Customer Reviews

Windows: Scripting Secrets

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Many things about this book I enjoyed a great deal. There is an abundance of dialog giving you tips, hints and help, great script examples showing proper scripting syntax and form, many sections that open you up to new possibilities with scripting by showing you COM object usage, as well as some invaluable development tools on the included CD-ROM.

However, the books primary focus is on using VBScript as the control mechanism for other objects (ActiveX, COM, etc.). This is, of course, an important part of VBScript and without it one might as well script BAT files. But so much of this book is dedicated to teaching the reader how to use the many custom ActiveX control the author has written/included on the CD-ROM, as well as creating your own (using the Microsoft Visual Basic Control Creation Editor), that the book appears to be more of a manual for the ActiveX controls than a book on scripting. An ideal script is one where the script is a stand alone file and can run on a large number of computers using industry standard components when needed - not a script that requires you to create your own ActiveX components to do all of the work and distribute all of it with an installation package before it will run. So many of the author's "solution scripts" provided said solutions by calling Visual Basic controls rather than actual scripting - that at some points it would have been simpler to just write an application in VB and be done with it.

The book does touch on some industry standard objects, such as Internet Explorer, File System Object, WScript object, ADO, etc., but falls short of being a reference for the demonstrated objects, and at times raises more questions than it answers.

To sum up, the book is handy, a great resource for learning how to use ActiveX / COM objects in your scripts, and does have a lot of valuable information and included tools. I would not recommend this book if your goal is to learn more about the base language itself, but if your looking for a book that will teach you about using objects, this is a great title.

The author is German and his english is a little rough (the editor's fault, not his), but he obviously enjoys his topic. His first sentance, in the preface, is "Windows Scripting is exciting!" His enthusiasm permeates the entire book and is infectious. That alone makes this book worth the price.

But that is only the beginning. Page 6 introduces the first useful script. This book is packed with useful scripts, useful scripting techniques, and in-depth information. The fourth paragragh of the preface states, "This book is like an exciting adventure game and hundreds of scripts provide you with ready-to-run examples... You will see results in a matter of minutes rather than having to study theoretical background for weeks. This book won't just scratch the surface, either. It goes deep into subjects such as DLLs, COM objects, the Windows API..., and more." See what I mean about his enthusiasm? Best of all, he delivers on his promises.

The book includes all of the source code for the scripts, the complete text of the book, utilities, and documentation on the included CD.

If you buy no other book on scripting, buy this one.

I unfortunately own three books on VBScript: two that I regret, and Weltner's book, which I should have just bought in the first place. I would have saved a hundred bucks.

Weltner's book is packed with tips, undocumented features of WSH, 500 scripts on the CD-ROM, and lots of information about more advanced uses of VBScript such as Win32 access and using COM objects from scripts. Other books do not let you see the real power of the Windows Script Host, and they're so BORING. Weltner is fun to read.

I have to disagree with another reviewer: the lack of JScript in Weltner's book is such a GOOD thing. Keep in mind that if a WSH book does both VBScript and JScript, then there is wasted duplication (maybe half the book is just repeating the same thing but in JScript). You definitely want to learn VBScript instead so that your skills will port over to straight Visual Basic and IIS ASP pages. If you want JScript for client-side HTML pages, then you're looking for a different kind of book anyway. Besides, VBScript is easier for beginners to learn.

This is truly a fantastic book. If you want to learn the guts of Windows 95/98/NT/2000 and how to do some super stuff, this is the book for you. Dr Weltner teaches you how to access objects from VB Script, including COM objects and internal Windows objects. He shows how to get object documentation directly out of your system (this is the same stuff that Visual Studio displays when you point to a specific command). And, this is great, he shows you how you can access the internal objects in Internet Explorer and use it for output displays. Every example is on the CD. He has also worked hard to provide a lot of objects that extend the functionality of the inherent Windows commands. The VB source code is available or you can directly install the COM objects he supplies. The writing is straight-forward - the first chapters really get into it and then he expands topics as he goes along. The index is great and quite large and it's pretty easy to find things. Until I read this book, I thought VB Script was VB without any claws. It seemed like such a useless language. Read this book and find out how to put VB Script on steroids - you can access EVERYTHING in Windows with it. Do NOT buy this book if you want to learn VB Script - get one of the 21 day or 24 hour books for that. Then read this book. This is a dangerous book - the knowledge in will give you internal knowledge of Windows as well as introduce you to the object world quickly.

