My use is primarily PC control, i.e.
starting programs/jobs at certain
hours, do repetitive tasks. I've 3
servers and about 30 jobs that run regularly.
The ObjectOpen() functions made my life much easier
since I can do almost all my jobs in WinBatch, rather
than have WinBatch call MS Access/VB have it do
most of the work. I do a lot of reporting and I
can automate just about everything via WinBatch.
In most cases WinBatch is also many less lines
of coding than VB, i.e. with the recent virus problems
we had to deny customers access to our RAS system
unless they could provide the RAS admin with proof
of the latest McAfee engine and files. The previous
procedure was to fax in screen prints (and most
of our customers aren't PC-literate) which the admin
had to gather, collate and review. With the aid
of McAfee read-me I wrote an EXE that queried the
registry, emailed the RAS admin all the pertinent
info, which he can review quickly -- the EXE was
about 15 lines of code and took me 15 minutes to
write. The RAS admin was very very happy.
I haven't done a lot in software distribution but
I did automate Oracle Client installs
and some environment mods for our Problem Desk software.
WinBatch was able to do things that Wise couldn't
or that we didn't have the time to find out. I was
able to complete the Oracle Install program in a
single day.
If it wasn't for WinBatch I'd be learning UNIX
or VMS.
Hope this helps. —Jay
Hmm. A menu system to integrate DOS
batch files, DOS executables, win 16 programs, and
win32 programs. Provided the command line params
and/or environment setups as needed for each one.
Remote application / code snippet running,
with priorities and job queues and a remote job
status viewer.
A fun overkill paint program with
Todd
Renaming downloaded files, especially
mp3s, to fit my method. Done primarily in FileMenu,
although I toyed with the idea of a standalone WinBatch
program with templates (take files in format a and
convert to format f).
Lots of little quickie utilities.
Counting lines. Counting COBOL code
lines. Shifting lines over x (usually
6) spaces. Breaking files into multiple
other files. Hiding the Copying or
Moving box from Explorer (for large files), done
in PopMenu. Automate downloading email
from multiple boxes, newsgroup messages/files, reconnecting
to the Internet. Showing / hiding
windows that you may need up but don't want taking
space.
Wrote a slow code cracker in it once.
Not recommended due to the speed, but it was good
for a prototype. I even added stop and resume features.
Tested considerable API stuff
without firing up VC. Some things are too awkward,
but it's a fun way to poke around without getting
into serious trouble, or having the powerful but
tiresome VC IDE.
Wrote a volume adjuster for WinAmp (and a few other
mp3 players) that let you adjust the base volume
on a per song basis. That saved me fiddling with
the volume or hurting my ears. Unfortunately it
was too inefficient to be satisfying due to the
frequent polling for song changes.
—JRC
My focus is mainly data manipulation.
I probably overuse WinBatch in this area but it
is easy to work with and gets the job done. I've
written utilities to verify URL's
which are stored in databases, an SQL script
management tool, a batch e-mail program
which can send out e-mail from a variety of sources
and in a variety of forms and also an AutoEntry
utility which can be used to automate
the update/insert/deletion of data (as well
as almost any other repetitive task) by utilizing
an application's interface. This last utility is
especially useful when SQL updates are not practical.
It probably has some similarities to the AutoIt
program mentioned under the Customer Service section
but it is written in WinBatch and has a focus on
Data Manipulation.
In the interest of shameless, self-promotion, these
utilities are available for free to any interested
parties. http://www.jtdata.com/download.html
—JT
Highlights from my own personal "1001 ways to
skin a cat, er, manage Windows, er, manage NetWare,
etc..."
1) Automate numerous system administration
tasks in the daily operations of Windows
NT and NetWare servers. Includes managing
user accounts, checking on the status
of system backups, checking disk
space utilization, etc.... Also used to
interrogate a system to learn about how
it is configured and to check the status/availability
of a server or services running on a server.
2) Augment the capabilities of ZenWorks to allow
really complicated software distribution
tasks to be completed 100% automatically (or is
that automagically) and 100% correct every time.
Things like modifying the WinNT global search
path (via the registry) when an application
gets distributed w/o destroying the existing contents
of the search path, customizing software
with mainframe terminal id numbers based on the
workstation's name, etc...
3) Data manipulation. Special purpose,
one-shot scripts. I "cut my teeth" on OpenVMS (well,
it was VAX/VMS back then) and I used DCL script
extensively (tactical thermo-nuclear DCL) to manage
my VAX and Alpha systems. WinBatch is the single
Windows based scripting language that comes close
to matching DCL for flexibility and ease of use.
