Confessions of a Microsoft Consultant : Scripting

PowerShell Script ExecutionPolicy

Daniel Oxley — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 09:59:34 GMT

Seeing as PowerShell is included by default in Windows 7, and also because you get the PowerShell icon on your quick launch bar by default, I try to use that over the de rigueur cmd.exe command interpreter that we have all had since the dawn of time. Although, without thinking, I still often run cmd.exe just through habit :-S. I am only just starting out with PowerShell and I doubt I will ever achieve any success with the scripting, but you have to try!

The PowerShell icon on the quick launch bar

Right from the start, I had problems running a script I had written. Upon launching it I would get the below error returned:

File C:\Users\daniel\Desktop\copy.ps1 cannot be loaded because the execution of scripts is disabled on this system. Please see "get-help about_signing" for more details.
At line:1 char:19
+ C:\Users\daniel\Desktop\copy.ps1 <<<<

No matter what I tried, I just could not override the security settings that PowerShell had by default. Frustration prevailed with me cursing the point of making a scripting environment and the blocking the execution of scripts for security reasons. After hunting around, it turns out that this is simply a configurable option, and the default setting out of the box is the most secure one (as it should be). Simply running the following commands will change the setting and thus allow you to execute your scripts.

To view your existing setting, run the command: Get-ExecutionPolicy

To allow the execution of your scripts, run the command: Set-ExecutionPolicy RemoteSigned

Setting it to RemoteSigned means that you can run all of the scripts you write yourself, but not those downloaded from the Internet. Alternatively, if you set the execution policy to AllSigned then all scripts, including those you write yourself, have to be signed by a trusted publisher if you want to execute them. Otherwise, you can set it to Unrestricted and then all scripts will run, regardless of where they come from and whether or not they’ve been signed. This last setting is not the recommended one as you can open yourself up to “a world of pain” (a great film).

And if you need help understanding the script signing, you can run the command: Get-Help About_Signing

VBS Functions

Daniel Oxley — Mon, 13 Apr 2009 13:45:29 GMT

The lack of a decent GUI for VBS development has always been a problem for most people. The advantages of using VBS are great, but writing the scripts can be labourious, especially if you don’t have a lot of experience and know all the commands/functions etc. Nowadays, there are plenty of 3rd-party development environments available now, in fact, I use the excellent VBSEdit as it has code completion and comes with a whole load of code snippets covering all sorts of areas. The code completion feature is super helpful, especially when trying to remember the syntax of a particular function.

For reference purposes, I have included below a list of all the VBS functions as I am always looking up this information, so I thought I’d post it here so that it is more accessible to everyone (including me).

