Chapter 14: Shell Scripting and the WSH

Overview

A lot of Windows XP Professional administration involves performing the same task over and over again on different computers. The often repetitive nature of desktop administration can make the job tedious. There are a number of ways of dealing with this problem, including purchasing third-party utilities to perform repetitive tasks. Unfortunately, third-party utilities can be expensive, and there are plenty of tasks for which no utilities exist.

Microsoft's solution to this dilemma is scripting. Windows XP Professional supports two scripting solutions, Windows Shell scripting and the WSH (Windows Script Host). Windows Shell scripting is a built-in scripting language that allows administrators to develop scripts using familiar system commands. Windows XP provides a complete Shell scripting language and many of its utilities support command line interfaces. The WSH is an optional scripting architecture that ships with Windows XP Professional. It includes an object model that provides direct access to many Windows resources, such as the Windows file system. Using WSH, administrators develop scripts using scripting languages such as JScript or VBScript.

This chapter will provide an overview of both Windows Shell scripting and the WSH. It will then provide a detailed review of the statements that make up the Windows Shell scripting language and demonstrate its capabilities.