June, 2006

Hey, Scripting Guy! How can I locate all the instances of a particular file (like budget.xls) on a computer? -- MN Hey, MN. Did you know that former heavyweight boxing champion George Foreman has 10 children, 5 sons and 5 daughters? It’s true. But...

Hey, Scripting Guy! I’ve been playing around with Windows PowerShell , and I find it interesting. However, I have a problem. I’d like to use PowerShell as a quick way to get information about an Active Directory user account, but I can’t...

Hey, Scripting Guy! How can I get a list of the unique words used in a Microsoft Word document? -- RK Hey, RK. Funny you should mention unique words. Last Saturday the Scripting Coach’s baseball team played in the city championship. Despite the importance...

Hey, Scripting Guy! How can I copy a file 150 times and then rename each of those copies using a list of names found in an Excel spreadsheet? -- DF Hey, DF. You know, when we first started this column 2 years ago (must be time to mention the 500 th...

Hey, Scripting Guy! How can I copy all the comments from an Excel worksheet to a Word document? -- ED Hey, ED. You know, one of the drawbacks to calling yourself a “Scripting Guy” is that people assume you’re really more of a Scripting Fanatic. Every...

Hey, Scripting Guy! How can I move a computer from an unknown OU into a known OU? -- DB Hey, DB. You know, a lot of people take a look at system administration scripting and think, “Well, it might be useful, but it sounds kind of boring.” After all...

Hey, Scripting Guy! How can I check to see if a file exists on a remote computer even if that file isn’t in a shared folder? -- SP Hey, SP. You know, the Scripting Guy who writes this column had minor periodontal surgery this morning. (Well, maybe...

Hey, Scripting Guy! How can I use Windows PowerShell to start a service on a remote computer? -- NA Hey, NA. You know, a few years ago a professor named Francis Fukuyama wrote a book called The End of History and the Last of Man , a book which stated...

Hey, Scripting Guy! How can I retrieve a list of all the files that have no file extension? -- JB Hey, JB. Funny you should ask about no-hitters. Yes, it’s true: the Scripting Son was robbed of a no-hitter this past Saturday. With one out in the top...

Hey, Scripting Guy! How can I write a script that prevents the screensaver from coming on? Sometimes I get interrupted for a couple minutes (say I get a phone call or something) and the screensaver kicks in, which promptly locks the computer. Is there...

Hey, Scripting Guy! How can I write a script that accesses all the subfolders in my Outlook Inbox? -- MB Hey, MB. You know, after you’ve written a daily scripting column for nearly two years (have we mentioned the Hey, Scripting Guy 500th column celebration...

Hey, Scripting Guy! How can I insert text into a specific column of a text file? I don’t want the text to be inserted at the beginning of a line or at the end of a line, but at a specific spot in the line. -- D Hey, D. You know, over the past two years...

Hey, Scripting Guy! How can I get a list of available metadata for Microsoft Office documents? -- JR Hey, JR. If we understand your question correctly, you’d like to know if it’s true that July 21, 2006 will mark the 500 th Hey, Scripting...

Hey, Scripting Guy! How can I populate a list box with the CNs of all the OUs in my domain? -- AK Hey, AK. That’s an interesting question, AK, and we’ll do our best to answer it. Of course, we should point out that the United States soccer team has...

Hey, Scripting Guy! How can I add a right-to-left text box to a Web page? -- B Hey, B. To begin with, we should note that we aren’t entirely sure that we know what we’re talking about here. (Good point: that’s a disclaimer that could be added to all...

Hey, Scripting Guy! How can I add multiple tables to a Word document? -- KH Hey, KH. You know, if the Scripting Guys have one failing (hey, we said if ) it’s this: we’re simple guys with simple tastes. Create a Microsoft Word document with multiple...

Hey, Scripting Guy! How can I list all the tables in an Access database? -- KW Hey, KW. You know, the best part about writing a daily column on system administration scripting is that people only see the finished result; they never see all the detours...

Hey, Scripting Guy! I have a text file where each line is a set of characters like this: 56A63, 78A41, etc. I need to put leading zeroes in front of these strings in order to make them all nine characters long: 000056A63, 000078A41, etc. Oh: and my text...

Hey, Scripting Guy! How can I return the URLs associated with my Internet Explorer Favorites? -- DW Hey, DW. It’s time for annual performance reviews here at Microsoft, which means we Scripting Guys are supposed to be looking back and detailing all...

Hey, Scripting Guy! How can I dynamically add controls to an HTA? -- TR Hey, TR. Dum-de-dum-dum. Dum-de-dum-de - oh, wait : you were talking to us , weren’t you? Sorry; we saw the word “dynamically” and figured this question must have been addressed...

Hey, Scripting Guy! How can I configure the system failure options on a Windows Server 2003 computer? I’d like to configure the machine to do a small memory dump, and disable both the sending of an administrative alert and the automatic reboot. -- JS...

Hey, Scripting Guy! How can I find the process ID associated with a batch file? -- MB Hey, MB. You know, the Scripting Guys are firm believers in recycling. Why throw that printout away when it can be recycled into newsprint? Why throw that aluminum...