Scripting Blog [archived]

Formerly known as the "Hey, Scripting Guy!" blog

How Can I Determine if a Users’ Folder Exists on a Computer?

(image) Hey, Scripting Guy! How can I determine if the C:\Documents and Settings\%username%\Application Data\Microsoft\Templates folder exists on a computer?-- JM(image) (image) (image) Hey, JM. The FileSystemObject includes a FolderExists method that makes it very easy to check for the existence of a folder. Just pass FolderExists the ...

How Can I Sort the Contents of a Text File?

(image) Hey, Scripting Guy! I have a text file that contains a list of computer names. How can I sort that file alphabetically?-- LR(image) (image) (image) Hey, LR. If we wanted to take the easy way out we’d just tell you, “Sorry, you can’t do that.” And we could get away with that because none of Microsoft’s scripting ...

How Can I Write Binary Data to the Registry?

(image) Hey, Scripting Guy! How can I write binary data to the registry?-- FG(image) (image) (image) Hey, FG. WMI’s Standard Registry Provider includes a method - SetBinaryData - that makes it relatively easy to write binary data to the registry. There’s one little catch to be aware of, but we’ll let you know what that is. First, ...

How Can I Read Text From a File and Then Rename the File Using the Text I Just Read?

Guy! I would like to be able to open a file, read the first 10 characters, and then rename the file to those 10 characters plus a .txt file extension. How can I do that?-- KA(image) (image) (image) Hey, KA. Ah, for once a text file question that can be answered without some weird and convoluted workaround. This is actually pretty easy: we ...

How Can I Tell Whether a Web Page is Accessible?

(image) Hey, Scripting Guy! How can I tell whether or not a Web page is accessible?-- JW(image) (image) (image) Hey, JW. To tell you the truth, these are the kinds of questions we hate, questions where we don’t know the answer off the top of our heads but where it seems like there ought to be a way to do this. Sometimes in the world of ...