| Welcome to Microsoft® Windows® Administrator’s Automation Toolkit. This book is designed to help you quickly automate over 100 common Windows administrative tasks. In some cases, I show you how to automate tasks using existing tools such as those included with the Windows operating system or those available for download from the Web. In many other cases, however, I provide you with tools that I designed to help you get the job done. These tools are all written in Microsoft Visual Basic® Scripting Edition (VBScript), and execute under the Windows Script Host (WSH), which is included with the Windows operating system. Just because these tools are written in VBScript doesn’t mean that you need to know anything about scripting. In fact, I’ve purposely written the tools in a format that allows you to simply run them as command-line tools, meaning that you don’t need to encounter any scripting at all. However, because the tools are written in VBScript, you have the option of opening them up in Microsoft Notepad or in another script editor and making changes to them, extending their capabilities, and so forth. In fact, I’ll even give you some pointers for doing that in the first few chapters.
Administrative automation is rapidly becoming a hot topic in many organizations. Today’s “do more with less” economy rewards companies—and administrators—who can become more efficient through the automation of day-to-day administration or other time-consuming tasks. Too many administrators, however, just don’t have the time to learn a scripting language, making it difficult for them to boost their efficiency through automation. That’s where this book comes in—it provides you ready-to-run tools for a number of automation tasks. |