Special scripts to massage a BOOTPTAB file from
a UNIX system and then automatically load it into
the WinNT DHCP manager via the Control Manager extender
is one example. Numerous other things like Control
Manager extender based scripts that drive
the NetWare SAA gateway and Microsoft
SNA Server configuration programs to automatically
create and configure 1000's of unique mainframe
terminal resources w/o a lot of manual mousing &
typing.
4) Automated desktop operating system administration
for Win9x and WinNT workstation. Includes registry
hacking, control panel applet hacking
with the Control Manager extender, automated Win9x
login to a network (similar to WinNT
admin auto logon feature), file manipulation,
etc...
5) Dedicated software distribution tasks to be
performed in the absence of ZenWorks or SMS (if
SMS can really be counted at all as a software distribution
tool).
6) Custom integration of disparate
applications so that one application (an ISP billing/provisioning
package) can manage user accounts in multiple operating
systems, mail servers and RADIUS servers.
7) Automated file transfers, renames,
etc... of .JPG files from a flash RAM card on my
digital camera to my local hard drive.
8) More data and file manipulation to convert
text and HTML data for my Dungeons & Dragons
character sheets that get printed from Core Rules
2.0 Expansion but don't naturally come out in a
really useful format.
9) Back a few years ago I used WinBatch to prepare
Win3.1 systems for an automated upgrade to
Win95 OSR2 by performing an extensive "pre-flight
check" of the Win3.1 installation, the NetWare VLM
client, the network adapters and the local machine's
resources. This was done to make sure that it was
100% safe to do the Win9x upgrade and it was done
w/o any assistance from a IS department tech; the
end user could schedule the upgrade to happen at
a certain time and then it did happen. The WinBatch
scripts kept the IT folks up to date as to who was
upgrading and when and what the results were.
10) With Telnet client functionality implemented
in a WinBatch script I also perform some automated
system management of midrange UNIX and OpenVMS
systems.
11) More data manipulation with the
ODBC extender and the OLE
functions. A script takes 1000's of preventative
maintenance instruction sheets stored as rows in
an Access database, extracts them
row by row, reassembles them as a coherent document,
reformats the text, stuffs the text into a Word
97 document and then uniquely saves each PM document
under a proper title.
12) Yet another data manipulation
script. This one takes text files for disk
space fragmentation reports from an OpenVMS
system and parses the report files and strips the
data out and stores it in an Access database. This
allows the report files that accumulate over a period
of time to be analyzed in Excel 97 to look for trends
in the level of disk space and file fragmentation
on a per-volume basis. This type of analysis is
not possible with discrete report files but is possible
with a database where the data is accumulated over
time.
13) Automatic documentation generator.
This script reads comments in C/C++ source code
and using tags similar to HTML extracts documentation
from the functions in the source code. Allows documentation
to be refreshed after source code updates w/o having
to maintain documentation separately. Makes sure
that full documentation exists within the source
code for ready reference while performing maintenance
coding yet still it allows separate documentation
to be maintained for quick reference purposes.
14) Search and replace utility for
managing automated finding and replacing of text
in various types of files. Based on the file searcher
extender and some other stuff.
15) General automation of repetitive tasks
involving Windows applications. Uses OLE, Control
Manager and DDE functionality in WinBatch to do
this on a regular basis. Automated control of the
creation of PDF files with Adobe Acrobat, automated
management of establishing VPN connections and subsequent
fixing of the WinNT IP static route table, etc...
16) Automated web scraping of mail.com email account.
17) Checking of POP3 mailbox for
large attachments while traveling and using a dial-up
Internet connection (slow) vs. home office use of
ADSL connection (fast). Detection of mail messages
with attachments prompts me to not allow my mail
client to start downloading mail messages if I'm
not going to be able to wait for the download to
complete.
18) Automated conversion of audio
tracks on CD's into MP3 files. Automated play list
compilation for WinAmp. Working on accepting commands
via the serial port (Infrared) from a hand held
remote control unit to allow WinAmp to be directed
(via WinBatch) from anywhere in my house. Having
a 60GB library of MP3's and the ability to play
any of them at any time w/o doing more than pressing
a button is going to be a nice feature.
