The book you need to succeed! Vbscript, jscript

xxxii
Introduction
of the servers you manage don’t have a key patch on them—without logging onto each one? It’s a 
few lines of script; a system administrator can put it together in a couple of minutes. A Programmer 
(capital P) won’t have fired up Visual Studio and roughed out the user interface in that time. 
Better still for the Windows system administrator, most of the work has been done by someone else. 
Want a list of your servers? A couple of lines of script will get it from Active Directory. Want the 
installed patches on each of those servers? One line of PowerShell will get that. Most of the knowl-
edge needed isn’t of a programming or scripting language—whether you use PowerShell, VBScript, 
or any other environment, it is a question of understanding the task and the objects that you can call 
on from that environment. PowerShell has all of .NET, WMI, AD, and ActiveX/COM at its disposal. 
It needs a whole bookshelf to explain all of those things, so what we do in this book is to try to equip 
you, the reader, with the skills you need to use them—which is why I worry that my narratives may 
be thin. 
Who Should Read This Book
If you are someone who is interested in any of the previously mentioned technologies, PowerShell, 
VBScript and JScript Bible is definitely a book you should read. This comes with several caveats. 
This book is designed for:
Administrators who support Windows systems
■
Developers who create scripts or programs for Windows systems
■
Advanced users working with Windows systems
■
To pack in as much information as possible,  We had to assume that you have basic networking 
skills, a basic understanding of Windows, and that Windows is already installed on your systems. 
With this in mind, we don’t devote entire chapters to understanding, installing, or using Windows. 
Beyond the introductory information in Chapters 1, 2, and 3, we don’t cover scripting basics either. 
We do, however, cover every facet of Windows scripting, so if you want to learn Windows scripting 
inside and out—including techniques not published elsewhere—you’ve come to the right source.
Although the book highlights the latest and greatest features of Windows Vista and Windows Server 
2008, just about everything you learn in this book can also be applied to script Windows XP. Keep 
in mind that if you are using a pre–Windows Vista system, however, you may need to check your 
scripts to ensure they are fully compatible. 
How This Book Is Organized
Learn the basics of what goes into Windows and you will be able to use all sorts of devices and com-
puters in the future. The book is organized in a way that enables you to start off at the very begin-
ning with Windows, but still grow to the point where you can get going with some powerful server 
and programming features, if you care to.
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Introduction 
Part I assumes that someone has set up a Windows system in front of you. After being introduced to 
Windows script in Chapter 1, you learn the basics of how to:
VBScript Essentials (Chapter 2)
■
JScript Essentials (Chapter 3)
■
PowerShell Essentials (Chapter 4)
■
In Part II, you learn how to:
Creating Scripts and Scripting Files (Chapter 5)
■
VBScript and JScript Scripting Basics (Chapter 6)
■
Input, Output, and Error Handling  with VBScript and JScript (Chapter 7)
■
Working with Files and Folders in VBscript and JScript (Chapter 8)
■
Reading and Writing Files  (Chapter 9)
■
Managing Drives and Printers with VBScript and JScript (Chapter 10)
■
Configuring Menus, Shortcusts, and Startup Applications  (Chapter 11)
■
Working with the Windows Registry and Event Logs  (Chapter 12)
■
In Part III, you learn network and directory service scripting:
Scheduling One-time and Recurring Tasks  (Chapter 13)
■
Managing Computer and User Scripts (Chapter 14)
■
Introducing Active Directory Service Interfaces  (Chapter 15)
■
Using Schema to Master ADSI (Chapter 16)
■
Managing Local and Domain Resources with ADSI  (Chapter 17)
■
Service and Resource Administration with ADSI (Chapter 18)
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Maintaining Shared Directories, Printer Queues, and Print Jobs  (Chapter 19)
■
Managing Active Directory Domain Extensions  (Chapter 20)
■
In Part IV, you learn Windows PowerShell:
Input, Output and Error Handling in PowerShell  (Chapter 21)
■
Working with Files and Registry in Powershell (Chapter 22)
■
Event Logging, Services, and Process Monitoring with PowerShell  (Chapter 23)
■
Working with Active Directory Using ADSI and PowerShell (Chapter 24)
■
Working with WMI and PowerShell (Chapter 25)
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xxxiv
Introduction
In Part V, you develop a set of programming libraries:
Library: File-System Utilities (Chapter 26)
■
Library: I/O Utilities (Chapter 27)
■
Library: Network Resource Utilities (Chapter 28)
■
Library: Account Management Utilities (Chapter 29)
■
Library: Building a PowerShell Library (Chapter 30)
■
In Part VI, you’ll learn more about:
Windows Scripting API (Appendix A)
■
Core ADSI Reference  (Appendix B)
■
Essential Command-Line Utilities for Use with WSH (Appendix C)
■
Conventions and Features
As with most computer books, you’ll see that some text is highlighted by special formatting or with 
special icons. Here’s a field guide to the things you’ll see.
Notes provide additional details and often contain information that you should read 
before trying to implement a referenced technique.
Cross-references tell you where you can fi nd more information on a particular topic.
Tips inform you of little factoids that may be useful to you as you work with Windows 
scripting. Tips provide helpful information that isn’t always essential to getting things to 
work correctly. Rather, Tip material can be used to make things run better.
Cautions provide a specifi c warning about things you should watch out for, or things you 
shouldn’t do. You should pay particular attention to Cautions when reading the text.
Source-Code Formatting
The text contains source-code listings as well as in-text references to objects, methods, properties, 
and other source-code elements. In order to minimize line wrapping and formatting issues, we gen-
erally use in-line code lists for code examples. For example:
VBScript
Set fs = CreateObject (“Scripting.FileSystemObject”)
Set f = fs.OpenTextFile (aFile, ForAppending)
f.WriteLine theLine
f.Close
NOTE
NOTE
CROSS-REF
CROSS-REF
TIP
TIP
CAUTION 
CAUTION
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