From Book News, Inc.
Combining tutorial and practical elements, this book/CD-ROM package for system administrators explains how to automate Windows 2000 administrative tasks using scripting techniques. It clarifies important scripting concepts and technologies and shows how to use common scripting tools and techniques to complete routine tasks in core administrative areas in organizations of any size. The companion CD-ROM contains some 400 sample scripts, Microsoft Windows Script 5.6, a tool for expediting scriptwriting with WMI, and documentation for VBScript, JScript, and WSH.Copyright © 2004 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR


Book Description
Written by the Microsoft experts who know Windows 2000 scripting technologies best, this authoritative guide delivers the detailed information and examples that IT professionals need to automate system administration tasks and maximize their productivity.

FROM OUR EDITORS

The Barnes & Noble Review
You could perform the same Windows 2000 administration tasks over and over and over again. But why? You can script them. Microsoft Windows 2000 Scripting Guide doesn￯﾿ﾽt just introduce Microsoft￯﾿ﾽs increasingly powerful scripting technologies: It provides detailed scripts for everything from adding users to managing registries. Don't want to work from scratch? No sweat: The CD-ROM contains 400 samples.

Microsoft￯﾿ﾽs authors begin with thorough introductions to all five Win2K scripting technologies: VBScript, Windows Scripting Host, the Script Runtime library, Active Directory Services Interfaces (ADSI), and Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI). Then, using a refreshingly task-centered approach, they offer dozens of scripts for each core area of Windows administration.

Want to manage your computing assets more effectively? Here are scripts for retrieving system and BIOS information; remotely identifying installed apps and service packs; upgrading software; managing start-up and recovery; and more. Need better ways to manage those pesky log files? Here are scripts for backing up and clearing logs; querying and parsing them; retrieving any day￯﾿ﾽs entries; and writing new events. Here, too, are scripts for controlling printers, processes, services, and computer roles. Working in a large organization? Here￯﾿ﾽs how to scale your scripts for use with thousands of workstations and servers.

Most of these scripts are no more than 20 lines long. Many will require only slight -- or no -- modification for your environment. (You may want to add error handling. The authors show how). Gradually, you'll discover that Windows scripting isn't quite so fearsome -- and you￯﾿ﾽll wonder how you ever did without it. Bill Camarda

Bill Camarda is a consultant, writer, and web/multimedia content developer. His 15 books include Special Edition Using Word 2000 and Upgrading & Fixing Networks for Dummies, Second Edition.

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