Stuart McLachlan
stuart at lexacorp.com.pg
Tue Nov 9 17:44:11 CST 2004
On 9 Nov 2004 at 9:49, Jon Tydda wrote:
> Does anyone know enough about vb scripting to help save me a few hours?
>
> I need to repeatedly do the same things - set up a user on a pc, but we've
> got about 80 users and 50 pc's and they all seem to want to use different
> pc's all the time, which leads to them being set up on lots of different
> machines...
>
Rather than VBScript, take a look at the freeware tool AutoIt:
http://www.autoitscript.com/autoit3/
It's designed for just this sort of operation (but it's actually a good
development tool for all sorts of little utilities)
If you know VBA, it doesn't take long to get proficient with AutoIt.
<quote>
AutoIt v3 is an opensource BASIC-like scripting language designed for
automating the Windows GUI. It uses a combination of simulated keystrokes,
mouse movement and window/control manipulation in order to automate tasks
in a way not possible or reliable with other languages (e.g. VBScript and
SendKeys).
AutoIt was initially designed for PC "roll out" situations to configure
thousands of PCs, but with the arrival of v3 it is also well suited to
performing home automation and the scripting of repetitive tasks.
AutoIt can:
* Provide a general-purpose scripting language
* Execute Windows and DOS executables
* Simulate keystrokes (supports most keyboard layouts)
* Simulate mouse movements and clicks
* Move, resize and manipulate windows
* Interact directly with "controls" on a window (set/get text from
edit controls, check boxes and radio buttons, select items in drop-down
lists, etc.)
* Work with the clipboard to cut/paste text items
* Work with the registry
Unlike AutoIt2, the new AutoIt v3 language has a much more standard syntax -
similar to VBScript and BASIC - and now supports complex expressions, user
functions, looping and everything else that veteran scripters would expect.
As with previous versions, AutoIt has been designed to be as small as
possible (~100KB) and stand-alone with no external .dll files or registry
entries required. Scripts can also be compiled into stand-alone
executables with Aut2Exe.
</quote>
--
Stuart