An Introduction to Scripting For Windows System Administrators

Prerequisites:

The course is written for administrators/IT professionals who have some knowledge of VBScript and would like to use that knowledge to ease their administrative burden by automating repetitive tasks. The typical attendee will be an administrator/IT professional who is interested in examining how scripts can benefit and enhance their day-to-day environment

This course assumes knowledge of VBScript mechanisms. This information is covered in the Introduction to Script Programming with VBScript course QAINTSCR. It also assumes knowledge of the Windows interface.

Course Description:

The inclusion of Windows Scripting Host (WSH) in Windows provides a rich and powerful environment for System Administrators to manage and administer their Windows machines. With a little VBScript knowledge you will soon be able to take advantage of the improved effectiveness and efficiency that scripts can give your working life. Computers were originally designed to take away the drudgery of dull, repetitive tasks, but unfortunately administering them generates dull, repetitive tasks such as monthly/weekly defrags, making the same registry change on machine after machine. Scripting allows us to give those tedious jobs back to the machine that was designed to handle them in the first place.

This course will start with the basics of using scripts to manipulate an object based environment. The course will then use VBScript to access and manipulate the WSH objects, the FileSystemObject, the Excel object model and the ADO objects for accessing databases. You will learn how to write scripts that automate applications, parse log files for specific information, map network drives, and install printers and applications, amongst others things. Due to the practical nature of scripting, there will be a large element of hands on lab work with an emphasis on creating reusable, useful sample scripts that can be employed in the work place.

The course will be delivered as an interactive lecture including many hands-on exercises.

This course includes the following modules:

Object Fundamentals

• What is an object; Type libraries and classes; How to create and use objects; What are properties and methods, How to access properties and methods; How to identify the available objects in a library; How to identify the available properties and methods

Automating Applications and command line tools

• Using the WSH Shell object to launch applications, control them and manipulate their output; Creating a ping function to check machine availability.

User Input through WSH

• Getting user input through arguments and the standard input streams.

The Registry

• Reading information from the registry; Deleting registry values and keys; Creating and modifying the registry.

Shortcuts

• Creating shortcuts; Accessing the paths to special folders via script

The Network Object

• Mapping network drives; Enumerating mapped drives and installed printers; Installing printers via script.