#39652·gatsby

Dependency on a removed Windows feature

Author: teobugslayerCreated Aug 20, 2026Updated Aug 20, 2026
Labelstype: bugstatus: triage needed

Preliminary Checks

Description

In https://github.com/gatsbyjs/gatsby/blob/e85d62f1779e353eaac1753211629a26d123e26c/packages/gatsby-core-utils/src/physical-cpu-count.ts#L39

Gatsby is attempting to run WMIC. However, starting with this month's Windows update preview, MS has completely removed this tool. Therefore, every run of Gatsby generates the following:

'WMIC' is not recognized as an internal or external command,

Note: this is relevant for Windows 11 24H2, 25H2, and 26H1 (which are all officially supported Win11 versions).

Microsoft has publicly state that they will completely remove WMIC for everyone with the upcoming September update.

Reproduction Link

N/A - it's a problem with the cli

Steps to Reproduce

  1. Run under fully updated Windows 11 with installed August 2026 preview update.

Expected Result

No warning about missing wmic

Actual Result

a warning appears. I assume, the code depending on it does not work but I am not a JS developer, so I cannot judge that.

Environment

System:
    OS: Windows 11 10.0.26200
    CPU: (16) x64 AMD Ryzen 7 PRO 5850U with Radeon Graphics     
  Binaries:
    Node: 24.19.0 - C:\Program Files\nodejs\node.EXE
    npm: 11.17.0 - C:\Program Files\nodejs\npm.CMD
  Browsers:
    Edge: Chromium (151.0.4129.93)
  npmGlobalPackages:
    gatsby-cli: 5.14.0

Config Flags

No response