19) Automated management of some older PDA's
(Sharp Zaurus) via the Serial extender. The Zaurus
gets automatically detected by having the script
send a "hello" packet out each serial port and waiting
for a valid response. This in turn allows certain
features in Win9x and WinNT (like UPS support, serial
mouse) to be disabled on that port so as not to
interfere with the functioning of the Zaurus and
its desktop link software.
20) Automated extraction of GroupWise
appointments and tasks via OLE for subsequent transfer
to a Sharp Zaurus. Data manipulation is involved
to take the extracted data and put it into a format
suitable for importing into a Sharp Zaurus PDA.
21) Other TCP/IP socket programming,
serial port programming and smtp/pop
related custom communications tasks.
That's what comes to mind right now. I'm sure others
will come to mind while I'm sleeping tonight. I'll
post again if new ones turn up in the morning.
—CC
Another use of WinBatch.
One of my tasks at work is to make security
changes that can affect from 1 to 2,200
Users.
Prior to making the changes, I send out an E-mail
to all the affected Users so that they are aware
of the changes.
I use WinBatch to go into our User database, extract
the affected User ID's, create an E-mail listing
the changes, and post out the E-mail using Microsoft
Outlook.
This used to be a manual process, now it takes
one click of the mouse-button and it's done automatically.
What used to take nearly an hour now takes five
minutes.
Apart from that, I use it for just about everything
else that is not a once-off run.
—Casman.
I never even HEARD of WinBatch before 2 months
ago, literally. My background is in UNIX and VMS.
I've come to adore DCL and PERL for their ease of
use and interpretive nature. I also enjoy working
with C because of power as a programming language.
But with all that said, I LOVE WinBatch! Since
I looked at my first code snippet two months ago,
I was absolutely amazed by this scripting tool.
For Windows based programming, this is definitely
going to be my first programming tool of choice.
It's very easy to use, very easy to learn (if you
have programming experience... and even if you don't,
since the code is very easy to decipher), and there
are functions that are predefined that make life
so much easier.
Sure, there are some things that I DON'T like about
WinBatch. (And to be fair, I will list a couple
of things) * The Help files are a bit confusing,
especially with some of the examples. * Not being
able to create menus (but I'll live).
(I am using 97D, so I'm not sure how much things
have progressed since then. We are upgrading to
a more recent version once we push out what is currently
in production.)
I mostly use WinBatch for software install
automation. That is it's primary function
here. I've also written little utilities for parsing
data, modifying files, and just yesterday
wrote a thousandths placer format routine. One of
the bigger tasks was writing a GUI that
our helpdesk can use to monitor remote workstations
and do some preventive maintenance on them as well.
WinBatch is definitely a tool that once I get a
few more paychecks, is going on my workstation at
home.
—CAS
P.S. One last rave... I love the way you can manipulate
windows and do API calls very simply with
WinBatch. Keep up the good work, folks!
Another use:
I started with WinBatch 95 and was previously a
VMS guy who used DCL. I've written many NT services
in WinBatch. Services pose some particular challenges
do debug - especially with older versions of WB.
- One project included a remote installation
GUI with a service to provide automatic
failure of DHCP servers should the primary become
unavailable. DHCP is one of the few MS services
that have no fault tolerance. Service periodically
pushed the backup database to as many as 5 participant
servers. Stand-by servers were able to load a very
recent DHCP database and continue operation. GUI
had to remotely the service remotely to all servers
involved and check many settings related to DHCP.
- I've written a software distribution
system that uses user groups and WB to centrally
administer all software distribution for several
thousand NT workstations for several of my customers.
Many of the customers' users are in manufacturing
and the users have no rights on the workstation.
This system relies on a service running on all workstation
with local admin privs to install software, perform
virus updates and track software inventory for licensing
as well as hardware inventory. I use WinBatch to
program the support staff management side of this
and remote software installation. I've used nearly
every function in the NT extender extensively. The
HW inventory used WinMetric() calls, the IPGrabber
extender and lots more. This system started out
in WB95 when I spent hours looking for NT command
prompt utils that I could pipe to a file. Over the
years, I've been able to retire most of these utils,
preferring to use new WB extensions.
- I've used WB for one-off programs
to migrate several thousand users from one domain
to another. Also used it to audit account
domains - to check for adherence to user
account standards and to alter, en mass, terminal
server user profile settings (thousands at a time).
WB lets us automate things that would take man-months
of manual work. There is no doubt that WB is so
capable and so extensive a language that we have
to be very thoughtful how we use it. There are very
few corners of Windows that it cannot access.
We have enough power to cause massive damage if
we delve into things like full scale account database
changes, automatic service installation, automated
process termination and such.