Abs	Returns the absolute value of a number. Wscript.Echo(Abs(-5)). returns: 5
Asc	Returns the ASCII character code for the first character of a string. Wscript.Echo(ASC ("ABC")). returns: 65
Chr	Returns the corresponding character of passed ASCII code number. Wscript.Echo(Chr(65)). returns: A
Cos	Returns cosine value of a number. Wscript.Echo(Cos(1)). returns: 0.54030230586814
Date	Returns the current system date in month, day, year format. Wscript.Echo(date()). returns: 8/2/02 ->with current date
DateAdd	Adds the specified date or time value to specified date. Wscript.Echo(DateAdd("d","10","6-7-02")). returns: 6/17/02 -> Adds 10 days to specified date. d=day, m=month, y=year, h=hour, n=minute
Day	Returns the day of the month. Wscript.Echo(Day(date)). returns: 9 ->with current day number.
Fix	Returns the integer part of a number. Wscript.Echo(fix(5.567)). returns: 5
FormatCurrency	Returns an expression formatted as a currency value. Wscript.Echo(FormatCurrency(10.888)). returns: $10.89
FormatDateTime	Returns a formatted date or time. Wscript.Echo(FormatDateTime(date)). returns: 8/2/02-> with current date.
FormatNumber	Returns an expression formatted as a number value. Wscript.Echo(FormatNumber(1000.1111,2)). returns: 1,000.11
FormatPercent	Returns an expression formatted as a percent Wscript.Echo(FormatPercent(.22)). returns: 22.00%
Hex	Returns the hexadecimal value of a number. Wscript.Echo(Hex(10)). returns: A
Hour, Minute, Second	Returns the number representing hour, minute, second of the day, hour, or minute. Wscript.Echo(Hour()). returns: 11 -> Assuming it's the hour is 11.
Int	Returns the integer part of a number. Wscript.Echo(Int(5.567)). returns: 5
IsNumeric	Returns Boolean value [true or false] indicates whether is number or not. Wscript.Echo(IsNumeric(10.888)). returns: True
LCase	Converts all the characters to lowercase. Wscript.Echo(LCase("CASE")). returns: case
Left	Returns specified number of characters starting from left. Wscript.Echo(left("language",3)). returns: lan
LTrim	Removes all the leading spaces from the string. Wscript.Echo(LTrim("far ")). returns: far, with no spaces
Month	Returns the month of the year. Wscript.Echo(Month(date)). returns: 9 ->with current month number.
MonthName	Returns the name of the specified month. Wscript.Echo(MonthName(9)). returns: September
MsgBox	Returns dialog box with specified expression or arguments. msgbox"Hello World" returns: Hello World -> On dialog box.
Now()	Returns current system date and time. Wscript.Echo(now()). returns: 8/2/02 10:46:33 AM ->with current date & time
Right	Returns specified number of characters staring from right. Wscript.Echo(Right("language")). returns: age
Rnd	Returns random number. Wscript.Echo(Rnd). returns: 0.7055475 ->Needs some code to randomize.
Round	Returns rounded number. Wscript.Echo(Round(10.888)). returns: 11
RTrim	Removes all the trailing spaces from the string. Wscript.Echo(RTrim(" far")). returns: far, with no spaces
Sgn	Returns 1, 0, or -1 for positive, zero or negative number Wscript.Echo(Sgn(-22)). returns: -1
Sin	Returns sine value of a number. Wscript.Echo(sin(1)). returns: 0.841470984807897
Sqr	Returns square root of a number. Wscript.Echo(sqr(25)). returns: 5
String	Takes a number and character code argument and returns the character, repeated a number of times: Wscript.Echo(String(3,80)). returns: BBB
Tan	Returns tangent value of a number. Wscript.Echo(tan(1)). returns: 1.5574077246549
Time	Returns the current system time. Wscript.Echo(Time()). returns: 10:11:36 AM ->with current time.
Timer	Returns the number of seconds since 12:00 AM. Wscript.Echo(Timer). returns: 40055.84 -> at 11:07 AM
TimeSerial	Returns the time for a specific hour, minute, and second converted from military clock. Wscript.Echo(TimeSerial(17,30,05)). returns: 5:30:05 PM.
TimeValue(time)	Returns the current system time. Wscript.Echo(Time(time))returns: 11:18:00 AM -> with current time.
Trim	Returns the string argument, with leading and trailing spaced removed. Wscript.Echo(Trim(" mid ")). returns: mid, with no spaces.
UCase	Converts all the characters to upper case. Wscript.Echo(UCase("Case")). returns: CASE
Val	Returns number value of a string. Stops as soon it hits string char. Wscript.Echo(Val("22 Maple st.")). returns: 22
WeekDay	Returns number representing the day of the week. Wscript.Echo(WeekDay(date)). returns: 6 -> Assuming today is Friday
WeekdayName	Returns the name of the specified week day. Wscript.Echo(WeekdayName(6)). returns: Friday

These functions are built-in to VBS so all you need to do is pass the correct values! I can’t remember where I sourced all of this information from, so if you want to be credited, just let me know!

