I was trying to run ipconfig in one of my vbscripts using wscript.shell and the run method. However, I was trying to redirect the output to a text file. It just wasn’t working. It was a combination of those tricky double quotes and me not knowing the proper syntax to accomplish this from inside a vbscript. Thankfully I found the answer quickly after some googling.

There was a post at the ScriptingAnswers.com forum that had a solution to my problem. Basically, it can be summed up with the following code:

Set objShell = WScript.CreateObject("WScript.Shell")
strRun = "%comspec% /c ipconfig.exe > " & AddQuotes("C:\temp\ipconfig.txt")
objShell.Run strRun, 1, True
Function AddQuotes(strInput)
AddQuotes = Chr(34) & strInput & Chr(34)
End Function

The function AddQuotes takes care of the double quoting issues by surrounding whatever is input (using the built in strInput argument of the AddQuotes function.) into the AddQuotes function at the beginning of the script with additional quotes using the built in Chr(34) function.

As for the %compspec% /c syntax. That is covered in this Microsoft KB Article.

That’s it! You should now be able to redirect the output of any shell command using this technique. Happy Scripting!

Technorati Tags: VBScript, Microsoft, Windows, Scripting

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Sometimes you may need to prompt the user for a password in one of your vbscripts. No big deal right? It wouldn’t be except that the password can be seen in plain text as the user types it in. There is no way that I know of to hide the password typed in with regular vbscript.

Fortunately, I found a very useful function at the Quick Test Professional blog. It calls upon *shudder* Internet Explorer to create a password box for the user to type in the password. Because it uses Internet Explorer, the password field text is hidden when it is typed in. The code for the function, as well as an example of using it can be downloaded below (just change the *.txt extension to *.vbs).

Download the Script here

Technorati Tags: VBScript, Security

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I was playing around with one of the VBScripts that I written and I was trying to get it to pin to the start menu. The only problem is that pinning to the start menu is only available to applications. So I did some googling and came upon a post at Renegade’s Random Tech Blog that helped me indirectly.

I went through his instructions about using iexpress to package the vbscript file and they didn’t work for me (Sorry, Renegade). However, his post was the catalyst for my solution. One of the anonymous commenters mentioned that you could just do this with a shortcut. Here’s how:

-Create a new shortcut and point it to wscript.exe

-Click next and name the shortcut the same as your vbscript if you wish

-Click finish. You should now have a shortcut to wscript.exe (the windows script host used to execute vbscript. This by itself will not do what you want.

-Now right-click and go to the properties of your new shortcut.

-In the “Target:” field you should put the path to the vbscript file right after “%windir%\system32\wscript.exe” In my case, my complete “Target:” box looked like this:

%windir%\system32\wscript.exe c:\temp\searchmarked.vbs

-Now click “OK”. You should be able to test the shortcut by double-clicking on it. What an awesome vbscript!

-Once you have verified that the shortcut worked, you can right-click on it and choose “pin to start menu.”

-Voila! There is my vbscript pinned to the Windows start menu.

That’s it! Happy Scripting!

Technorati Tags: VBScript, Windows, Scripting

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Update: wnaquin in the comments below pointed out that the users’ actual favorites were not in the new location. Keep in mind that this script does not actually copy any data to the new location. So this will work for new users, but for existing users you will have to copy their data manually or through a logon script. The below .bat or .cmd file should work:

@echo off
REM # The below line creates the directory structure.
xcopy "%userprofile%\favorites" "\\Server\share\%username%\favorites" /i /t /q /y
REM # The below line copies the files.
xcopy "%userprofile%\favorites" "\\Server\share\%username%\favorites" /i /q /y

Every Windows System administrator knows what a pain user profiles can be. This is especially true if they are roaming profiles. That is why I have made it my personal mission to rid the world of roaming profiles. I have enabled folder redirection at work through Group Policy. This works for the “Application Data”, “My Documents”, and “Desktop” folders.

However, in Microsoft’s infinite wisdom, they decided to leave out the one folder that will make our users scream the loudest. The “Favorites” folder. There is no setting in Group Policy for the “Favorites” folder. So I had to script it. Below are the results in VBScript.

