Though old, still a tour de force in power scripting
Published in 2000, this book is still a guide to blockbuster scripting techniques. Though Dr. Weltner uses a lot of Visual Basic as well as VBScript, he shows you just how powerful elemental languages like these can be.
Dr. Weltner literally covers the waterfront in showing you just how extensively every aspect of Windows can be automated.
Every scripting library should have a copy of this book. It may be a bit old, but it is definitely an eye-opener. Personally I wish Dr. Weltner had written updates to this one.
Jerry
Excellent Choice
I purchased this book to become a better admin. I didn't have any programming experience, but after this book I can do so many great things with scripting and ASP. I really like the scripting primer in the beginning, it really give you a good foundation to work from. The only drawback that I don't like about the book is the author's use of his own COM objects. Many of the scripts and examples in the book can be performed with built in Windows Objects. But that's my only complaint.
The Secret is - He does it all in Visual Basic
Many things about this book I enjoyed a great deal. There is an abundance of dialog giving you tips, hints and help, great script examples showing proper scripting syntax and form, many sections that open you up to new possibilities with scripting by showing you COM object usage, as well as some invaluable development tools on the included CD-ROM.However, the books primary focus is on using VBScript as the control mechanism for other objects (ActiveX, COM, etc.). This is, of course, an important part of VBScript and without it one might as well script BAT files. But so much of this book is dedicated to teaching the reader how to use the many custom ActiveX control the author has written/included on the CD-ROM, as well as creating your own (using the Microsoft Visual Basic Control Creation Editor), that the book appears to be more of a manual for the ActiveX controls than a book on scripting. An ideal script is one where the script is a stand alone file and can run on a large number of computers using industry standard components when needed - not a script that requires you to create your own ActiveX components to do all of the work and distribute all of it with an installation package before it will run. So many of the author's "solution scripts" provided said solutions by calling Visual Basic controls rather than actual scripting - that at some points it would have been simpler to just write an application in VB and be done with it.
The book does touch on some industry standard objects, such as Internet Explorer, File System Object, WScript object, ADO, etc., but falls short of being a reference for the demonstrated objects, and at times raises more questions than it answers.
To sum up, the book is handy, a great resource for learning how to use ActiveX / COM objects in your scripts, and does have a lot of valuable information and included tools. I would not recommend this book if your goal is to learn more about the base language itself, but if your looking for a book that will teach you about using objects, this is a great title.
A Dangerous Book
This is truly a fantastic book. If you want to learn the guts of Windows 95/98/NT/2000 and how to do some super stuff, this is the book for you. Dr Weltner teaches you how to access objects from VB Script, including COM objects and internal Windows objects. He shows how to get object documentation directly out of your system (this is the same stuff that Visual Studio displays when you point to a specific command). And, this is great, he shows you how you can access the internal objects in Internet Explorer and use it for output displays. Every example is on the CD. He has also worked hard to provide a lot of objects that extend the functionality of the inherent Windows commands. The VB source code is available or you can directly install the COM objects he supplies. The writing is straight-forward - the first chapters really get into it and then he expands topics as he goes along. The index is great and quite large and it's pretty easy to find things. Until I read this book, I thought VB Script was VB without any claws. It seemed like such a useless language. Read this book and find out how to put VB Script on steroids - you can access EVERYTHING in Windows with it. Do NOT buy this book if you want to learn VB Script - get one of the 21 day or 24 hour books for that. Then read this book. This is a dangerous book - the knowledge in will give you internal knowledge of Windows as well as introduce you to the object world quickly.
Packed with tips on undocumented features
I unfortunately own three books on VBScript: two that I regret, and Weltner's book, which I should have just bought in the first place. I would have saved a hundred bucks.Weltner's book is packed with tips, undocumented features of WSH, 500 scripts on the CD-ROM, and lots of information about more advanced uses of VBScript such as Win32 access and using COM objects from scripts. Other books do not let you see the real power of the Windows Script Host, and they're so BORING. Weltner is fun to read.
I have to disagree with another reviewer: the lack of JScript in Weltner's book is such a GOOD thing. Keep in mind that if a WSH book does both VBScript and JScript, then there is wasted duplication (maybe half the book is just repeating the same thing but in JScript). You definitely want to learn VBScript instead so that your skills will port over to straight Visual Basic and IIS ASP pages. If you want JScript for client-side HTML pages, then you're looking for a different kind of book anyway. Besides, VBScript is easier for beginners to learn.
(15 reviews)
