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...

Hey, Scripting Guy! How can I search a Word document for all the words in double brackets? For example, I need to find words like this: [[failed]]. I then need to save the words I find to a text file. -- PP Hey, PP. You know, one thing that seems to...

Hey, Scripting Guy! How can I extract just the file name from the full path to the file? -- SD Hey, SD. As you might know, Ted Williams was the last major league baseball player to bat .400 for an entire season. Coming into the final day of the year...

Hey, Scripting Guy! How can I search for folders that have a dot in their name? For example, a folder like Administrator.name or Folder.old ? -- DU Hey, DU. You know, if your intention was to trick the Scripting Guys (not that tricking the Scripting...

Hey, Scripting Guy! How can I change all the lowercase letters in an Excel worksheet to uppercase letters? -- BC Hey, BC. Have you ever heard the old expression, “If you want something done you have to do it yourself”? Well, to tell you the truth,...

Hey, Scripting Guy! I have a script for installing a printer that I give to my end users. When the script finishes, I’d like it to be able to delete itself. How can I get a script to delete itself? -- EA Hey, EA. You know, that’s an interesting idea...

Hey, Scripting Guy! How can I rename a user account in a Windows NT 4.0 domain? -- JK Hey, JK. You know, as this column is being written it’s a Monday here in Seattle, and it’s raining. And yes, we know what you’re thinking: when isn’t it raining in...

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...

Hey, Scripting Guy! How can I hide the command window when executing a command like net localgroup Administrators ? -- AA Hey, AA. You know, before we begin we’d like to take a few minutes to recognize all those faithful readers who read the Hey, Scripting...