Reading and Writing Embedded Objects

Embedded objects do not exist by themselves in the CIM repository — they exist within other objects. As a result, you cannot use Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI) to enumerate, query, get, or put embedded objects. You can only retrieve and store embedded objects through the parent instance.

When a class or method contains an embedded object of an abstract type such as SMS_ScheduleToken, you store and retrieve classes that are inherited from it. For example, instead of using SMS_ScheduleToken, you would use one of the embedded objects inherited from it, such as SMS_ST_RecurWeekly. This is the general nature of polymorphism and the use of inheritance to achieve it.