![\"Hey,](\"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/29\/2019\/02\/q-for-powertip.jpg\" "\\"Hey,")
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Hey, Scripting Guy! How can I mask passwords using an InputBox?<\/p>\n
— PG<\/p>\n
Hey, PG. If you\u2019re hoping to mask passwords using a function or method built into WSH or VBScript we\u2019re afraid you\u2019ll be disappointed; neither technology supports password masking. That doesn\u2019t mean you can\u2019t do it, it just means we\u2019ll have to look beyond the core scripting technologies.<\/p>\n If you\u2019re running Windows XP or Windows Server 2003, you can use ScriptPW<\/b> (a COM object found only in those two versions of Windows) to mask passwords from the command line. Here\u2019s a sample script that creates an instance of the ScriptPW.Password object and then uses the StdOut Write method to request that the user enter a password:<\/p>\n When you run this script, the message Please enter your password:<\/b> appears on the screen. At that point, the script will pause and wait for you to type in a password; you simply type the password and press ENTER. This line of code will then grab the password and store it in the variable strPassword:<\/p>\n For this simple script, we just echo back the password typed in to prove that the keystrokes really were<\/i> captured. We do this because with ScriptPW and the GetPassword() method, the keystrokes you type are not displayed onscreen. In other words, the password gets masked.<\/p>\n Of course, that\u2019s great if you\u2019re running Windows XP or Windows Server 2003. But what if you\u2019re running Windows 2000? How can you<\/i> mask passwords?<\/p>\n Well, some might consider it a bit of a hack, but you can call up a Web page and use the HTML password box to mask passwords. This column isn\u2019t really the place to discuss HTML tagging, so we won\u2019t give you a detailed explanation of how this all works. Instead, we\u2019ll just tell you that you need to do two things. <\/p>\n First, save the following as C:\\Scripts\\Password.htm (and yes, we want this to be an HTML page):<\/p>\n Next, save this code as a .vbs file (for example, Password.vbs):<\/p>\n So now<\/i> what do you do? Well, start Password.vbs. When you do this a Web page with a password box will pop up on screen. If you type a password and click OK<\/b>, the password you typed will be echoed to the screen (again, just to demonstrate that we\u2019re actually grabbing the password you typed.) If you click Cancel<\/b>, the script will simply end.<\/p>\n If you\u2019re looking for some more practical examples of both ScriptPW and HTML password boxes, you might want to check out the Remote\/Multiple computer templates<\/b><\/a> found in the Script Center. Here you\u2019ll find sample scripts that don\u2019t simply echo back passwords you enter; instead, they take those passwords and then use WMI\u2019s ConnectServer method or ADSI\u2019s OpenDSObject method to securely connect to remote computers.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n![\"Spacer\"](\"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/scripting\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/29\/2019\/05\/spacer.gif\")
![\"Hey,](\"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/29\/2019\/02\/a-for-powertip.jpg\" "\\"Hey,")
![\"Script](\"http:\/\/img.microsoft.com\/library\/media\/1033\/technet\/images\/scriptcenter\/ad.jpg\" "\\"Script")
<\/a> <\/p>\nSet objPassword = CreateObject(\"ScriptPW.Password\") \nWScript.StdOut.Write \"Please enter your password:\" \n\nstrPassword = objPassword.GetPassword() \nWscript.Echo\nWscript.Echo \"Your password is: \" & strPassword\n<\/pre>\n
strPassword = objPassword.GetPassword()\n<\/pre>\n
<SCRIPT LANGUAGE=\"VBScript\">\n\nSub RunScript\n OKClicked.Value = \"OK\"\nEnd Sub\n\nSub CancelScript\n OKClicked.Value = \"Cancelled\"\nEnd Sub\n\n<\/SCRIPT>\n\n<BODY>\n<font size=\"2\" face=\"Arial\">\nPassword: <\/font><font face=\"Arial\">\n<input type=\"password\" name=\"UserPassword\" size=\"40\"><\/font><\/p>\n\n<input type=\"hidden\" name=\"OKClicked\" size = \"20\">\n\n<input id=runbutton class=\"button\" type=\"button\" value=\" OK \" \nname=\"ok_button\" onClick=\"RunScript\">\n \n<input id=runbutton class=\"button\" type=\"button\" value=\"Cancel\" \nname=\"cancel_button\" onClick=\"CancelScript\">\n\n<\/BODY>\n<\/pre>\n
On Error Resume Next\n\nSet objExplorer = WScript.CreateObject _\n (\"InternetExplorer.Application\", \"IE_\")\n\nobjExplorer.Navigate \"file:\/\/\/C:\\Scripts\\password.htm\" \nobjExplorer.ToolBar = 0\nobjExplorer.StatusBar = 0\nobjExplorer.Width = 400\nobjExplorer.Height = 350 \nobjExplorer.Left = 300\nobjExplorer.Top = 200\nobjExplorer.Visible = 1 \n\nDo While (objExplorer.Document.Body.All.OKClicked.Value = \"\")\n Wscript.Sleep 250 \nLoop \n\nstrPassword = objExplorer.Document.Body.All.UserPassword.Value\nstrButton = objExplorer.Document.Body.All.OKClicked.Value\nobjExplorer.Quit\nWscript.Sleep 250\n\nIf strButton = \"Cancelled\" Then\n Wscript.Quit\nElse\n Wscript.Echo strPassword\nEnd If\n<\/pre>\n
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