Nathan’s Blog

Before .NET and PowerShell were dreamt of, VBScript and COM objects were the most powerful scripting tools available in a vanilla Windows install. Using Microsoft’s default facilities is worthwhile because it obviates the need to deploy additional software and cope with that software’s life cycle and incompatibilities. For instance, a script written for Windows 2000 is likely to continue working in Windows Server 2008 x64 Edition. I use PowerShell/.NET for Windows scripting now, but I still regularly use VBScripts which are several years old. Here are several of these simple scripts. Read the rest of this entry »

Yesterday Microsoft released their new command shell, Windows PowerShell (via Aaron Tiensivu). This next-generation shell offers an administrative environment that strives to replace a jumble of administrative commands with a consistent, extensible interface. Read the rest of this entry »

A:\File\by\Any\Other\Name would smell as sweet… Symbolic links have been a *NIX staple since the earliest iterations. Windows finally began supporting the concept with NTFS5, introduced in Windows NT4SP4 and included with Windows 2000. Unfortunately Windows built-in toolset is somewhat lacking, and there are a few gotchas. Read the rest of this entry »