Faster Creation of Virtual Machines

Daniel Oxley — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 09:55:49 GMT

I recently noticed a blog post on TechNet about a new tool that was released on CodePlex. WIM2VHD is a command-line tool allows you to create sysprepped VHD images from any Windows 7 installation source (and I suspect Windows Server 2008 R2 as well) that work with Virtual PC, Virtual Server, Microsoft Hyper-V, and Windows 7's new Native VHD-Boot functionality. Basically, you can create an entire virtual machine VHD file in minutes without have to go through the whole setup process of Windows. It is nice and simple to use, and after a brief moment of confusion I had it working fine :-)

To create my first VHD file, I ran the command: cscript.exe C:\Users\Administrator\Desktop\WIM2VHD.wsf /wim:e:\sources\install.wim /sku:Ultimate /vhd:U:\Hyper-V\Win7.vhd /size:12000 /disktype:Dynamic

However, this failed (as shown below) with the error “Error: 0: No filePath was specified”. After fiddling around with the command line to make sure that I was specifying the relevant paths, I realised that WIM2VHD was failing because it was unable to mount the WIM file from the Windows 7 DVD.

In order to mount WIM files, you first need to have installed the Windows Automated Installation Kit (WAIK), which you can get here: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=4AD85860-D1F4-42A1-A46C-E039E3D0DB5D&displaylang=en. One thing to note is that I installed the beta version that was released for Windows 7. I do not actually know if the current 1.1 version will work with WIM2VHD, I imagine so. The 1.1 version can be found here: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=94BB6E34-D890-4932-81A5-5B50C657DE08&displaylang=en

Once that was installed, I simply re-ran the previous command and, as you can see, had much more success!

This really is a great tool, as you can create virtual machines extremely quickly. And, the possibilities are endless because you could incorporate WIM2VHD into existing processes so that you could provision new computers easily and quickly on-the-fly using scripts.

Self-writing code

Daniel Oxley — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 14:30:00 GMT

If you do a lot of scripting for Windows, then you probably use VBScript (VBS) to do it. With VBScript you can easily retrieve information about pretty much anything that is in your computer, or connected to the network, which is what makes it a good choice as a scripting language.

When working on a project I often need to create a script that will take an action based upon certain criteria. For example, I recently created a script that renamed the assigned drive letter in Windows Explorer for the CD-ROM drive, only if the existing assigned letter was “E:\”; the best, and surest, way to do this is by including a WMI query in your script and then reading the output. Most people however get rather lost in the seemingly overcomplicated commands/syntax required to include WMI queries in a VBS script, which although rather daunting to look at, is not actually too difficult to do, especially if you have a tool that does the whole job for you!

The WMI Code Creator from Microsoft is an invaluable tool that you can use to instantly generate sample VBS script that uses WMI. Simply choose the Namespace you want to use, select the class and then click on one of the properties; in the right-hand pane will appear the example VBS code that you can use.

So why try to work it out by yourself when you can use this free tool to generate all the code you need! See this page for a full review of the tool and the links to download it: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/magazine/cc161034.aspx

Also, I thought I’d include links to some other invaluable scripting tools that are often overlooked but are equally as useful:

Scriptomatic – Another code generating tool that can help you write your WMI code.
Script Center All-in-one – A single .chm file that includes over 160 example scripts.
Tweakomatic – Creates the code that will allow you to tweak all those system settings that are not exposed in the Windows default user interface.
EZADScriptomatic – Auto-magically creates ADSI VBS scripts that allow you to interact with Active Directory.

Job/Life/Reputation protector 2.0

Daniel Oxley — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 14:58:00 GMT

Back in January I posted some simple VBA code for adding an “are you sure?” type question to the Reply To All button in Outlook. Since then I have received a few suggestions for improving the code, one of the most common of which was to add to the question box the list of names that the mail will be sent to. So, as requested, you can find below the updated code!

