Windows Script Host (Paperback)

~ Timothy Hill (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Having established a name with his superb Windows NT Shell Scripting, Tim Hill has written a fine book about the Windows technology that's replacing DOS-like batch files. Windows Script Host explains the latest Windows scripting technology, focusing on VBScript as a tool for developing robust scripting solutions under Windows NT 4 and Windows 2000.

More than his earlier work (which was largely a collection of ready-to-run administration scripts tailored for particular tasks), this book is a tutorial. It's meant to get you up to speed on several technologies, including the ActiveX-based Windows scripting architecture, the Windows Script Host (WSH) itself, the WSH interpreters (cscript.exe and wscript.exe), the VBScript language, and the WSH object model.

Those readers who are looking for ready solutions to their administration woes will find some manna here. Hill has written and published several useful scripts, including one that generates a list of a machine's users, one that configures a user's environment variables at login, and one that generates a directory listing in XML form. (There's no companion disk, though.)

Programmers who want a solid explanation of the WSH's programming environment (hardly documented until now) will be most pleased. Documentation of the WSH object model, especially the portion that exposes the file system, is excellent (though you may wish for different formatting). There are also a couple of utility files included--they'll make it easier for you to build your own administration scripts. --David Wall

Topics covered: The Windows Script Host (WSH), VBScript programming, the VBScript object model, the WSH object model (with emphasis on files, folders, and other aspects of the Windows file system), using the author's WSH library files, and performing system administration tasks with ready-to-run scripts.

Product Description

Written for system and network administrators, Windows Script Host includes authoritative coverage of the VBScript language essentials, including script structure and statements; detailed discussion of the object-oriented paradigm, how it is used in Windows system scripting, and how to emply COM objects; program guides that provide additional insight for those who are new to programming; and proven, ready-to-use scripting solutions, including sample logon and system management scripts.If you design or administer Windows NT/2000 networks, this is an essential resource to help you implement system scripting across your network. This comprehensive reference will help you: install system scripting components on your network; automate or simplify system management tasks, ranging from copying files to monitoring a set of enterprise servers; create your own COM objects in VBScript through the use of Windows Script Components; and get immediate results by employing proven sample scripts.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 448 pages
• Publisher: Sams (November 1, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1578701392
• ISBN-13: 978-1578701391
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 5.9 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.5 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (26 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #694,097 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent tutorial for WSH and VBScript, April 1, 2000

By	John (Chattanooga, TN USA) - See all my reviews

This book is an excellent reference and tutorial on WSH and VBScript. It seems to be somewhat geared toward system administrators, but any Windows user seeking to utilize WSH would benefit from this book. I was pleased with the thorough coverage of VBScript. Since I could find no other book on the subject, this was a gold mine to me. Only a couple of things I would like to see different: (1) The author explicitly recommends using Cscript.exe instead of Wscript.exe (I would like to see more examples geared towards Wscript.exe), and (2) I would like to see coverage of other scripting languages in addition to VBScript (e.g. JScript). For the topics this book does cover (WSH and VBScript) you won't find a more thorough book.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Broad coverage in compact format, April 10, 2002

By	Jakob Hussfelt (Sweden) - See all my reviews

Another Tim Hill masterpiece. While most other related books try to cover a subject in as many pages as possible, this one manages to cover the essentials of WSH 2.0 in about 400 pages. It even includes an introduction to first-time programmers learning VBScript as their first language. Still, the structure of the book makes it very adequate for experienced programmers who just want to get into WSH.

The book is a treasure for Windows system administrators as it also got a bunch of useful administration script samples. Actually, ASP programmers using VBScript might find the book pretty useful as well, since many ASP specific books has a pretty poor VBScript coverage.

I recommend this book to people who wish to grasp WSH 2.0 using the VBScript engine. Read it and experiment with the examples together with online reference manuals for WSH and VBScript. ...

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent instruction book - poor reference guide, January 10, 2000

By	Ales Kavsek (Ljubljana, Slovenia) - See all my reviews

At the time of writing this review Tim Hill's book about WSH scripting technology is probably the best one on the market. If you're serious about replacing or (re)writing from scratch all those awkward batch files with more powerful WSH scripts then this is the book to start with. Usually programmers guides tend to be dry - certainly not the case with this one. Topics are presented with short samples and just enough explanation to understand the concept. No waste of paper! I like Notes and Program Guide sections throughout the book that provide additional explanation of some terms that I was not familiar with (If you're experienced VB/VBSCript developer then this book is probably not for you ;-). You should be aware however that this book is not organized as an reference guide for VBScript - if you're not satisfied with on-line documentation that came with WSH then look around for reference book on VBScript(or whatever script engine you prefer) with better index and page layout.