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Some people on this list asked about automating tasks in Windows
98. I was doing some browsing on the Amazon site and came upon
the Macmillan book publisher site.
http://www.pbs.mcp.com/
At this site, they actually have entire computer books online
which you can read free of charge. While not all of the books
are current, they do have a good selection for VB 6, VC++ 6,
Windows 95, Windows 98, Windows NT, and even Perl 5. In 2 of the
Win98 books they have chapters about scripting. For those of you
who have never heard of Windows scripting, it is supposed to be
similar to the old DOS batch files except it is for Windows 98.
You probably already have Windows scripting on your Windows 98
system and don't know it. Look for files Wscript.exe and
Cscript.Exe. The Macmillan books are:
Windows 98 Professional Reference
http://www.pbs.mcp.com/ebooks/1562057863/ch33/ch33.htm
Platinum Edition Using Windows 98
http://www.pbs.mcp.com/ebooks/0789714892/ch21/ch21.htm
Microsoft has an entire sub-site dedicated to scripting. Here
you can download manuals and free upgrades and get more info:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/scripting/
Microsoft has these newsgroups dedicated to scripting. The first
3 are the main ones with 3 to 5 thousand messages. While your
ISP may provide you with these, I suggest you use the Microsoft
MSNEWS server because they hold messages longer. WSH appears to
be the one to use for Windows automation questions.
news://msnews.microsoft.com/microsoft.public.scripting.wsh
news://msnews.microsoft.com/microsoft.public.scripting.vbscript
news://msnews.microsoft.com/microsoft.public.scripting.jscript
news://msnews.microsoft.com/microsoft.public.scripting.remote
news://msnews.microsoft.com/microsoft.public.scripting.debugger
news://msnews.microsoft.com/microsoft.public.scripting.scriptlets
If you have any questions for Excel VBa, you can go here. This
newsgroup is very active with over 13,000 messages.
news://msnews.microsoft.com/microsoft.public.excel.programming
I am not familiar with Windows scripting. However, it appears
you can automate almost any task with it. Unfortunately, I think
the actual programming may be a bit tedious compared to third
party programs such as AutoMate. Of course, Windows scripting is
free and AutoMate costs about $100. Also, as with most other
Microsoft products, Windows Scripting is the standard and more
supported than the other automation products.
What I find amazing about what I found is the sheer volume of
information available now. Because of higher densities on the
newer hard disk drives, companies are able to store much more on
their servers. It's incredible that they are GIVING all of this
material away. Think about the possibilities of being able to
publish entire books, with GIF's even, online. When you publish
online, you are able to completely bypass the entrenched
publishers and allow the entire world to read your work.
Daniel.
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