Just place this code in a module in Outlook (you can get to the VBA editor by pressing ALT+F11) and then assign it a button on the toolbar:

Sub ReplyToAllGuard()

    On Error GoTo ReplyAllErr
    Dim myOlApp As Outlook.Application
    Dim myFolder As Outlook.MAPIFolder
    Dim myItem As Outlook.MailItem
    Dim ReplyMail As Outlook.MailItem
    Dim i As Integer

    Set myOlApp = Application
    Set myFolder = myOlApp.ActiveExplorer.CurrentFolder

    iCount = myOlApp.ActiveExplorer.Selection.Count

    For i = 1 To iCount

        Set myItem = myOlApp.ActiveExplorer.Selection.Item(1)
        Set ReplyMail = myItem.ReplyAll

    Next i

    Dim mymsg As String
    Dim strRecipients As String
    Dim ReplyQ As Integer

    For Each strRec In ReplyMail.Recipients

        strRecipients = strRecipients & strRec & Chr(13)

    Next

    mymsg = "You just clicked Reply to All. Are you sure that this is what you want to do? The following recipients will receive this mail:" & _
            Chr(13) & Chr(13) & strRecipients

    ReplyQ = MsgBox(mymsg, vbYesNo, "Job/Life/Reputation protector")

    If ReplyQ = vbNo Then

        Set ReplyMail = Nothing
        Exit Sub

    Else

        myItem.UnRead = False
        ReplyMail.Display

    End If

ReplyAllErr:

    If Err.Number = -2147467259 Then

        MsgBox "The sender has prevented you from being able to reply to all recipients.", vbOKOnly, "Job/Life/Reputation protector"

    End If

    Exit Sub

End Sub

I also made one another change to the code in order to prevent receiving the error “A program is trying to access e-mail address information stored in Outlook”. This error is generated because Outlook has detected a possible security risk because some ‘unknown’ VBA code is trying to harvest the e-mail addresses from an e-mail; in this case though, we actually want it to!

Basically, instead of initiating a new Outlook session in memory, the code now reuses the existing instance of Outlook, thereby not generating a security problem as the message box is suggesting.

Edit: I amended the code to fix an oversight by me where the code did not clean up after itself! Also, the mail now marks itself as read after you reply - Thanks JP for pointing it out.

HTAMount – Simplifying the mounting of Hyper-V VHD files to your computer

Daniel Oxley — Wed, 24 Sep 2008 12:38:00 GMT

HTAMount is a HTML application that I wrote a while ago that provides a no-nonsense interface allowing you to mount/unmount offline Hyper-V virtual disk images (VHD) to your local file system, in read-only mode. It consists of a HTML Application (HTA) front-end with some VBS script doing the mount/unmounting of the images via a WMI interface. Attached to this post is a zip file that contains the application, hopefully you'll find it useful.

It should be pretty self-explanatory regarding how to use it. To mount a VHD file, just click the ‘Browse…’ button to select the VHD file you wish to mount, select the ‘Mount’ radio option, then press the ‘Mount / Unmount’ button. To unmount a VHD file, just select it from the list of currently mounted VHD files (you might need to refresh this list using the button), choose the ‘Unmount’ radio option and then press the ‘Mount / Unmount’ button. I can’t guarantee that the code is bug-free, although I have been using it for a while and I think I have solved any issues with it. If you do find anything that needs fixing, please comment on this post to let me know!

I got the inspiration for developing this tool from a script that the ‘Virtual PC Guy’ posted back in February 2008. Whilst the script is correct and works great, it had a couple of things that I didn’t like. Namely, the fact that you need to hard-code the path to the VHD file you want to mount, and that you need to extend the script a bit (or create a 2nd separate one) in order to be able to unmount a VHD file. So, HTAMount was born.

One thing that is important is that you run the application elevated (if you have UAC enabled) as it makes use of the Windows executable diskpart.exe which requires the highest security level to run. By default, Windows 2008 does not provide the “Run as Administrator” option when you right-click on a HTA file; however, with a simple change in the registry, you can add this option to the menu for these files.

The option in the context-menu for HTA files that is lacking by default

Included in the attached zip file is a text file that you can rename to a .reg file after extracting it from the zip archive. Double-clicking on this file will import its contents into your registry, instantly adding the item to the context menu.

