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Tales from the Script

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Tales from the Script provides friendly, easy-to-understand answers to common questions regarding system administration scripts, such as, “How do I run command-line tools from within a script?” and “How do I save my output to a text file?” If you’re a newcomer to scripting, Tales from the Script is a good place to start.

If there is a topic you’d like to see covered in Tales from the Script, just e-mail your suggestion to scripter@microsoft.com.

•	I’ll Get You, My Pretty…And We’ll Manage Windows Update, Too! July 2005 Managing Microsoft Windows Update services.

•	Whack! Scripting the Internet Explorer Popup Blocker June 2005 Administer Microsoft popup blockers through scripts.

•	Dude, Where’s My Printer? Using Scripts to Search Active Directory – Part 2 of 2 May 2005 More in-depth information on how to query Active Directory.

•	Dude, Where’s My Printer? Using Scripts to Search Active Directory – Part 1 of 2 April 2005 Learn how to create queries to search Active Directory.

•	Dsofile: The Untold Story March 2005 If you’ve been looking for an easy way to read from and write to file properties, this is the tool for you.

•	All You Need is Log (Well, Log Parser) January 2005 Log Parser is actually a really cool little utility, and it solves some pretty thorny scripting problems to boot.

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I Married Bigfoot. Oh: and Service Pack 2 Made My Computers Disappear.

November 2004
Good heavens! Did Windows XP Service Pack 2 make your computers disappear? Did Windows XP cause your entire IT infrastructure to vanish into thin air? Is it just a coincidence that no one has seen Amelia Earhart since Service Pack 2 was released?!?

•	Bugs Check in but They Don’t Check Out September 2004 Just because we might never be able to get rid of computer bugs for good, that doesn’t mean we can’t track down and exterminate individual bugs, particularly those lurking within our scripts.

•	Scripts Like a Good Argument July 2004 What we thought we’d do this month is talk about how you can use command-line arguments in your scripts.

•	What’s Wrong with My Script? January 2004 Provides tips and tricks for debugging those scripts that just don’t want to do what they’re supposed to.

•	If Scripting is Outlawed, Only Outlaws Will Have Scripts November 2003 Discusses how scripting can be used to make your computers and networks more secure. (Yes, we said more secure.)

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Scripting Environment: Transform Your Workstation into a Scripting Dynamo

September 2003
Shows you how to set up your administrative workstation so that you can run scripts effectively and take full advantage of the power of—take a deep breath now—Visual Basic Scripting Edition (VBScript), Windows Script Host (WSH), Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI), and Active Directory Service Interfaces (ADSI).

•	Script Output That Sticks Around April 2003 Demonstrates several easy ways to create more readable script output, and to create more permanent output, as well.

•	The Scripting Guide Giveaway: Everyone’s a Winner! February 2003 Provides a roadmap for working your way through the Microsoft Windows 2000 Scripting Guide.

•	A Brief Introduction to WMI Events January 2003 Provides an introduction to WMI events, a scriptable way to find out that something of interest has occurred on a computer.

•	Running WMI Scripts Against Multiple Computers November 2002 Shows how you can how you can modify the typical WMI scripts found in the Script Center to enable these scripts to run against multiple computers.

•	Running Programs From WSH Scripts October 2002 Shows how you can run command-line tools, executable programs, scripts, and anything else your heart desires from within a typical WSH script.

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