{"id":3379,"date":"2013-06-19T00:01:00","date_gmt":"2013-06-19T00:01:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.technet.microsoft.com\/heyscriptingguy\/2013\/06\/19\/dont-translate-file-and-folder-vbscript-scripts-into-powershell\/"},"modified":"2013-06-19T00:01:00","modified_gmt":"2013-06-19T00:01:00","slug":"dont-translate-file-and-folder-vbscript-scripts-into-powershell","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/scripting\/dont-translate-file-and-folder-vbscript-scripts-into-powershell\/","title":{"rendered":"Don't Translate File and Folder VBScript Scripts into PowerShell"},"content":{"rendered":"

Summary<\/strong>: Simplify your code and do not translate an old file and folder VBScript script into Windows PowerShell.<\/span>\n\"Hey, Hey, Scripting Guy! I know there are not really established patterns and practices for writing VBScript code, or even for writing Windows PowerShell script. But there is code that I like to use—over and over again. I am sending you a bit of code that I use anytime I need to find out if a folder exists. I am thinking of translating it to Windows PowerShell because I know that Windows PowerShell can work with COM objects, and I want to stay with things that I am familiar with. Is this a good idea or what?\n—KM\n\"Hey, Hello KM,\nMicrosoft Scripting Guy, Ed Wilson, is here. Today I am relaxing with a cup of Gunpowder green tea. I put a crushed cinnamon stick in the pot along with a bit of hibiscus flower, rose petal, and lemon grass. The tea is nearly perfect. Unfortunately, I am out of Anzac biscuits, so I am down to store-boxed Danish butter cookies. They are OK, but not really authentic.\nKM, speaking of things that are not really authentic…<\/p>\n

Translating VBScript code directly into Windows PowerShell results in Windows PowerShell script that is not really authentic Windows PowerShell script. Let me provide you with a quick example.<\/p>\n

Determine if a folder exists: the VBScript way<\/h2>\n

To determine if a folder exists by using VBScript, is not too bad of a task—especially if you have written the code a hundred times before. Then it will even seem familiar. <\/span>\nKM, it is not a great idea to translate VBScript code directly into Windows PowerShell because you lose much of the Windows PowerShell advantage for the sake of only a little bit of familiarity and comfort that comes with the old code. The technique uses the FolderExists<\/strong> method from the FileSystemObject<\/strong>. (This script comes from the Script Center Repository.)\nVerify that a folder exists<\/a>\nVBScript<\/p>\n

Set objFSO = CreateObject(“Scripting.FileSystemObject”)<\/p>\n

If objFSO.FolderExists(“C:FSO”) Then<\/p>\n

    Set objFolder = objFSO.GetFolder(“C:FSO”)<\/p>\n

Else<\/p>\n

    Wscript.Echo “Folder does not exist.”<\/p>\n

End If<\/p>\n

Translating VBScript into PowerShell<\/h2>\n

So, I could not find a direct version of the previous VBScript code in the Script Center Repository—that is probably a good thing. So you know what I did? I took about two minutes, and I pasted the VBScript script into the Windows PowerShell ISE. I then changed just a few things, and voila! I have a VBScript Windows PowerShell script. Not only that, but I went from six lines of code to four! Groovy. Here it is:\nVerify that a folder exists <\/strong>\nWindows PowerShell<\/p>\n

$objFSO = New-Object -ComObject “Scripting.FileSystemObject”<\/p>\n

If ($objFSO.FolderExists(“C:FSO”))<\/p>\n

    {$objFolder = $objFSO.GetFolder(“C:FSO”)}<\/p>\n

Else {Write-Host “Folder does not exist.”}\nThis is not the most egregious thing I have ever seen. Look at some of the stuff in the earlier examples of the series. But it is still is a shame because Windows PowerShell has a built-in cmdlet that tests paths.<\/p>\n

Note<\/strong>   As a Windows PowerShell best practice, if a Windows PowerShell cmdlet exists to do something, use that cmdlet. Do not revert to WMI, COM, or even .NET classes directly unless there is a very specific and compelling reason to not use the Windows PowerShell cmdlet.<\/p>\n

