This section will provide addional practice and illustrate the important technique of customizing an existing script. It is common knowledge that when confronted with the task of creating a script, most network administrators often start with a script they found on the Internet. It is, however, important for the administrator to customize the script and ensure that only the most useful portions of the script are left behind prior to deployment.
1. | Create a script that reads crash recovery information from the registry. Your research has revealed the following keys to be of interest:
"HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\CrashControl\AutoReboot"
"HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\CrashControl\MinidumpDir"
"HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Tcpip\Parameters\Hostname"
"HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\CrashControl\LogEvent"
"HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\CrashControl\DumpFile"
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2. | Copy the script to a share on a local server.
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3. | Run the script under CScript.
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4. | Have the intern copy the output from the command prompt and paste it into a Notepad file that has the same name as the server.
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1. | Open the \My Documents\Microsoft Press\VBScriptSBS\ch01\OneStepFurther\CustomizeExistingScript.vbs file and save it as YourNameCustomizeExistingScript.vbs.
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2. | Edit the Header information section of the script and include variables for each of the items you are going to read from the registry. (Remember, you'll need two variables for each registry item: one for the registry key itself, and one for the data contained in the registry key.)
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3. | Edit the Reference information section of the script. (Use the reg variable names you created in step 2 of this procedure and assign them to the appropriate registry keys.)
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4. | Edit the Worker information section of the script. (Assign the non-registry variable names you created in step 2 to the regRead Worker part of the script.)
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5. | Edit the Output information section of the script. (Use the same variables you assigned to the regRead parts in step 4.)
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6. | Add any documentation you need to the script. (Make sure you over-comment your script. Concepts that are perfectly clear today will be a dull memory within a few days.)
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7. | Save your script.
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8. | Open a command prompt.
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9. | Type CScript YourNameCustomizeExistingScript.vbs and press Enter. (If you get a File Not Found comment, change to the directory where you saved your script and repeat the command.)
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To | Do This |
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Catch misspelled variable names | Use Option Explicit on the first line of your script |
Declare a variable | Use the Dim command, followed by the variable name |
Continue to the next line, following an error | Use On Error Resume Next |
Produce a pop-up dialog box when you double-click on a script | Use WScript.Echo |
Produce a line of output when running a script under CScript at a CMD prompt | Use WScript.Echo |
Create an object | Use the CreateObject command followed by the name of the automation object to create |
Run a script under the default scripting host | Double-click on the script |
Run a script under CScript | Open a CMD prompt and precede the name of the script with the command CScript |
Add documentation to a script | Precede the comment with a single quotation mark' |