Rating: 
Summary: Actually quite good
Review: Having actually bought and read this book cover to cover I can say it is actually quite good. It is one of two scripting books I use all the time. I used it when I was starting out with windows scriptting and I still use it. I've found it to be excellent, definitely for beginning to advanced. If you're already a scripting expert you don't need the book. You probably don't need anybook if your an expert on this.Chapter by chapter the book works through windows scripting Chapter 1 introduces windows scripting. It shows you the key objects for wsh, vbscript and jscript. The coverage of both vbscript and jscript is unique to this book. Stanek does an excellent job of providing every script in both. Chapter 2/3 introduce vbscript and jscript. They are a perfrect primer for newbies as I was and I've used them as refreshers lately. Chapter 4 covers techniques for creating script files. i found the discussion on using multiple scripts in a single file and script jobs to be particularly useful as was the discussion on using external objects and type libraries. Chapter 5 covers essentials in both vbscript and jscript. Chapter 6 covers i/o and error handling. Great discussion on input boxes, text boxes and popups. Excellent discussion on error handling, particularly with technqiues for throwing errors in jscript. Chapter 7 covers the FSO. It shows how to examine, create, add, remove folders and files. Good discussion on special files and moving files/folders. Chapter 8 covers reading and writing files. The discussion is made more valuable as it is in both vbscript and jscript as are all examples. Chapter 9 covers managing printers, mapping network drives, and working with disk drives. Solid example scripts on obtaining drive information and formatting in useful way. Good discussion on mapping network printers. Chapter 10 covers managing the menu system. It shows how to manipulate shortcuts, update menus, add startup applications. Chapter 11 covers the registry and event logs. It shows you how to read/write registry keys and values, how to modify existing keys and values. Excellent follow on discussion on controlling WINS and DHCP from the regisry. Very thorough script examples on working with the event logs and generating event logs reports. 3-page sample script on creating HTML reports. It works wonderfully, and there's a detailed examination of how it works. Chapter 12 covers scheduling scripts from the command line. It focuses on Task Scheduler and AT but doesn't cover the new schtasks. The most interesting part of the discussion is on schediling tasks and then logging success or failure in the event logs. Provides a 3-page scheduling manager script for managing multiple scripts on multiple systems. Chapter 13 covers startup, shutdown, logon, logoff scripts. Good detail on how group policy works and how the scripts are applied. Chapter 14-15 cover ADSI and ADSI schema scripting in extensive detail. It is a good primer on all the possibilities. Chapter 16 covers using ADSI to examine and work with computer and account settings. Shows how to set domain account policies, local computer properties. The best discussion is on creating and modifying user accounts. Listing locked and disabled accounts, and then unlocking and enabling them. Provides a 3-page script called account management. Shows how to track group membership and change group membership. Chapter 17 covers managing windows services, viewing memory/RAM usage. As throughout the book very complete tables on the options and services available. Detailed discussion on viewing service settings and depencies from scripts. 3-page script called the service troubleshooter helps solve service problems. Quite possibly the basis for "Restart Service" feature in W2k3. 5-page script called service manager controls shows how to control services. Completes with managing open resources and user sessions. 2-page script called share usage provides excellent tool for chekcing open resources and sessions. Chapter 18 covers shared folders, print queues and print jobs. Shows how to create and manage shared folders, print queues and print jobs. Excellent discussion with detailed scripts. 2-page print monitor script, 3-page print jobs script. Chapter 19 covers advanced ADSI with LDAP. Covers creating, renaming and moving accouts. Managing groups, users, contacts with LDAP. Working with OUs and creating them as well. Managing user accounts, setting account flags, renaming, moving users. Chapter 20 shows additional possibilities fir COM, ActiveX. Chapter 21-24 provides scripting libraries. The first utility library is FileSystem Utility Library, a 10-page script for managing folders, files, shortcuts and menu options, followed by detailed examination. The second utility library is the I/O utility library, a 4-page script for reading and writing files, reading from the keyboard, etc. The third utility library is the Network Resource library, a 16-page script for working with drives, checking free space, mapping drives, working with printers, viewing/managing services, working with network shares. The fifth utility library is Account Management Library a 20-page script for working with users and groups and computers. Appendix A proivdes a wsh quick ref.
Appendix B provides ADSI quick ref.
Appendix C provides command-line utility ref. Overall, it is an excellent book that is very thorough with many useful examples. I highly recommend it.
Rating: 
Summary: I use this book almost everyday
Review: I am a Sr. Sys Admin on a large Microsoft network and find this book very useful. This is a fine book to learn VBScript with an emphasis on Windows 2000 and domain administration. As a VBScript rookie at the time of purchase this book was and still is essential for me as a reference. It clearly describes the basics of VBScript which is a big help to me since I tend to go back and forth between several languages and screw up syntax a lot. A quick glance in the book and I can get my VBScript code straight in no time. It also introduced me to ADSI. Its not so broad on the subject of ADSI (since really thats a book in itself) but it clearly defines how to manipulate ADSI objects. Although it doesn't explictly list examples for each and every method it did help me out quite a bit. From here I was able to purchase some more advanced books on ADSI and already have a basic understanding of how to weild it. A good book, worth every bit of 30 bucks.
Rating: 
Summary: Good reference, but not that usefull
Review: I purchased this book just to add to my scripting knowledge. What I found is that the information provided is really at a very basic level, with poor examples, and a lot of omissions.