The VBS code is commented, so feel free to open it up with Notepad to see how it all works. I have also added to the code some comments regarding certain routines, and why I have used them; If you can see any improvements that could be made in the code, I would be interested to know!

This is not an ‘in-development’ tool. I don’t spend time revising the code, unless I experience an error while using it. So don’t expect any updates to it unless either I find a bug, or someone else comments on this page with an error that I then fix. Of course, feel free to suggest new features although I cannot promise anything. Finally, please don’t distribute this code on a different website., link back to my blog post instead. This is important so that people will always have the latest version, and know that the source of the download is from the author.

Bugfix: fixed a bug where the interface remained locked when pressing "Unmount" while no disks were mounted.

Doesn't this thing go any faster?

Daniel Oxley — Tue, 05 Aug 2008 10:41:16 GMT

A Knowledge Base (KB) article and related software update was released on the May 20th 2008 that seems to have gone fairly unnoticed by quite a few people. The article (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/952830) is rather vaguely titled "Description of Windows Script 5.7 for Windows XP" and it details the updated version of the Windows Scripting Host for Windows XP, along with a brief summary of the files that it contains. The reason I think that it has gone fairly unnoticed is because all the useful information for this update is contained in the release notes (which you have to download manually and extract from the compressed file) rather than on the KB page where it should be. This makes it pretty unlikely that anyone will know what changes have been made and what improvements the update offers.

The update contains a lot of fixes but there is one fix in particular that is probably going to be useful to many people. It is the following:

Fixed attempting to load nonexistent wshenu.dll which created performance problem in login scripts

What this means is that, if you have a logon script that has been developed in Visual Basic Script (VBS) that seems to execute slower than it should, then by applying this update you could gain performance benefits during the scripts execution. Quite often I have seen VBS logon scripts that seem to take too long to execute with no obvious reason why, well this may be the reason!

Of course, it could be that the reason your script runs slow is because of programming errors or other factors not related to the scripting host, but if you are sure that your script is designed well and contains no errors then perhaps this update can solve your performance problems.

Thanks to a buddy of mine, Mauricio Tamayo, for pointing this out to me!

Gulp! Did I really just send that to the entire company...?

Daniel Oxley — Wed, 23 Jan 2008 13:47:00 GMT

I am sure that it has happened to everyone in some way or another. You receive an e-mail from a colleague and decide to reply with some harmless comment/joke/snide remark/insult/opinion* but without realising that you pressed the 'Reply To All' button, nor realising that HR and/or your boss were copied on the e-mail as well. Now you are thinking 'Oh dear' and a way to explain it all away as harmless and inconsequential; sound familiar? Well look no further as you can prevent it from ever happening again with just a few lines of code!

You can use the following VBA code in a module in Outlook (only tested in Outlook 2007) to request confirmation from you before using the 'Reply To All' button.

Sub ReplyToAllGuard()

        Dim mymsg As String
        Dim ReplyQ As Integer

        mymsg = "You just clicked Reply to All. Are you sure that this is what you want to do?"
        ReplyQ = MsgBox(mymsg, vbYesNo, "Job/Life/Reputation protector")

        If ReplyQ = vbNo Then

                Exit Sub

        Else

            Dim myOlApp As Outlook.Application
            Dim myFolder As Outlook.MAPIFolder
            Dim myItem As Outlook.MailItem
            Dim ReplyMail As Outlook.MailItem
            Dim i As Integer

            Set myOlApp = CreateObject("Outlook.Application")
            Set myFolder = myOlApp.ActiveExplorer.CurrentFolder
            iCount = myOlApp.ActiveExplorer.Selection.Count

            For i = 1 To iCount

                Set myItem = myOlApp.ActiveExplorer.Selection.item(1)
                Set ReplyMail = myItem.ReplyAll
                ReplyMail.Display

            Next i

        End If

End Sub

Just create a new button on your toolbar (see the snapshot of my toolbar below) and link it to the code that you have added to your module. IIRC, there is also some code somewhere in the help files of Office that does a similar thing, but I could not find it quickly and the above code only took 2 minutes to write.

