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...

Hey, Scripting Guy! How can I open an existing Excel spreadsheet, add some additional information to that spreadsheet, and then save my changes? Every time I call the SaveAs method a dialog box pops up asking me if I want to save my changes. -- RW ...

Hey, Scripting Guy! Is there any way I can use a script to present a user with a dialog box and let him or her select a file? -- BF Hey, BF. If you’re using Windows 2000, we don’t know of a way to do this, at least not a way that’s built into the operating...

Hey, Scripting Guy! Is there any way to retrieve the system time as configured on a remote computer? -- JJ Hey, JJ. There are at least two ways to do this, both using WMI. If you’re running Windows XP or Windows Server 2003, you can use the WMI class...

Hey, Scripting Guy! How can I scan the event logs of my servers and return only information about unsuccessful logons? -- LC Hey, LC. We’ll assume that you have enabled security auditing on your servers. If you haven’t, that’s step one. What you’ll...

Hey, Scripting Guy! How can I read only a specific line in a text file? For example, how can I write a script that reads only line 16 in a text file and then stores the value of that line in a variable? -- DL Hey, DL. You know we haven’t answered a...

Hey, Scripting Guy! How can I determine the next available drive letter on a computer? -- TW Hey, TW. Interesting question, and one that crops up from time-to-time. In the old days, when users only had drives A, B, and C, this was easy; you could pretty...

Hey, Scripting Guy! I need to move a computer account from one OU to another; however, I don’t know which OU the computer account is currently in. Any advice? -- AA Hey, AA. You know, one thing that marks all the great advice columns - Dear Abby ;...

Hey, Scripting Guy! Is there any way to tell which command-line arguments (if any) were used when starting an executable file? -- TO Hey, TO. We don’t mean to cause a scandal in the scripting world - well, OK, we don’t mean to cause any more scandals...

Hey, Scripting Guy! Instead of having the My Computer icon on the desktop read My Computer , I’d like to replace that with the name of the computer. Can I do that using a script? -- TG Hey, TG. We get asked this question quite a bit; apparently a lot...

Hey, Scripting Guy! Is it possible to use a script to change the read-only attribute of a file? -- ZO Hey, ZO. Of course, you can do this; the FileSystemObject can do anything ! Well, OK, it can’t do either of those things. And, no, it can’t do...

Hey, Scripting Guy! How can I use a script to change the legal warning message on a computer? -- RB Hey, RB. As you all probably know, when you press Ctrl-Alt-Delete to log on to Windows, you’re typically presented with a logon box. You type your user...

Hey, Scripting Guy! How can I verify whether or not any files with a specific file extension exist in a folder? -- GM Hey, GM. This is actually a pretty easy thing to do. All we have to do is write a WMI query that includes the path of the folder we...