Re: PSA: Simple Wi-Fi gateway killswitch that works with OpenVPN config files

Andy Burns wrote:
> Bear in mind that the default install does not include WMIC since 24H2, 
> worth having some form of test for
> 
>      if not exist %windir%\system32\wmic.exe

Hi Andy,

Yes, WMIC is deprecated. 
Thanks for pointing that out as others will benefit.

Worse, WMIC is lying to us, so our old scripts utilizing it are failing.

WMIC used to be a reliable way to read gateway information.
Now WMIC reports the configured gateway, not the actual routing table
state.

We learned from this endeavor that modern NICs and Windows networking
subsystems auto-repair routes, so WMIC often shows a gateway even when the
route is gone.

WMIC is deprecated entirely, meaning scripts depending on it will break
over time.

That's why I had written the lesson that the routing table is the real
source of truth. Anything else is metadata.

This is a fundamental Windows networking principle in 2026. 
-- 
If we don't strive to understand how Windows works, we should not be here.