'==========================================================================
'
' NAME: fav_redirect.vbs
'
' AUTHOR: Harley Stagner
' DATE : 1/24/2008
'
' COMMENT: This script will redirect users folders to the File server
' yourfileserver
'==========================================================================
'**************************************************************************
'********************************Header Section*****************************
'**************************************************************************
Option Explicit
'Variable for shell object
Dim wshShell
'Variable for redirecting Favorites
Dim strFavoriteRedirectRegKey
Dim strFavoriteRedirectLocation
Dim strFavoriteRedirectRegType
'**************************************************************************
'********************************Reference Section**************************
'**************************************************************************
'CREATE GLOBAL OBJECTS
Set wshShell = CreateObject("WScript.Shell")
' INITIALIZE VARIABLES----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
'Favorites Redirection Registry Info
strFavoriteRedirectRegKey = "HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\User Shell Folders\Favorites"
strFavoriteRedirectLocation = "\\YOURFILESERVER\Redirected Folders\%username%\Favorites"
strFavoriteRedirectRegType = "REG_EXPAND_SZ"
'**************************************************************************
'**********************************Worker/Output Section********************
'**************************************************************************
'Redirect Favorites by writing registry entry.
wshShell.RegWrite strFavoriteRedirectRegKey, strFavoriteRedirectLocation, strFavoriteRedirectRegType

Just copy and paste the code into notepad and save the file with a *.vbs extension and you’re ready to rock. You will need to replace some information in the script with details that are specific to your environment (like the redirection location). Also keep in mind that the initialization of the variables are one variable per line. For example, where it says “strFavoriteRedirectRegKey= Some value” that statement should be on one line. Also the statement:

wshShell.RegWrite strFavoriteRedirectRegKey, strFavoriteRedirectLocation, strFavoriteRedirectRegType

Should be on one line. The formatting of the web page throws this off sometimes.

You can either run the script locally (to test its functionality) or you can set this as a login script for users via Active Directory Group Policy. That’s it! Happy folder redirecting!

Technorati Tags: Windows, Active Directory, VBScript, Windows Scripting

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Google Query: get computer’s ou with vbscript

I was working on a project for work today where I had to use a script to get a computer’s Active Directory OU and take an action based on the OU that the computer was in. This project will eventually become a logon script. Since our network consists of a mixture of Windows 2000 and Windows XP computers, Powershell was out of the question. It was time to turn to the tried and true VBScript and its fifty-million lines of code to accomplish one small task.

There are a couple of ways that I could query for the computer’s OU using VBScript. I could connect to Active Directory and walk the whole directory tree but this could take a while. I could dump the contents of the Active Directory tree into a text file and search on it, but that is messy. Fortunately, I found the gem of a snippet below at the Tek-Tips Forums. It was posted by PScottC.
Dim wshShell, wshNetwork
Dim strComputerName
' Create Global Objects
Set wshShell = CreateObject("WScript.Shell")
Set wshNetwork = CreateObject("WScript.Network")
' Initialize Variables
strComputerName = wshNetwork.ComputerName
wscript.echo "Computer DN: " & GetDN
Function GetDN()
' Use the NameTranslate object to convert the NT name of the computer to
' the Distinguished name required for the LDAP provider. Computer names
' must end with "$". Returns comma delimited string to calling code.
Dim objTrans, objDomain
' Constants for the NameTranslate object.
Const ADS_NAME_INITTYPE_GC = 3
Const ADS_NAME_TYPE_NT4 = 3
Const ADS_NAME_TYPE_1779 = 1
Set objTrans = CreateObject("NameTranslate")
Set objDomain = getObject("LDAP://rootDse")
objTrans.Init ADS_NAME_INITTYPE_GC, ""
objTrans.Set ADS_NAME_TYPE_NT4, wshNetwork.UserDomain & "\" _
& strComputerName & "$"
GetDN = objTrans.Get(ADS_NAME_TYPE_1779)
'Set DN to upper Case
GetDN = UCase(GetDN)
End Function

Basically, this script snippet can be used to convert an NT computer name into a the full Active Directory Distinguished Name for the computer. The following line:
wscript.echo "Computer DN: " & GetDN

Is merely there as a placeholder to show you the output of the “GetDN” function at the end of the script. You can replace it with any code you choose. If you want the script to do something different based on the computer’s OU then the natural choice would be to use the “GetDN” value in an “elseif” or “case” statement. When I have my full script complete using this code snippet, I will share the details. Until then…
Happy Coding!

Technorati Tags: Windows, Scripting, VBScript

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