* delete as applicable

Updating your deployment point programmatically

Daniel Oxley — Tue, 08 Jan 2008 16:17:57 GMT

I was asked recently if it was possible to launch an "Update" and/or an "Update (files only)" in MDT via a script as my client did not want to open the MMC console just to update their Distribution Point. Well, yes it is possible and here you have a PowerShell script that does it!

You'll need to have the .NET Framework, WAIK and PowerShell installed on the computer you plan to run these scripts. Also, you'll need to modify the scripts to add the correct path of the loaded assemblies.

[System.Reflection.Assembly]::LoadFrom("C:\Program Files\Microsoft Deployment Toolkit\Bin\Microsoft.BDD.ConfigManager.dll")
[System.Reflection.Assembly]::LoadFrom("C:\Program Files\Windows AIK\Tools\Image Manager\Microsoft.ComponentStudio.Common.dll")
[System.Reflection.Assembly]::LoadFrom("C:\Program Files\Windows AIK\Tools\Image Manager\Microsoft.ComponentStudio.ComponentPlatformImplementation.dll")
[System.Reflection.Assembly]::LoadFrom("C:\Program Files\Windows AIK\Tools\Image Manager\Microsoft.ComponentStudio.ComponentPlatformInterface.dll")
[System.Reflection.Assembly]::LoadFrom("C:\Program Files\Windows AIK\Tools\Image Manager\Microsoft.ComponentStudio.Serializer.dll")

$manager = [Microsoft.BDD.ConfigManager.Manager]
$Deploymanager = $manager::Deploymanager
$newItem = $Deploymanager["<Place your DP GUID Here>"]
$newItem.Generate("x86", "c:\temp\logupdate.log”, $false)

In order to retrieve the GUID of your Deployment Point you can use the following script, and then add the GUID returned to the script above.

[System.Reflection.Assembly]::LoadFile("C:\Program Files\Microsoft Deployment Toolkit\Bin\Microsoft.BDD.ConfigManager.dll")
$manager = [Microsoft.BDD.ConfigManager.Manager]

$manager::InstallPath
$manager::WaikPath
$manager::TempPath

write-host "Deploy:"
$manager::DeployManager.GetDataTable()

If you want to update only the configuration files, make sure to change the following line to:

$newItem.Generate("x86", "c:\temp\logupdate.log”, $true)

When the last parameter is set to $false the script will update all files, whereas if it is set to $true the script will update only the configuration files. It goes without saying that this is not an official script of MDT, nor Microsoft, so use it at your own risk!

Creating a WIM the quick way...

Daniel Oxley — Wed, 28 Nov 2007 00:28:00 GMT

IMAGEX is a fantastic tool, but it has a command line that can, at times, be way too complicated. As of yet, there is no official, nice, easy-to-use interface or GUI to simplify the whole thing although a couple of people have posted DIY ones on the web with various levels of success.

My current client needed a simplified way of creating a WIM file for use during the BDD project I am working on; they are using WIM files as a means of applying files to a computer, similar to just creating a ZIP file and extracting the contents. Anyway, I was asked if Microsoft had something (or could create something) that he could give to a junior member of staff so that s/he could create these WIM files without making mistakes or getting confused with the command line. So, I created a very simple HTA file which will do exactly what he asked for. Seeing as he liked it so much I thought that I would share it here so that others can take advantage of it.

Feel free to use/abuse/butcher/amend/correct/revise/recycle any or all of the code for your own use. Of course, I must mention the usual disclaimer: USE AT YOUR OWN RISK! THIS IS NOT 100% TESTED CODE.

