Microsoft® Windows® 2000 Scripting Guide [Paperback]

Microsoft Corporation (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0735618674 | ISBN-13: 978-0735618671 | Publication Date: January 16, 2003

Discover how to automate Microsoft® Windows® 2000 administrative tasks quickly and easily with expertise from those who know the technologies best—the system administration scripting experts on the Windows 2000 product team. Focusing on scripting for the administrator, this guide helps you understand important scripting concepts and technologies, and it shows how to use common scripting tools and techniques to complete routine tasks in core administrative areas. Combining tutorial and practical elements, it details how to create and use timesaving scripts in organizations of any size.

UNDERSTAND SCRIPTING CONCEPTS:

• Get started fast with 400+ sample scripts on CD-ROM and learn about important scripting concepts and technologies, including what scripting is and when and why you should use it.

• Find out how to use scripting technologies such as Microsoft Visual Basic® Scripting Edition (VBScript), Windows Script Host (WSH), the Microsoft Script Runtime object library, Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI) and Active Directory® Service Interfaces (ADSI).

COMPLETE COMMON TASKS WITH SCRIPTS:

• Manage user accounts and identify and manage computer roles.

• Inventory hardware; manage hard disks and other physical components, inventory, install, and remove software, and read, create, delete, and modify Registry keys and values.

• Create, delete, copy, move, and monitor folders and files; manage event logs and log files; and manage printers and printer connections on both print servers and client computers.

• Monitor running processes; create and terminate processes; monitor, start, and stop services; and retrieve and configure service accounts, passwords, and properties.

USE SCRIPTS IN THE ENTERPRISE:

• Set up an enterprise scripting infrastructure and modify scripts for a large organization.

• Follow best practices when scripting in a team environment.

INCLUDES SAMPLE SCRIPTS, AN EBOOK, AND TOOLS ON CD-ROM:

• More than 400 sample scripts from the book that you can cut and paste to get started right away
• A fully searchable electronic copy of the book
• Microsoft Windows Script 5.6, containing VBScript 5.6, JScript® 5.6, WSH 5.6, Windows Script Components, and Windows Script Runtime 5.6.
• Documentation for VBScript, Jscript, and WSH
• Scriptomatic tool to expedite scriptwriting with WMI

A Note Regarding the CD or DVD

The print version of this book ships with a CD or DVD. For those customers purchasing one of the digital formats in which this book is available, we are pleased to offer the CD/DVD content as a free download via O'Reilly Media's Digital Distribution services. To download this content, please visit O'Reilly's web site, search for the title of this book to find its catalog page, and click on the link below the cover image (Examples, Companion Content, or Practice Files). Note that while we provide as much of the media content as we are able via free download, we are sometimes limited by licensing restrictions. Please direct any questions or concerns to [e-mail].

Product Details

• Paperback: 1328 pages
• Publisher: Microsoft Press (January 16, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0735618674
• ISBN-13: 978-0735618671
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 7.4 x 2.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (28 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #999,090 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

27 of 27 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Ultimate WSH book for System Administrators, January 16, 2003

By 

Alex Angelopoulos (Indiana, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Microsoft® Windows® 2000 Scripting Guide (Paperback)

I won't claim this is the only scripting book you should ever buy. I WILL claim that it is the WSH "missing manual" for system administrators. The short story is that it provides comprehensive, in-depth coverage of WSH admin scripting with excellent code examples, and as such is a rare combination of instructional use and long-term reference value. Personally, I haven't thought a book on WSH in the last three years was worth buying; this is the one I've been waiting for.

As a comprehensive reference, this book stands alone. System administrators have been historically short-changed when it comes to scripting books; most written for Windows tend to be generically focused on languages rather than on the details of WSH, and usually cover only a handful of the technologies. This one is written by scripters who appear to use it every day, and they cover the breadth of topics: interactions with everything from system logs to ADSI to WMI. Although the code is almost entirely in VBScript, the focus is on application, not language tricks. If you want to any other Active Scripting language as your host, the code is plain vanilla enough to be easily translated.

In providing depth, the authors had some special advantages and they used them to the hilt. It was written by Microsoft insiders who know the internals of the technologies such as COM, ADSI, and WMI which well-rounded scripting uses. When covering the range of topics for admin scripters, the authors pushed explaining the why and how in unequaled detail, and made liberal use of charts for explaining difficult concepts where appropriate.

Coding quality is a critical factor as far as I am concerned in any book about programming or scripting; after all, good code is the test of a good coder, and in a book on scripting it shows that the author knows more than just the layout of a few random object models. Even judged on this alone, Microsoft's "Windows 2000 Scripting Guide" sparkles. Most topical scripting books have appalling code style; not this one. Code is explained carefully, and with few exceptions is written in the form of well-wrapped procedures which can be dropped into your own scripts and used as-is - variables are declared, input/output is separated from calculations, and most importantly, the procedures appear to be written with the explicit goal of making purpose and technique clear for the reader.

There are very few books out there which do an enduring job of teaching a concept, showing useful code, and providing critical reference material. This book does all three; if you get it, it will be your main WSH scripting sourcebook for years to come.

25 of 25 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent resource and reference, May 27, 2004

By 

Carlos Santiago (Virginia, USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Microsoft® Windows® 2000 Scripting Guide (Paperback)

Windows 2000 automation goes beyond simple and limited BAT/CMD scripts. For total control of Windows you should definitely learn scripting. Although it has an intimidating look (1300+ pages) this book is actually a fast track resource for learning and putting scripts to work immediately. The included CD has an electronic version of the book (not PDF, but in MS Help file format); it also has a separate link with all the scripts organized by tasks for you to copy and paste on your favorite text editor.

My interest was focused on Services, I had an urgent need on my project to automate services to start and stop at specific times during the week. I went directly to Chapter 15 on Services and then back to Chapters 2,3 for VBS and WSH reference. In less than a day I was able to resolve my issue using a combination of scripting and Windows Scheduled Tasks. These scripts saved me from having to come in very early to work (before users came in) to restart services that were being shut down during the daily system maintenance window. Manually restarting the services took me around 40 minutes every morning, so this is also a notable consideration.

My only criticism, in the hopes that a future edition would improve an already excellent book:
The author explains that this book was not intended to be read in sequence and you may just get directly to the area of interest, but if you are an experienced administrator without scripting experience you have to get all the way to chapter 3 to find out how to run a script. There should have been an introductory section on this subject since there are many working scripts already available on the CD for administrators to use.

I recommend this book to any system administrator who wants to ease their daily work load.

16 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Not for the faint of heart!, January 31, 2003

By A Customer

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Microsoft® Windows® 2000 Scripting Guide (Paperback)

This book is massive!

I will hand it to the reader from Indy that there are some typos, but every book I have seen that contains code has typos. Usually, this is attributed to the fact that the person(s) who edit the book, don't understand the material. Most coders are not good editors, and most editors are not good coders.

Putting that aside, I found this book to be an extremely valuable REFERENCE. I put that in caps because if you try to read it from cover to cover, you will wind up in a mental facility making little wicker baskets. That's probably what happened to the editors. ;)

In addition to typos, these books frequently suffer from very bad indexes. The accompanying CD compensates for this shortcoming by providing a fully searchable electronic version of the book.

This book is a must-have, but it is not the scripting book to start with. If you are just starting, get Stanek's Windows 2000 Scripting Bible.