Windows Script Host enables scripts to be run directly in Windows 2000 by clicking a script file on the Windows desktop, or by typing the name of a script file at the command prompt. Just like Microsoft Internet Explorer, Windows Script Host serves as a controller of ActiveX scripting engines. Unlike Internet Explorer, however, Windows Script Host has very low memory requirements and is ideal for both interactive and non-interactive scripting needs such as logon scripting and administrative scripting.
Windows Script Host supports scripts written in Visual Basic Scripting Edition (VBScript) or JScript. When a script is started from the Windows desktop or from the command prompt, the script host reads and passes the specified script file contents to the registered script engine. The scripting engine uses file extensions (.vbs for VBScript; .js for JScript) to identify the script instead of using the SCRIPT tag (used in HTML). This way, the script writer doesn't have to be familiar with the exact programmatic ID (ProgID) of various script engines. The script host itself maintains a mapping of script extensions to ProgIDs and uses the Windows association model to launch the appropriate engine for a given script.
There are two versions of the Windows Script Host: a windows-based version (wscript.exe) that provides a windows-based property sheet for setting script properties, and a command prompt-based version (cscript.exe) that provides command line switches for setting script properties. You can run either of these by typing wscript.exe or cscript.exe at the command prompt.
Previously, the only native scripting language supported by the Windows operating system was the
For more information, see the Windows Script Technologies Web site at the Microsoft Web site (http://www.microsoft.com/).