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We are pretty well annoyed at you guys. We spent all this time and energy creating all these VBScripts over the last nine years. We have several hundred VBScripts that we use in production, and with uncertain economic times, you are now telling me I have to rewrite all these scripts in Windows PowerShell...

Hey, Scripting Guy! I’ve seen scripts that let you delete all the files in a folder that are X number of days old. I have a different problem: I’d like to delete files that are X number of hours, or even X number of minutes , old. How can I do that? -- DF Hey, DF. Did you see where some researchers...

Hey, Scripting Guy! I have a folder which contains thousands of files, all numbered sequentially. How can I tell which file is the last file in the list? -- AC Hey, AC. You know, one of the fun things about being a Scripting Guy is that we get to spend a lot of time shattering myths. For example,...

Hey, Scripting Guy! How can I get a total page count for all the Word documents in a folder? -- RA Hey, RA. You’ll have to forgive the Scripting Guy who writes this column if he seems a little tired this morning. Yesterday was the first day of school in the Lake Washington School District and, as...

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 in Hey, Scripting Guy! history. Why’s that? Because...

Hey, Scripting Guy! I have an unknown number of files in a folder. I need to rename them using this format: ABC_f x .inv, where x is an incremental number. How can I do that? -- RN Hey, RN. You know, one of the Scripting Guys once had an idea for a very different kind of restaurant. Would you walk...

Hey, Scripting Guy! How can I get the names of 10 randomly-selected files in a folder? I need to do that so I can test and verify our backup and restore policies. -- CS Hey, CS. You know, if you’re interested in things that are random, haphazard, arbitrary, or downright chaotic, well, you came to...

Hey, Scripting Guy! How can I get a list of all the .dll files in a folder, along with their version numbers? -- DD Hey, DD. You know, when we sit down to write this column we usually try to start off with an amusing and at least semi-relevant anecdote. In this case, that would mean a cute story about...

Hey, Scripting Guy! In Windows XP, how can I use a script to automatically queue up files that I want to burn to a CD? -- BD Hey, BD. Well, unfortunately, we have some bad news for you: there’s currently no way to burn a CD using a script. You see, the problem is that - oh, wait a second: you just...

Hey, Scripting Guy! How can I rename files like _JKG1234.jpg to 272_DSC_1234.jpg? -- NA Hey, NA. You know, NA, we feel sorry for you. Why? Well, on the one hand you’re unbelievably lucky. After all, the Scripting Guys never write scripts that they actually use, yet you somehow managed to hit upon...

Hey, Scripting Guy! On May 3 rd you showed us how to merge multiple files in Microsoft Word. I’d like to do that, but put a page break between each file. -- CE Hey, CE. You know, when we read your email our first thought was this: no way did we show people how to merge multiple files back on May 3...

Hey, Scripting Guy! How can I verify that a certain folder (C:\TestLog) has files in it and, if so, delete all those files? -- DC Hey, DC. Before we begin we should point out that - when using WMI - it doesn’t matter whether or not a folder has any files in it: you can still tell WMI to delete all...

Hey, Scripting Guy! How can I take the last line in a group of text files and paste that information into a Word document? -- JV Hey, JV. You know, one thing we try to do in this column is focus on practical system administration tasks. We’ll deviate from that focus every now and then, but for the...

Hey, Scripting Guy! How can I run a script to unhide all the files in a folder? -- GA Hey, GA. You know, when one of the Scripting Guys was a bit younger he and the other kids in his neighborhood spent countless hours playing variations on hide-and-seek; in fact, this Scripting Guy still has vivid...