Windows automation books come in two styles Recipe Book, where the reader needs only a remedial knowledge of scripting and has been given hundreds of taskbased scripts, and Development Guide, where the reader is only given the tools and training to create the taskbased scripts instead. This title falls closer to the first than the last. Although the reader is presented with a quick overview of scripting concepts, you are not assumed to know how to script but have enough technical ability to look at the scripts and understand the gist of what you are reading and make small changes if needed. All scripts presented in the book (and found on the accompanying CD) are written in VBScript (sorry jscript users) and for the most part wrapped in the WSF XML format. The first 35 pages which make up Part One are overviews of the principals of automation, general syntax and usage of the Windows Script Host, security thru digital certificates, and networking and remote considerations. From there, the remainder of the book presents the toolbox scripts in a fairly straightforward manner, with each task section listing a description of the task, how you would do it manually, example usage of the provided script, the usage syntax of the script, a general overview of the part of the script that accomplishes the task, troubleshooting for the particular task, and a go here to learn more section. A very broad array of toolbox topics for Windows administration are presented, including both client and server settings and management, hardware and software inventorying, password management, services and processes management, file and disk management, as well as networkspecific services management and some IIS 6 tasks. The included CD contains all the scripts and script components presented in the book with a companion help file, a PDF version of the book, a PDF version of a different Microsoft scripting book titled Microsoft Windows Scripting SelfPaced Learning Guide , and a video presentation of VBScript Essentials for Windows Administrators , which is an overview of how to script VBScript (sorry jscript users no luck). A quick watch of the videos reminded me why I hate video learning, what with only fair sound quality and a small display size. Readers seriously interested in learning how to script are much better served reading Microsoft Windows 2000 Scripting Guide (ISBN 0735618674). It is unfortunate that halfstars are not permitted. I would rather have given the title 3.5 stars. This title is not a resource to teach you the tools you need to fully script and automate administration on your network. As a toolbox, the provided scripts are very useful but fall short of being a very complete resource. The tasks the author has opted to include are indeed found in common use, but the true abilities of the underlying technology is really only lightly touched upon. Administrators already advanced in the area of task automation will not find this title useful. Beginning to intermediate administrators can gain value from this, but it most likely will not be your last purchase on this topic.