Use the Test-Path cmdlet<\/h2>\n

Ever since Windows PowerShell 1.0, there has been a Test-Path<\/strong> cmdlet. This cmdlet is awesome in its simplicity and its elegance. The following script duplicates the previous code in that it tests the path to a folder. If the folder exists, it returns the Folder<\/strong> object, and if it does not exist, it displays a string that the folder does not exist. Here it is:<\/p>\n

Use Test-Path: Windows PowerShell<\/p>\n

if(Test-Path c:fso)<\/p>\n

   {get-item c:fso}<\/p>\n

else {“Folder does not exist”}\nThere are a couple of differences. First there is no COM object to dispose of. Secondly, the VBScript code did not return an object. It created a folder object, and stored it in a variable, but it did not return the object. Here, I return the object, so there is feedback of the “connection,” and it permits further use of the folder.<\/p>\n

Create a folder<\/h2>\n

In VBScript, it was really easy to create a folder. In fact, it only required two lines of code: Create an instance of the FileSystemObject, and then call the CreateFolder method. This technique is shown here:\nCreate a Folder: VBScript<\/p>\n

Set objFSO = CreateObject(“Scripting.FileSystemObject”)<\/p>\n

Set objFolder = objFSO.CreateFolder(“c:fso”)\nHey, guess what? I can do exactly the same thing with Windows PowerShell. I can create an instance of the FileSystemObject <\/strong>and then call the CreateFolder<\/strong> method. This technique is shown here:\nCreate a Folder: Windows PowerShell<\/p>\n

$objFSO = New-Object -ComObject “Scripting.FileSystemObject”<\/p>\n

$objFolder = $objFSO.CreateFolder(“c:fso”)\nBut you know what? As simple as this code is, I can beat it. Here is all there is to create a folder in Windows PowerShell:<\/p>\n

md c:fso\nYep, that is right. Two letters, md<\/strong>, is all that is required to create a new folder in Windows PowerShell.<\/p>\n

Note<\/strong>   This is actually one of the first “problems” that I had with VBScript. In DOS, there was the MD command to create a folder. And although the VBScript is only two lines of code, it just did not seem like much of an upgrade to go from a two letter command to two lines of rather obscure code. MD<\/strong> is a function that is built-in to Windows PowerShell, and it brings back the ease-of-use of the old DOS command.\nKM, that is all there is to migrating a VBScript folder code to Windows PowerShell. Join me tomorrow when I will have a guest blog post written by Jonathan Tyler about working with event logs. It is good stuff that you will not want to miss. <\/span>\nI invite you to follow me on Twitter<\/a> and Facebook<\/a>. If you have any questions, send email to me at scripter@microsoft.com<\/a>, or post your questions on the Official Scripting Guys Forum<\/a>. See you tomorrow. Until then, peace.\nEd Wilson, Microsoft Scripting Guy<\/strong> <\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Summary: Simplify your code and do not translate an old file and folder VBScript script into Windows PowerShell.  Hey, Scripting Guy! I know there are not really established patterns and practices for writing VBScript code, or even for writing Windows PowerShell script. But there is code that I like to use—over and over again. I […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":596,"featured_media":87096,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[38,11,51,3,4,12,155,45],"class_list":["post-3379","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-scripting","tag-files","tag-folders","tag-getting-started","tag-scripting-guy","tag-scripting-techniques","tag-storage","tag-vbscript-migration","tag-windows-powershell"],"acf":[],"blog_post_summary":"

Summary: Simplify your code and do not translate an old file and folder VBScript script into Windows PowerShell.  Hey, Scripting Guy! I know there are not really established patterns and practices for writing VBScript code, or even for writing Windows PowerShell script. But there is code that I like to use—over and over again. I […]<\/p>\n","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/scripting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3379","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/scripting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/scripting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/scripting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/596"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/scripting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3379"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/scripting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3379\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/scripting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/87096"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/scripting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3379"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/scripting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3379"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/scripting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3379"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}