I tried a number of books to learn more about scripting. They gave me bits and pieces of information but not the depth, breadth and clarity provided by this book. The book is very well written, full of extremely useful information and examples and is fun. Many of the things I was trying to do with scripting I could find no information on until I got this book. What I learned from this book I simply could not have learned from any other resource that I could find.

In addition to the excellent text there is included an extermely useful CD-ROM that contains the scripts from the book, VB projects, and components. You can use all of these immediately and to great advantage. I recommend that you take some time to learn them and not just use them "out of the box" because doing so enhances what you'll get from this book.

In summary, this is an excellent book. It is an informative, enjoyable read and an excellent resource for all your scripting work. If you're going to take advantage of the power of scripting you absolutely must have this book!

This is a mind-opening book. I found out that with WindowsScript Host you can add code from other programs on your system toyour script, alter your Windows environment using Windows API calls, use the full Visual Basic syntax via the Visual Basic control creation edition, access databases using the ADO interface and all this is free for the download from Microsoft.

There is another free download not mentioned in the book, the OLE viewer at Microsoft that allows you to view all of the type libraries and COM objects on your system (and it's a good idea to first download and run regclean, a registry cleanup utility, another free download from Microsoft).

Too bad the script debugger and windows output requires Internet Explorer (free download from Microsoft), so if like me you use Netscape at work, you're out of luck. I had to modify the scripts to output an html file instead of an html screen.

There's a CD that has the text of the book in searchable Acrobat format plus all of the scripts and Visual Basic source code.

For the second edition, maybe the pages about finding out the scriptable objects and type libraries could be replaced by mentioning the free ole viewer and stuff about XML and WMI could be added, but you can't have everything! END

This book covers WSH 2.0. However, there was no subject matter on the XML format (wsf files) of WSH 2.0, covering includes, multiple scripting language support, etc. This book covered nothing but the Windows Scripting Host in VBScript format (vbs files) only. JScript was not included at all! JScript is easily translated from VBScript, however, this was still a setback of the book. A lot of emphasis was put on using COM objects, and calling these objects' data members via script. This is fine, but most of the functionality was written in Visual Basic -- again not what I expected. Scripting was made to write short, quick automated tasks, not to fire up Visual Basic and create a DLL every time you want to write a new script. The book is a decent reference, but not as good as Microsoft's free download. I would suggest getting this first. It does demonstate some examples of automating certain tasks, and shows some helpful tips and tricks.

I purchased this book to become a better admin. I didn't have any programming experience, but after this book I can do so many great things with scripting and ASP. I really like the scripting primer in the beginning, it really give you a good foundation to work from. The only drawback that I don't like about the book is the author's use of his own COM objects. Many of the scripts and examples in the book can be performed with built in Windows Objects. But that's my only complaint.

I put it to practical use quickly -- writing a script that helps me launch some favorite files and to find markers inside files.

Its been mentioned that it is entirely VBScript and VB. There is no JavaScript. That was fine with me, but many others could be bothered by that.

There is a not-too-detailed table of contents, and then a very detailed table of contents - great for finding things and reviewing.

Also, each chapter begins with a list of topics to be covered. Each chapter ends with a concise but complete summary of what's been covered. They are both very helpful.

That the entire book is on the CDROM is a bonus - making it the entire book searchable. (The CDROM also contains all of the code which is also obviously helpful).

He explains things very well, sometimes evolving scripts through 3 or 4 editions, each one illustrating some new features and improvements.

Overall, this book has help me understand WScripting. Additionally, It presented some COM objects which I have found useful not only in .vbs but also VB and ASP.