Since you're asking let me give you some of the
most important additions (as I see it):
- Adding a real debugging environment has been
the most important addition. - Adding tracing to
a log file has made debugging services much less
tiring. Since NT4 SP4 (I believe) we can now create
a service that connects to the network with credentials
and has access to the desktop (interactive service).
It would be very nice to have a "WinBatch Studio"
service and I've thought about using SRVANY to start
WBStudio in the same security context as the service
I'm developing to make debugging easier. - The removal
of variable space limitations. Buffer manipulation
is terrible at best. List variable are great. -
The continuous improvement of existing extenders.
I have made a habit of checking for new versions
of DLLs moments before I need a function I know
is not in WinBatch, simply because I've assumed
I knew what WB was capable of, written a program
(the hard way), only to discover that a new extender
was out that solved my problem. VChecker was very
welcome to speed this process.
- Please keep working on the AD extender. We need
a way to easily access AD contents. Please keep
it as simple as the current NT extender to understand
and use.
- Please enhance the CPU extender. - How about
a performance monitor extender that allow us to
access performance counters by the counter names
and classes seen in perfmon.exe.
Bottom line - I've made a decent living in the
last few years at least in part because of my knowledge
and use of your product. I'm not a programmer, I'm
a network consultant, but I've done several things
with WB for my customers that I would not even have
attempted with any other product or tool available
today.
—JG
I use WinBatch a lot for tasks around the lab.
Often new equipment comes with software which doesn't
do quite what you want and you are faced with two
options: Write new software or use the limited software.
That's where WinBatch comes in. I often make
better interfaces with the dialog editor
which accomplish many task at once. Also I use it
to string together a whole army of "limited" software
packages to accomplish various tasks. For example:
Automated Laser beam profiling -------------------------------
- WinBatch calls a program to move a CCD camera
into the path of the beam. - WB calls another program
to take an intensity profile. - WB does some computing
to decide if this is a worthy beam - if so it send
the intensity profile to a graphical package for
some massaging then WB creates an HTML page with
the exported picture. - if not a worthy beam, it
moves the camera to the new location it predicts
will be worthy and tries again
WinBatch allowed two of us to put together this
gizmo in a few months. It really helped speed along
this proof of concept project.
I also use WB to reformat data files from
various lab instruments so that I can use pre-existing
code to do data analysis. This saves tons of time
since re-writing the C code for every possible file
type from all the various instruments would be a
hopeless task. Now I just re-arrange everything
with a few lines in WB.
With the new GPIB extender I plan to take a more
active role in controlling the instruments directly
rather than with that poor "limited" software I
referred to.
If I had one wish it would be to be have a graphing
window display while I control these instruments
so I can see what's happening while collecting data.
(A window which stays open and refreshes everytime
a data point is added to the file? Haven't thought
about it much yet. Something like an API or can
I already use APIs??) I'm not sure this is possible,
but you can prove me wrong. (Please do!)
It's a great tool and you should work on reaching
the lab crowd. Everyone I've recommended it to in
labs, absolutely loves it!!
Thanks, —CS
I do really appreciate you need of understanding
why WinBatch is an excellent tool to work with!
I am a current user of WinBatch 97D and getting
the latest version, would improve my work a lot!
With all the answers you receive, this will definitely
help me to convince my boss to pay for the upgrade.
*********************
Now as for me, I primarily used it for tasks
automation. And it's great!
Here is my most recent application: Since 3 months
I have a new job. As an it professional, I want
to do things efficiently.
The guy I was replacing was very badly organized
and in the network, the documents were placed everywhere
with no structure!
So then going to each computers looking through
each folders and ... was a hell of a job!
So I created a script that scan's the computer's
Hard Drive, looks for all folders that contains
up to 10 file extensions and then creates an batch
(.bat) file containing the xcopy command
with the appropriate switches (One batch file for
all the xcopy's).
This script save me days of work. Worth a couple
of hundred bucks!!
Nut it's not all, all the help I received for the
guys at this web board is a lot more valuable then
the actual price of WinBatch!
I give a big thanks to Marty for all the help I
received for him. And thanks to all of you guy's!!
You make my job a lot easier!
PS: Sorry for my bad English!
—RG
Well I use WinBatch anytime I think it will be
hard to explain to an average user or when I need
something that need to be done 100 of times.
