Creating Script Files in Visual Studio .NET

Encoder Data Matrix 2d barcode in Visual Studio .NET Creating Script Files

Script files can have two file extensions, and the script's file extension indicates which language the file contains. Use the .js extension for files that contain JScript. Use the .vbs extension for files that contain VBScript. Regardless, script files are nothing more than text files that contain the language's keywords, so you can use your favorite text editor, Notepad, to create them. When you save a script file, make sure you enclose the file's name in quotation marks or choose All Files from the Save As Type list so Notepad doesn't add the .txt extension to the file. Without going into detail about the object model, you access the registry through the Shell object. This object contains the methods you call to add, remove, and update values in the registry. You'll add one of the following statements to every script in which you want to access the registry. The first line shows you how to create the Shell object using VBScript, and the second shows you how to do it using JScript. Just to show you how easy it is to create a script, open Notepad, and type Listing 9 7. The JScript language is case sensitive, so type Listing 9 7 carefully. VBScript has the benefit of not being case sensitive. Save the file using the .js extension, and then double click the file to run it. You'll see a message from me. Because double clicking the script file runs it, you must right click the file and then click Edit to edit the file. Listing 9 7: Example.js

var WshShell = WScript.CreateObject("WScript.Shell"); WshShell.Popup("Hello from Jerry Honeycutt" );

set WshShell = WScript.CreateObject("WScript.Shell") var WshShell = WScript.CreateObject("WScript.Shell");

Why write scripts when INF files are easier I usually write INF files to edit the registry. If I'm not using INF files, I write batch files and use Reg.exe. I like the simplicity of these methods. There are times when writing a script is the only suitable method, however. Writing a script is necessary in a number of cases. The first is when you must have a user interface. If you want to display settings to or collect settings from users, scripting is the best choice. Also, scripting is the only method that provides rather full access to Windows XP. For example, you can use a script to inventory the computer and dump the information to a text file on the network. You can use a script to configure users' computers using logic, if this then that, which isn't possible with the other methods. So if you're doing anything more complicated than just adding, changing, or removing values, you're going to end up writing scripts. I've seen some fairly complicated scripts. For example, one fellow I worked with wrote a script that searched the registry for services that Sysprep disabled, and then permanently removed them from the registry. This is a great example of scripting. Combined with WMI, scripting is nothing short of amazing. The script on the next page shows you how to use VBScript and WMI to inventory a computer's configuration. It displays the amount of physical memory installed on the computer, the name of the computer, the BIOS version, the type of 214

processor, and more. This script and many more like it are available on Microsoft's Script Center, which is a large library of scripts that you can download, modify, and use. All these scripts are at http://www.microsoft.com/technet/scriptcenter.

strComputer = "." Set objWMIService = GetObject("winmgmts:" _ & "{impersonationLevel=impersonate}!\\" & strComputer & "\root\cimv2") Set colSettings = objWMIService.ExecQuery _ ("Select * from Win32_OperatingSystem") For Each objOperatingSystem in colSettings Wscript.Echo "OS Name: " & objOperatingSystem.Name Wscript.Echo "Version: " & objOperatingSystem.Version Wscript.Echo "Service Pack: " & _ objOperatingSystem.ServicePackMajorVersion _ & "." & objOperatingSystem.ServicePackMinorVersion Wscript.Echo "OS Manufacturer: " & objOperatingSystem.Manufacturer Wscript.Echo "Windows Directory: " & _ objOperatingSystem.WindowsDirectory Wscript.Echo "Locale: " & objOperatingSystem.Locale Wscript.Echo "Available Physical Memory: " & _ objOperatingSystem.FreePhysicalMemory Wscript.Echo "Total Virtual Memory: " & _ objOperatingSystem.TotalVirtualMemorySize Wscript.Echo "Available Virtual Memory: " & _ objOperatingSystem.FreeVirtualMemory Wscript.Echo "OS Name: " & objOperatingSystem.SizeStoredInPagingFiles Next Set colSettings = objWMIService.ExecQuery _ ("Select * from Win32_ComputerSystem") For Each objComputer in colSettings Wscript.Echo "System Name: " & objComputer.Name Wscript.Echo "System Manufacturer: " & objComputer.Manufacturer Wscript.Echo "System Model: " & objComputer.Model Wscript.Echo "Time Zone: " & objComputer.CurrentTimeZone Wscript.Echo "Total Physical Memory: " & _ objComputer.TotalPhysicalMemory Next Set colSettings = objWMIService.ExecQuery _ ("Select * from Win32_Processor") For Each objProcessor in colSettings Wscript.Echo "System Type: " & objProcessor.Architecture Wscript.Echo "Processor: " & objProcessor.Description Next Set colSettings = objWMIService.ExecQuery _ ("Select * from Win32_BIOS") For Each objBIOS in colSettings Wscript.Echo "BIOS Version: " & objBIOS.Version Next