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 »

Microsoft’s new image format is poised to compete with JPEG. Windows Media Photo was announced yesterday at WinHEC 2006, along with a comparison that favored WMP over JPEG and JPEG 2000 at 24:1 compression. With any luck, WMP will succeed where JPEG 2000 failed. WM Photo support will be included in Windows Vista, and as an upgrade to Windows XP. 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 »

The rumor started with the authoritative headline “60% of Windows Vista Code To Be Rewritten“. Although the article doesn’t offer any detailson how the 60% estimate was reached, the story quickly spread. I agree with Alec Saunders’ assertion that this figure is hogwash. Read the rest of this entry »