I also customize "standard" tools
like EDI converter, interfaces there is always a
point where you need to act.
a) ftp copying to interface with
UNIX machines or hide the software depot to users.
b) data manipulation c) Write a lot
of automation programs for SAP R3. d) PC deployment
and update e) NT login script
f) backup in zipped manner for average
user g) generate PDF h) automatic conversion
of data I) send mail to make me now something
is going wrong in an app. j) let user mail instead
of faxing without knowing it k) some OLE with anita
to automate unix app in VT220 mode (I guess I will
do it it on a host in 3270 real soon). l) read bar-codes
in serial mode (but I do really prefer Delphi and
Async Pro by now)
—DG
I work in the technical development area for a
bank. We have 850 NT 4.0 servers in 850 locations
throughout the South Eastern US. Yes, this is a
lot of servers - when we designed the new system
it was believed (by some) that the cost of a WAN
would be excessive (after all, the old system managed
to do everything on a time sliced 56K line to the
mainframe) and so we have 850 independent domains/servers
to manage through modems. We are in the process
of converting the branches to a WAN.
The largest system we have designed using WinBatch
is a software delivery/file movement system.
This system delivers program updates to 850
branches and is comprised of 10 programs
that interact with each other.
Another major system keeps the data tables used
in the branches up to date. There are 5 primary
data files downloaded to the servers nearly every
night and loaded into MSSQL tables. There are another
65 tables that are updated with programs written
in WinBatch.
Three years ago we designed a software auditing
system in WinBatch. We are lucky in that
all of our servers and workstations in the branches
run the same set of software. The system scans each
server and workstation for specified file types,
compares them against a list of programs that should
be present and then returns the data to a central
location. Another WinBatch program is used to compile
the audit results from each server into
seven reports. From those reports we can tell what
software is missing, if software has been loaded,
etc.
Another system designed in WinBatch was a release
(software update) tracking system.
Each release is given a unique name. The system
took messages returned from the 850 servers and
compiled so that we could instantly tell when a
site did not load a release correctly, what sites
had loaded a particular release, etc. That system
was used for about 2 months until communication
problems rendered it useless - the programs worked
and compiled the data that was returned but not
all of the data was always returned.
A program I recently wrote in WinBatch interfaces
to a transmission program called XCOM that allows
me to create a series of jobs to send and execute
a batch file on an set of desired servers.
Another cute program that we wrote in WinBatch
allows us to encoded a password into
a series of numbers based on a cute algorithm -
the encoded password can then be loaded on remote
systems. We use this to change the main system passwords
on all 850 servers.
We have written several programs to script the
installation of GUI based programs
when we did not trust the users to type in information
correctly. In addition, a workstation backup and
restore system based around the product NovaDisk
(from NovaStor) was scripted using WinBatch so that
the user only had to click one button to start the
restore.
Many of the programs written make use of WinBatch's
ability to manipulate the registry of NT,
95 and 98 systems.
Some of the more useful little programs include
a program to change the time and date stamp
on any file - extremely useful when doing
time/date based testing. We just used the
Windows NT networking extender to change the sign
on account for a service to another account.
My favorite commands center around the File
handling, list manipulation and string
manipulation. There are so many useful things
that can be so easily with these commands.
In the past 4 years we have written about 200 different
programs to support the branch servers, update data,
move files, etc. Out of the 200 program I would
venture that 175 of them are in WinBatch.
—PM
Hello,
WinBatch is everywhere !!! Login Scripts,
Software distribution, ASCI
to SQL conversion for dB uploads, software
startup checks, version control,
filescanning over all NT clients, ...... it's just
everywhere and I guess once you've got it in your
network, you never get it out anymore :-), no virus
scanner can hold it !! :-)
—AV
I have no programming formation, but I developed
a commercial application I distribute
to health professionals. I have a DOS version completely
developed in compiled batch files (using BATCOM).
After unsuccessful attempts to work with contracted
programmers, I discovered WinBatch and developed
the Windows version myself.
I LOVE working with WinBatch. I used it for my
installation routine, CD production and so on. I
also use it for:
1) Automatic conversion of documents
from different formats: .DOC >> .PDF ASCII >> ANSI
ASCII >> HTML 2) Automatic creation of ZIP
files 3) Merging DATA between
multiple PCs 4) Automatization of
numerous tasks...
—RC
stuff I've used WBT for:
* a big complicated program to automate outbound
faxing for my users. handles graphics conversions,
logging, a bunch of stuff.
* another complete graphics app that works by "controlling"
other apps. has evolved into complete company document
imaging/storage/retrieval app.
