Winter Scripting Games: Profiles in Perfection
Jarno Mäki
As part of the 2008 Winter Scripting Games the Script Center is profiling competitors who recorded a perfect score in the 2007 Scripting Games. Here, in his own words, is a little something about Jarno Mäki, who received a perfect score in the VBScript Advanced division.
Check out more Profiles in Perfection from the 2007 Scripting Games.
Jarno Mäki
My name is Jarno Mäki and I work as an ICT trainer, Lead Consultant and Development Manager at the IT Education Center (http://www.iteducate.fi) in Helsinki, Finland.
I spend most of my time with Microsoft System Center products like Configuration Manager and Operations Manager, but I also train people to use VBScript and PowerShell. I do lots of consulting, and I often find myself suggesting to customers, “Hey, you could write a script for that.” My background is highly GNU/Linux-oriented. With GNU/Linux I found out that using only keyboard is much more productive than wondering which button to click. I have nicknamed the GUI the “click and you might win” interface, because you can occasionally achieve your goal by clicking the buttons without knowing what you are really doing.
I have a shared blog called MCTBlogi (http://www.iteducate.fi/mctblogi/) that I write with our MCT trainers. Cleverly, the blog is written in Finnish; that means that only about five million people in this planet can understand it.
A few scripting tips:
Keep your scripts in the right place
I often have a problem: I need to do a script and I know I wrote one a couple of years ago, but I have no idea where it is. I suggest you keep a copy of every script you write in a place you can remember.
The wheel has already been invented
There is no need to write a script if there’s already a command prompt command to do the task. For example, if you need to write an event to Event Log, just call EventCreate.exe using the Run or Exec method.
Use HTAs
I admit that command prompt scripting can be quite boring, especially for users that you delegate administrative responsibilities. Customers are happier with a GUI (click and you might win…) than with the command prompt.
