Microsoft Visual Basic Scripting Edition

Microsoft Visual Basic Scripting Edition (VBScript) is an often overlooked programming language, especially now that it no longer a supported HTML client side scripting language and Microsoft is pushing PowerShell.

However, when used appropriately it can be a very powerful, yet simple tool. Since it is based on Visual Basic concepts, I have found it easier to learn and write code in than PowerShell and more powerful than Windows Batch files. It is also pre-installed on all current Window OS versions, including all the server variants (as of the year 2020, when this was written).

One of the major reasons programmers stayed away from it was they didn't feel there was a good enough Integrated Development Environment. I believe that has been proven to be false with VbsEdit. I ran across it about a decade ago and it's really helped me out of a pickle or two. Also, because of being able to use an IDE, the programmers can more easily break their code out into subroutines and functions.

Another complaint was that programmers didn't feel it was reliable enough to be used in a production environment. I also believe this to be false, as two separate scripts I wrote were in production for over 5 years each. And by production I mean calling the script every 15 minutes. The only reason they are no longer in use is due to that fact that the business need or customer went away.

Yet another complaint was that since the script wasn't a direct executable itself (you have to call it from Windows Script Host using the cscript or wscript executables) that made it more difficult to deploy and either trigger remotely or schedule. Again, VbsEdit has this covered as well by allowing the creation of a single file executable in either 32 or 64 bit formats. You even get to assign an icon to it.

And last, it's based on Visual Basic. Most back-office coders have C language (or one of it's variants) experience, so learning Visual Basic was just too great a hurdle. This is one of the reasons why PowerShell has the look and feel that it does: to minimize the learning curve. But that's them.

Here you will find some subroutines and functions I've worked on over the years, as well as a full VB Script application that uses a lot of them. Some of them even contain calls to some of the others. They were all written using VbsEdit.

NOTE: Some of the subroutines and functions I found on the internet or pulled from other legacy code I have run across. I have tried to keep track of the original coders, and where I have been able to, their attributions are included.