* many many smallish utilities. Esp Internet
related things, like check that web page is working,
check that DNS server is working, check that e-commerce
server is working, send email with attachments.
over 50 programs in production use.
In many cases, I've grafted in a perl routine to
handle things WBT does poorly. wish I didn't have
to.
In general I REALLY wish there was some better
acknowledgment that seriously large programs get
written in WBT (for better or worse), and the language
needs features to support that. (See my many messages
in your wish-list pile).
Thanks for asking this question! Just knowing that
someone is thinking about what we use wbt for makes
me feel like there might be some future structural
improvements!
—KM
Hi, I am a farmer and use it for milking cows
and collecting potatoes mainly. I'm waiting for
the tractor extender.
Here some stuff I use it for in my spare time as
a system administrator.
* Novell Administration (mainly ZENWorks)
The free Zenworks-Starter-Pack for Application-Management
does not support complex conditions for execution
and installation. WinBatch does the job $7000 cheaper
and better. We do Printer installation on the fly
Distribute Apps, Files, Rights to Remote Sites at
nighttime error-correction scripts run at login
* Menu-System for Citrix Metaframe
Apps with rights based on Domain-Groups.
* Web-Redirection Tool for Citric
Metaframe. (Allows hyperlinks or double-clicks to
be executed on the local machine and not on the
Metaframe machine)
* GUI for the cheap F-Prot DOS virus-scanner
with ftp-auto-update of signature files
* synchronize directory trees at
nighttime.
* analyze logfiles (a pain !!)
* several sendkey-scripts for Database-Backups
(Navision Financials etc.) runs for 14 months now
surprisingly without errors
* complete setup-routines with
registry updates OCX-register etc. for third
party companies
* Several conversion-utils for textfiles
* A GUI for the outstanding Russian Remote Control
Tool RAdmin.
* A Printer-Driver that creates a
GroupWise Mail-Attachment as PDF-File with Ghostscript.
* Converts PlotFiles to Tiff with
spicer Imagination and sends them to an OCE-Plotter.
(Saved $25000 because could buy cheaper plotter
when file conversion is done on a PC) * kick any
Software that can read the commandline
* Do bad things like close programs
on users machines or kick them out of the
system.
I love WinBatch, but there a some things that really
slow down my work: Most important: Why is there
no context sensitive help in WinBatch Studio ? If
I press F1 I get the WinBatch Studio Helpfile and
not the WIL helpful. I had to replace it. (It's
a pity: The WIL-Helpfile ist really great with all
the nice samples in it !!)
Editor note: For context sensitive help - place
cursor on function and either right-click or push
Shift+{F1}. Insert WIL functions by right-clicking
and selecting Insert WIL Function.
Very useful: a syntax highlighting like VB. I know
about 200 Functions now, but I always forget the
number and order of arguments. Do you plan to Integrate
WinBatch into Visual Studio 7 like Active State
does with perl ?
Useful: a Dropdown combo showing all the subroutines.
One of my larger scripts has about 600 lines and
15 subroutines. Here I get really lost.
No grep: I think most customers use WinBatch for
some kind of system administration. And I bet that
they all have heaps of ASCII logfiles. But WinBatch
cannot extract any patterns working with regular
expressions. to extract warnings from a big logfile
a send them to the admin. There is not even an easy
way to do a binary search/replace with wildcards.
For this I still have to use perl, ugh ! I recommend
to create an interface extender to ygrep a very
stable DLL from a French guy.
—DP
Lots of stuff. I have been aware of WinBatch for
years now, but I never really gave it a good shake
until a year ago. After a month of playing, I had
that check for WinBatch and compiler written and
sent! Some recent uses:
* a new NT login script that maps
drives, checks for updates
to software, verifies virus definition dates.
* a small program that allows users to press PrtScn
over and over and captures the images
in a folder on their desktop.
* An upgrade utility that upgraded
our mainframe emulation program, upgraded our anti-virus
program, renamed the workstation, and deleted all
of the temporary files out of the Temp folder.
* a registry hack that solved a pesky
problem for us (but who trusts users to go into
the registry?) -- I trust WinBatch!
* I am working on an app that sticks an icon in
the system tray, the user clicks on it and a form
pops up that they fill out with a problem and it
gets dispatched to the I/S dept. (where we can immediately
choose to ignore)
Wow, I have to agree, it's worse than a virus...
I worked here very happily for a year without WinBatch...
but my replacement will HAVE to learn it! It's everywhere!
.
Thanks for your thoughts.