February, 2005

Hey, Scripting Guy! How can I determine if the C:\Documents and Settings\ %username% \Application Data\Microsoft\Templates folder exists on a computer? -- JM Hey, JM. The FileSystemObject includes a FolderExists method that makes it very easy to check...

Hey, Scripting Guy! I have a text file that contains a list of computer names. How can I sort that file alphabetically? -- LR Hey, LR. If we wanted to take the easy way out we’d just tell you, “Sorry, you can’t do that.” And we could get away with...

Hey, Scripting Guy! How can I write binary data to the registry? -- FG Hey, FG. WMI’s Standard Registry Provider includes a method - SetBinaryData - that makes it relatively easy to write binary data to the registry. There’s one little catch to be...

Guy! I would like to be able to open a file, read the first 10 characters, and then rename the file to those 10 characters plus a .txt file extension. How can I do that? -- KA Hey, KA. Ah, for once a text file question that can be answered without...

Hey, Scripting Guy! How can I tell whether or not a Web page is accessible? -- JW Hey, JW. To tell you the truth, these are the kinds of questions we hate, questions where we don’t know the answer off the top of our heads but where it seems like there...

Hey, Scripting Guy! We have items that we need to track using unique identification numbers. My boss suggested that we use GUIDs for this purpose. Is there any way to create a GUID using a script? -- DX Hey, DX. GUIDs (globally unique identifiers)...

Hey, Scripting Guy! How can I list all of the files in a folder, as well as all the files in any subfolders of that folder? -- MA Hey, MA. This is a question we get asked quite a bit, and one which have avoided answering up till now. That’s because...

Hey, Scripting Guy! How can I count the number of times a user has logged on to a computer? -- DE Hey, DE. How can you count the number of times a user has logged on to a computer? Good question and, ultimately, the answer might be: you can’t. But...

Hey, Scripting Guy! Is there a way to export the information found in the Shared Folders portion of the Computer Management snap-in (in particular, the list of sessions and the list of open files)? -- PP Hey, PP. Funny you should ask; this very issue...

Hey, Scripting Guy! How can I add a hyperlink to a Word document? -- BA Hey, BA. Interesting question; in thinking about common tasks for scripting Microsoft Office applications we never even considered adding a hyperlink to a document. (Needless to...

Hey, Scripting Guy! How can I add a Web site to the Trusted Sites zone in Internet Explorer? -- NR Hey, NR. As it turns out, trusted sites are actually stored in the registry; consequently, adding a Web site is simply a matter of creating and configuring...

Hey, Scripting Guy! How can I delete folders based on a wildcard character? For example, how can I delete all the folders whose name starts with December ? -- RR Hey, RR. Well, that depends. If you’re running Windows XP or Windows Server 2003, you...

Hey, Scripting Guy! How can I determine whether or not the Guest account is enabled on a computer and, if it is, disable it? -- PR Hey, PR. At last: a question for which there is a very simple, very straightforward answer. This isn’t to minimize the...

Hey, Scripting Guy! How can I change the target that a desktop shortcut points to? For example, if I move a file from one server to another, I’d like be able to use a script to change the shortcut that points to that file. -- AK Hey, AK. This is an...

Hey, Scripting Guy! From the command line, how can I use a script to open a file and replace text; for example, how can I replace all instances of “Jim” with “James”? -- JW Hey, JW. As we’ve found out numerous times when dealing with text files, there...

Hey, Scripting Guy! In a previous column, you told us a couple different ways to save Excel spreadsheets. In that column, you said that one of the things you could do with the SaveAs method was password-protect a spreadsheet. However, you didn’t show...

Hey, Scripting Guy! How can I mask passwords using an InputBox? -- PG Hey, PG. If you’re hoping to mask passwords using a function or method built into WSH or VBScript we’re afraid you’ll be disappointed; neither technology supports password masking...

Hey, Scripting Guy! How can I check a computer and find out whether the Remote Desktop Users group has any members? -- ET Hey, ET. Somewhat surprisingly, ADSI doesn’t have any sort of NumberOfMembers property, a property that could tell you - at a...

Hey, Scripting Guy! How can I gather the names of all the computers in my domain that are running Windows Server 2003? -- AS Hey, AS. When we choose questions to answer for this column, we try to take questions from different areas of scripting. That...

Hey, Scripting Guy! My script needs to have the same working folder as the application that the script starts. How can I change the working folder of a script? -- JM Hey, JM. You can change the current (or working) folder of a script simply by setting...