August, 2006

Hey, Scripting Guy! How can I set the document orientation in Microsoft Word to landscape? -- EE Hey, EE. We think the script that we’re about to show you will answer your question; if it doesn’t, however, we’ll hope you cut us a little slack. After...

Hey, Scripting Guy! How can I use Windows PowerShell to locate all the .wma files on my computer? -- LC Hey, LC. Harry Potter. Hogwarts. Ron Weasley. Dumbledore. Quiddich. What’s all that about? Oh, nothing: just a few words that idly floated through...

Hey, Scripting Guy! How can I cause a script to run inside an HTA any time a user presses ENTER? -- JJ Hey, JJ. Before answering your question we should state, for the record, that the Scripting Guys are unanimously opposed to the recent decision by...

Hey, Scripting Guy! How can I append a location to the Path environment variable? -- AC Hey, AC. You know, there’s a TV commercial out in which a guy is watching a baseball game when his wife suddenly decides that the two of them should do something...

Hey, Scripting Guy! How can I determine the first Friday in a month? -- JB Hey, JB. You know, when we first glanced at this question we were hoping it said, “How can I determine if any given day in a month is a Friday?” Why? Well, if that was the case...

Hey, Scripting Guy! How can I add or subtract two hexadecimal numbers? -- PS Hey, PS. You know, according to the old saying there are two things you should never watch being made: laws and sausages. We’d like to add a third item to that list: Hey,...

Hey, Scripting Guy! How can I use Windows PowerShell to determine whether or not the Guest account has been disabled on a computer? -- RB Hey, RB. You know, last week at this time the Scripting Guy who writes this column was on vacation, a vacation...

Hey, Scripting Guy! How can I dynamically change the background color of an HTA? -- CN Hey, CN. You know, last summer (Fourth of July, 2005) an errant firework shot by a neighbor accidentally caught one of the Scripting Guys’ garage on fire. (Because...

Hey, Scripting Guy! I need to save data to a text file each evening. How can I determine the day of the week and then save the file in the appropriate folder? For example, when the script runs on a Thursday then the file should be saved to C:\Logs\Thursday...

Hey, Scripting Guy! How can I minimize or hide an HTA for 30 seconds? -- MF Hey, MF. You know, with the possible exception of baseball, the Scripting Guy who writes this column rarely claims to know much about anything. And for good reason: every time...

Hey, Scripting Guy! How can I place the current date and time at the beginning of each line of Ping.exe output? -- AL Hey, AL. We have to admit, we were a little shocked by your question. Change the output of the Ping command? Really, AL. Would you...

Hey, Scripting Guy! I have a folder with a bunch of files in it, files with names like Doc 1.pdf, Doc 2.pdf, and Doc 3.pdf. How do I remove the blank spaces from all those file names? -- JRP Hey, JRP. You know, today’s column represents a landmark...

Hey, Scripting Guy! I have a comma-separated values file that has data similar to this: data1",""data2"","data3",""data4"". As you can see, some of the items are enclosed by two sets of double quote marks (like ""data2""). How can I remove one of those...

Hey, Scripting Guy! How can I list all the printers – both local printers and network printers – on a remote computer? -- CH Hey, CH. You know, back when he worked at the University of Washington the Scripting Guy who writes this column was asked to...

Hey, Scripting Guy! From within the script itself, how can I get the name of a running script? I need that in order to create a generic error handler for all my scripts. -- TB Hey, TB. You know, the Scripting Guy who writes this column is in the office...

Hey, Scripting Guy! How can I tell whether the NumLock key on a computer is on or off? -- KA Hey, KA. You know, there are two problems with being a Scripting Guy. (Three, if you count the amount we get paid for doing this.) For one thing, you always...

Hey, Scripting Guy! How can I concatenate all the files (taken from various folders) that have the same file name? -- AS Hey, AS. You know, the hardest part about selecting questions to be used in the Hey, Scripting Guy! column isn’t writing the scripts;...

Hey, Scripting Guy! How can I search a Microsoft Word document for all occurrences of the string <computername> and replace those occurrences with the actual name of a computer (e.g., atl-ws-01 )? -- WC Hey, WC. And by the way, thanks for your...

Hey, Scripting Guy! How can I tell whether or not the phrase 226 transfer complete occurs at least twice in a text file? -- JR Hey, JR. You know, this was a tough one for us to answer; that’s because the Scripting Guys are always content with just...

Hey, Scripting Guy! How can I determine whether a domain is in mixed mode or native mode? -- WW Hey, WW. When you listen to a Seattle Mariners game on the radio one of the regular features is “Stump the Broadcasters.” The premise to Stump the Broadcasters...

Hey, Scripting Guy! How can I access a specified mail folder in my Outlook Mailbox, a folder that isn’t a subfolder of my Inbox? -- RT Hey, RT. As you recall, in our last exciting episode – what do you mean you don’t recall any exciting episodes when...

Hey, Scripting Guy! How can I get a list of all the senders’ email addresses in an Outlook folder? -- CW Hey, CW. You know, you must get email from a whole different set of people than we Scripting Guys do. For example, in looking through the Scripting...

Hey, Scripting Guy! As part of our Sarbanes-Oxley requirements I need to get a list of all my Active Directory users, along with the date that their account was created and the last time their password was changed. How can I get a list like that? -- DB...