Although the author hit all of the major topics, the examples given, and explanantion of what was being done in the examples would have left me without a solid understanding of how to use them in the real world if I did not already know 90% of it. In addition, entire chapters on how to work with specific items skip the most obvious and simple methods of scripting how to work with those items.
On a positive note, the index is accurate and makes it easy to look up a specific sytax when needed.
In summary, it is decent as reference material, but don't rely on this book to teach scripting. You will be left with a lot of questions, overly complex methods of accomplishing goals, and no idea that many of these things can be scripted in ways never even mentioned.
Rating:
Summary: Highly recommended
Review: I would recommend this text to anyone who would like to gain an understanding of Windows Scripting; for those that want a quick fix or an exhaustive guide, this would not be for you. Big bonus are the side by side JScript and VBScript examples. I've never seen that before. Highly recommended but not the definitive text.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent scripting book especially for Sys Admins
Review: If you are a Sys Admin and are new to scripting this is a great book. I have bought several computer books over the past few years this one is certainly one of the better ones. The first thing I noticed about this book was the fact that all the examples are illustrated in both VB Script and JScript - take your pick! If you know some C++ you will easily pick up JScript. The book was easy to follow and was well structured. Within a week or so from being a scripting novice I was able to write useful and productive scripts such as automating FTP jobs and working with the registry - the book also serves as an excellent reference as well as a tutorial. One thing to note about this book is that you don't need Windows 2000 to run all of the examples on but it does go into ADSI and LDAP in later chapters. There are not that many books out there that cover the Windows Script Host for both JScript and VB Script - this one does, and does it well.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent scripting book especially for Sys Admins
Review: If you are a Sys Admin and are new to scripting this is a great book. I have bought several computer books over the past few years this one is certainly one of the better ones. The first thing I noticed about this book was the fact that all the examples are illustrated in both VB Script and JScript - take your pick! If you know some C++ you will easily pick up JScript. The book was easy to follow and was well structured. Within a week or so from being a scripting novice I was able to write useful and productive scripts such as automating FTP jobs and working with the registry - the book also serves as an excellent reference as well as a tutorial. One thing to note about this book is that you don't need Windows 2000 to run all of the examples on but it does go into ADSI and LDAP in later chapters. There are not that many books out there that cover the Windows Script Host for both JScript and VB Script - this one does, and does it well.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent!
Review: The best scripting book I've found anywhere! Extremely thorough and detailed. Part 1 features a fast-paced introduction to Windows scripting and core functionality of VBScript/JScript. All the essentials were covered well. Part 2 is very detailed on creating scripts and scripting files. The best coverage of creating script jobs that I've found anywhere. Good material on managing files, I/O, drives, printers, application startup, Windows registery and event logging. I wish there was a bit more on event logs but the coverage was good in all on this subject. Part 3 zeroes in on Active Directory & ADSI programming. Really good! Side-by-side scripting examples in both JScript and VBScript are phenominal. I learned a lot. Covers task scheduling, managing computers, managing logon logoff startup shutdown, schema, services, shared directories, groups, users, more! Part IV has networking libraries that you can actually use to perform advanced tasks quickly. I have used these in my work now everday. Over all a really good book that deserves 5 stars for solid technical coverage.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent!
Review: The best scripting book I've found anywhere! Extremely thorough and detailed. Part 1 features a fast-paced introduction to Windows scripting and core functionality of VBScript/JScript. All the essentials were covered well. Part 2 is very detailed on creating scripts and scripting files. The best coverage of creating script jobs that I've found anywhere. Good material on managing files, I/O, drives, printers, application startup, Windows registery and event logging. I wish there was a bit more on event logs but the coverage was good in all on this subject. Part 3 zeroes in on Active Directory & ADSI programming. Really good! Side-by-side scripting examples in both JScript and VBScript are phenominal. I learned a lot. Covers task scheduling, managing computers, managing logon logoff startup shutdown, schema, services, shared directories, groups, users, more! Part IV has networking libraries that you can actually use to perform advanced tasks quickly. I have used these in my work now everday. Over all a really good book that deserves 5 stars for solid technical coverage.
Rating:
Summary: There Are Better Books Available
Review: The code examples in this book are too short and incomplete to be of real help to a real system administrator trying to implement scripting for the first time. For example, in trying to use ADSI (Active Directory Service Interfaces) the author has you flipping back and forth between code fragments in Chapter 14 and the Appendix. In neither spot does he actually put it all together to demonstrate how you use the methods correctly. All you get are bits and pieces, with no good explanation. Your money would be better spent looking elsewhere for help.
Rating: 
Summary: Not too happy with this one...
Review: The description of this book would lead you to believe you would be able to write your own advanced scripts and really learn how to script under Win 2000.What you get are a lot of pre-made examples that are helpful but only explained on the surface. I would say this is surely not for first time scripters. When examples are given they are sometimes too simple to be usable and it isn't explained how to actually modify for something useful. For instance the example how to run a command in a script, runs notepad. This isn't useful. How about running a command and piping it's output to a file with variables in the command? This book covers a lot of topics, many very advanced but there is not enough instruction on how the parts actually work for creating custom scripts. Now I need to look for another book to use along side this with more actual explaination of syntax and script function.
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