/04/2022

In Configuration Manager, you remove a category from a Windows driver by removing the unique identifier for the category from the SMS_Driver Server WMI Class CategoryInstance_UniqueIDs array property.

To remove a category from a Windows driver

Set up a connection to the SMS Provider. For more information, see SMS Provider fundamentals.
Get the SMS_Driver object for the driver that you want remove the category from.
Get the category name identifier from the SMS_CategoryInstance Server WMI Class object that matches the desired category.
Remove the category identifier from the SMS_Driver Server WMI Class object CategoryInstance_UniqueIDs array property.
Commit the SMS_Driver Server WMI Class changes.

Example

The following example method removes a category from a Windows driver. driverID is a valid SMS_Driver Server WMI Class object. For more information, see About Operating System Deployment Driver Management.

For information about calling the sample code, see Calling Configuration Manager Code Snippets.

Sub RemoveDriverCategory(connection,driver,categoryName)  

    Dim results  
    Dim driverCategoryID  
    Dim category  
    Dim categories   
    Dim i  

    If IsNull(driver.CategoryInstance_UniqueIDs) _  
           or UBound (driver.CategoryInstance_UniqueIDs) = -1 Then  
        ' There are no categories, so quit.  
        Wscript.Echo "No categories found"  
        Exit Sub  
    End If    

     Set results = _  
      connection.ExecQuery("SELECT * From SMS_CategoryInstance WHERE LocalizedCategoryInstanceName = '" _  
      + categoryName+ "'")  

    ' If the category was found, delete, if it is there, from the driver.  
    For Each category In results  

        ' Destination for copied categories.  
        categories = Array(driver.CategoryInstance_UniqueIDs)  
        i=0   

        For Each driverCategoryID in driver.CategoryInstance_UniqueIDs  
            If driverCategoryID = category.CategoryInstance_UniqueID Then  
                ' Found it, so skip it.  
                 Redim Preserve categories (UBound(categories))  
            Else  
                ' Copy the category.  
                categories(i) = driverCategoryID  
                i=i+1  
            End If   
        Next   

        ' Make sure the array is empty.  
        if i = 0  Then  
            Redim categories(-1)  
        End If  

         driver.CategoryInstance_UniqueIDs = categories  
         driver.Put_  
    Next  
End Sub

public void RemoveDriverCategory(WqlConnectionManager connection,  
    IResultObject driver,  
    string categoryName)  
{  
    try  
    {  
        // Get the category.  
        IResultObject results =   
            connection.QueryProcessor.ExecuteQuery(  
            "SELECT * From SMS_CategoryInstance WHERE LocalizedCategoryInstanceName = '"   
            + categoryName   
            + "'");  

        ArrayList driverCategories = new ArrayList(driver["CategoryInstance_UniqueIDs"].StringArrayValue);  

        // Remove the category from the driver.  
        foreach (IResultObject category in results)  
        {  
            driverCategories.Remove(category["CategoryInstance_UniqueID"].StringValue);  
        }  

        // Update the driver.  
        driver["CategoryInstance_UniqueIDs"].StringArrayValue = (string[])driverCategories.ToArray(typeof(string));  
        driver.Put();  
    }  
    catch(SmsException e)  
    {  
        Console.WriteLine("Failed to remove category :" + e.Message);  
        throw;  
    }  
}

The example method has the following parameters:

Parameter	Type	Description
`Connection`	- Managed:`WqlConnectionManager` - VBScript: SWbemServices	A valid connection to the SMS Provider.
`driver`	- Managed: `IResultObject` - VBScript: `SWbemObject`	The Windows driver. It is an instance of SMS_Driver Server WMI Class.
`categoryName`	- Managed: `String` - VBScript: `String`	The name of an existing category. This matches the SMS_CategoryInstance Server WMI Classe `LocalizedCategoryInstanceName` property.

Compiling the Code

This C# example requires:

Namespaces

System

System.Collections.Generic

System.Text

Microsoft.ConfigurationManagement.ManagementProvider

Microsoft.ConfigurationManagement.ManagementProvider.WqlQueryEngine

Assembly

microsoft.configurationmanagement.managementprovider

adminui.wqlqueryengine

Robust Programming

For more information about error handling, see About Configuration Manager Errors.

.NET Framework Security

For more information about securing Configuration Manager applications, see Configuration Manager role-based administration.

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