It’s late 1996, and while Windows is great for users, it’s often a headache for administrators. If you want to automate a task-like creating 100 user accounts or mapping network drives based on group membership-you’re often stuck with the limited capabilities of DOS batch files or the overkill of writing a full C++ app using the Win32 API.
Microsoft has finally given us a middle ground: Windows Script Host (WSH) and VBScript.
Scripting the OS
WSH is a language-independent scripting host. While it supports JScript (Microsoft’s version of JavaScript), most of us in the admin world are gravitating towards VBScript because of its roots in Visual Basic. It gives us direct access to COM objects, which means we can "talk" to the operating system and other applications directly.
' A simple script to map a network drive
Set objNetwork = CreateObject("WScript.Network")
strRemotePath = "\\Server\Share"
strLocalDrive = "S:"
On Error Resume Next
objNetwork.MapNetworkDrive strLocalDrive, strRemotePath
If Err.Number = 0 Then
WScript.Echo "Drive " & strLocalDrive & " mapped successfully."
Else
WScript.Echo "Error mapping drive: " & Err.Description
End If
The Power of COM
The real power comes from the ability to automate any COM-enabled application. You can write a script that opens Excel, populates a spreadsheet with data from a database, and then emails it using Outlook-all without a single mouse click.
The Security Concerns
Of course, giving a text file the power to delete files, modify the registry, and send emails has its risks. We’re already seeing the first "script viruses" appearing. As with ActiveX, the power of WSH is a double-edged sword.
Looking Ahead
WSH and VBScript are turning Windows into a much more "scriptable" environment, similar to what Unix admins have enjoyed for decades with shell scripting. It’s not as elegant as Perl or Bash, but for the Windows ecosystem, it’s a massive step forward. I expect we’ll see more and more "administrative" tasks moving into these scripts as they become more robust.
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