Unfortunately, it does come with 3 requirements. The first is that it is run with administrative permissions. This is not a problem with Windows XP if you are an admin on the box but with Windows Vista you'll need to run it elevated (Windows Vista does not give you the "Run as Administrator" option for HTA files so you'll need to elevate a cmd prompt first, then run the HTA. The second is that you have the file imagex.exe in the same folder as the HTA file, and the third is that you have already installed the imagex filter driver. Installing the filter driver is easy to do, either install the WAIK on your computer or just right click on the .inf file which you will find in the same folder as imagex.exe on a computer that has the WAIK installed and choose "install".

To use: simply copy the code below and paste it (careful with the wordwrap)into notepad. Save the file with the .hta extension and then you are ready to run it, a simple double-click and you are away! Enjoy.

<head>
<title>WIMCreator</title>
<HTA:APPLICATION
     APPLICATIONNAME="IMAGEX - CAPTURE HTA"
     MAXIMIZEBUTTON="NO"
     MINIMIZEBUTTON="NO"
     SCROLL="NO"
     SHOWINTASKBAR="YES"
     SINGLEINSTANCE="YES"
     WINDOWSTATE="NORMAL"
     SYSMENU="YES"
>
</head>

        Dim path
        Set fso = CreateObject("scripting.filesystemobject")
        path = fso.getabsolutepathname(".")

        CurrFolder.InnerHTML = CurrFolder.InnerHTML & " " & path
        if fso.FileExists(path & "\imagex.exe") = false then
            Msgbox "IMAGEX.exe does not exist in the same folder as this HTA program."
            ImageXExists.checked = false
            savefolderbox.disabled = true
            savefolderbutton.disabled = true
            driversbox.disabled = true
            driversbutton.disabled = true
            clearvalues.disabled = true
            createwim.disabled = true
            commentbox.disabled = true
        else
            ImageXExists.checked = true
        end if

End Sub
Function BrowseForSaveLocation

        On Error Resume Next
        Dim oShell, oFolder, intColonPos, oWshShell
        Set oShell = CreateObject("Shell.Application")
        Set oWshShell = CreateObject("WScript.Shell")

Set oFolder = oShell.BrowseForFolder(0, "Choose WIM destination folder", &h17, OPTIONS)

BrowseForFolder = oFolder.ParentFolder.ParseName(oFolder.Title).Path

If Err.Number > 0 Then BrowseForFolder = Null

If oFolder.Title = "Desktop" Then BrowseForFolder = owshshell.SpecialFolders("Desktop")
intColonPos = InStr(oFolder.Title, ":")

If intColonPos > 0 Then BrowseForFolder = Mid(oFolder.Title, intColonPos - 1, 2) & "\"

savefolderbox.value = BrowseForFolder

End Function
Function BrowseForDrivers

        On Error Resume Next
        Dim oShell, oFolder, intColonPos, oWshShell
        Set oShell = CreateObject("Shell.Application")
        Set oWshShell = CreateObject("WScript.Shell")

Set oFolder = oShell.BrowseForFolder(0, "Choose source folder", &h17, OPTIONS)

BrowseForFolder = oFolder.ParentFolder.ParseName(oFolder.Title).Path

If Err.Number > 0 Then BrowseForFolder = Null

If oFolder.Title = "Desktop" Then BrowseForFolder = owshshell.SpecialFolders("Desktop")
intColonPos = InStr(oFolder.Title, ":")

If intColonPos > 0 Then BrowseForFolder = Mid(oFolder.Title, intColonPos - 1, 2) & "\"

DriversBox.value = BrowseForFolder

    End Function
    Sub ClearVals
        savefolderbox.value = ""
        driversbox.value = ""
        commentbox.value = ""
    End Sub
    Sub CloseHTA
        self.close
    End Sub
    Sub CaptureWIM

        Dim path
        Set fso = CreateObject("scripting.filesystemobject")
        path = fso.getabsolutepathname(".")
        Set oWshShell = CreateObject("WScript.Shell")
        Dim imgCMD
        imgCMD = path & "\imagex.exe /capture " & chr(34) & driversbox.value & chr(34) & " " & chr(34) &

savefolderbox.value & "\mywim.WIM" & chr(34) & " " & chr(34) & commentbox.value & chr(34)
oWshShell.Run imgCMD, , True
End Sub
</script>

