Windows Scripting Secrets [With CDROM]

by Tobias Weltner

The most comprehensive book on the market, Windows Scripting Secrets uncovers the never-before-documented features and hidden system functions that make the new Windows Scripting Host a more powerful... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0764546848
• ISBN13: 9780764546846
• Release Date: May 2000
• Publisher: Wiley
• Length: 792 Pages
• Weight: 0.50 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.9" x 7.4" x 9.2"

Customer Reviews

A Dangerous Book

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.

Packed with tips on undocumented features

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.

A Superb Scripting Resource!!

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!

Actually Fun to Read

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.

It can do all of that

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