<body>
<span><span><span style='font-family: Arial'><span style='font-size: 10pt'>
<span id = "DataArea">Welcome to the WIM creation tool! This tool Is NOT an official Microsoft product and

this therefore totally unsupported.<br />
        <br />
        You must execute this program with admin rights!</span><br />
    <br />
    <hr />
    <br />
    <span id = "CurrFolder">Current directory:</span>
    <br />
    <br />
    IMAGEX.exe found? 
    <input id="ImageXExists" type="checkbox" name="imagexexists" checked="CHECKED" disabled="disabled" /><br />
    <br />
    <hr />
    <br />
    </span></span>
    </span></span>
    <span style='font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial'>
    Path to source folder<br />
    </span><input id="DriversBox" name="DriversBox" style='width: 617px; font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial;'

type="text" readonly="readOnly" /><span
style='font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial'> </span>
<input id="DriversButton" type="button" value="Browse..." name="DriversButton" onclick="BrowseForDrivers"

style='font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial' /><br />
    <br />
    <span style='font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial'>
    Location for WIM file to be saved<br />
    </span>
    <input id="saveFolderBox" name="saveFolderBox" style='width: 617px; font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial;'

type="text" readonly="readOnly" /><span
style='font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial'> </span>
<input id="saveFolderButton" type="button" value="Browse..." name="saveFolderButton"

onclick="BrowseForSaveLocation" style='font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial' /><br />
    <br />
    <span style='font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial'>Comment to be included in WIM file<br />
    </span>
    <input id="CommentBox" name="CommentBox" style='width: 617px; font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial;' type='text'

value="my wim file" /><br />
    <br />
    <br />
    <hr style='font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial' />
    <br />
    <input id="CreateWIM" type="button" value="Create WIM" onclick="CaptureWIM" style='font-size: 10pt; font-

family: Arial" /><span
style='font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial'> </span>
<input id="ClearValues" type="button" value="Clear Values" onclick="ClearVals" style='font-size: 10pt; font-

family: Arial" /><span
style='font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial'> </span>
<input id="Exit" type="button" value="Exit" onclick="CloseHTA" style='font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial'

/><span
style='font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial'> </span>
</body>

P.S. I should mention that this was made for the creation of a WIM file based on a folder on your local filesystem. I have no idea, and it was not developed with this in mind, if you could capture an actual Operating System install with it; although I suspect you could...

Junction points with network drives

Daniel Oxley — Mon, 26 Nov 2007 11:01:00 GMT

Ever wanted to create a 'junction point' style pointer but using a network drive as the source? Now you can!

With Windows XP you can create junction points on your disks but the prerequisite is that the source point is on your local disk. This is no good if you need to create the junction point that refers the user from a point that is anywhere else, for example a network drive. This is actually very simple to do and has existed in Windows since Windows 98 (I think, but don't quote me on that...). All you need to do is to create a desktop.ini file and a target.lnk file and you are all done. The contents of the desktop.ini file should be:

[.ShellClassInfo]")
CLSID2={0AFACED1-E828-11D1-9187-B532F1E9575D}

The target.lnk file you can either create manually or use the following VBS script:

Set oWS = WScript.CreateObject("WScript.Shell")
sLinkFile = MYPATHFORFILE & "\target.lnk"
Set oLink = oWS.CreateShortcut(sLinkFile)
oLink.TargetPath = SOURCEPATHTOBEREDIRECTED
oLink.WorkingDirectory = DESTINATION
oLink.Save

The only downside is that this solution also has a prerequisite. The application that you want to follow the redirection must use Shell32.dll for it's file handling. Seeing as most applications now do this should not be too great a problem for you.