I have just recently started WMI and ADSI. I am a "top down" learner, get the hard stuff, then the simple stuff. This book is perfect for server '03 and windows system Admins. it is not a "solve every problem" I dont think it even solves most problems, but it does have tools and information that WILL make you a better windows administrator. If your just getting into scripting for windows, this is not the book for you. If you are looking for a resource that you can read through and use as a reference, to learn better ways to script your windows administrative tasks, this is the book for you. the CD has great examples and tools, along with a PDF of the book. the book is laid out very well, with specific projects, which is perfect for using this book as a reference. I read it straight through and was able to use parts of it almost every day. all of the information in this book is available at the scripting center, this book just has gotten the really good stuff for Admins, and laid it out perfectly. This book has helped me to write programs that sometimes save me hours of repetitive tasks. Example: manually removing a network virus from computers when I know all the information, but the scanner does not. I am quite happy with this book, and would reccomend it only to people with a light background in programming, and anyone that maintains a '03/XP network.

Absolutely excellent!! Very technical and to-the-point, so this book might not be for the absolute beginner. But for the more experienced Windows systems administrator, this book is an absolute goldmine! Also, in my view, it balances perfectly between being a reference volume and a textbook; I've started from page 1, and will go throu the whole book (and I enjoy every minute of it..). But still, this book will be seen next to my desk, within reach whenever I need to look up something...

With the book comes a CD with the whole book in searchable PDF-format. And I would like to thank Microsoft Press for doing that! I have put the PDF on my PDA, and can access its wisdom wherever I go! Great!

I picked this up after noticing it in a book shop (sorry Amazon!). I'm an Exchange administrator and this book gave me some great scripting tips for managing and monitoring my environment. I haven't gone much beyond that since, to my regret, but the concept of packaging scripts was news to me, and I would love to find the time to try out some of the other more elaborate techniques in there. But of course, I am an Exchange Administrator ;-)

This is an excellent follow on book to "Microsoft Windows 2000 Scripting Guide," ISBN: 0735618674, which was my previous bible. I had long ago advanced past much of what is written in that excellent foundation book for VBScript, and this advanced volume really fills in the gaps. After purchasing numerous VB and VBA references that are nothing more than syntax libraries, I feel I finally have the big picture on the capabilities of this technology with this book. It is all clear.

Combined with the Windows Internals book, I don't think there is anything I couldn't do now that I had wanted to do with this technology previously. The chapters on scripting database connections and HTAs are worth the price alone. If you do any serious scripting work, this book is the true capstone. And who else could publish such a book than the horse's mouth itself?

It never ceases to amaze me how many scripting books, including this one, start off telling you that you should already have intermediate to advanced scripting skills before you read, yet spend an initial chapter explaining what an array or an object is. It leaves me feeling that their definition of what "advanced" is will differ greatly from mine. I am also always a little dismayed when throughout, a book plugs a costly script development studio and spends time pointing out why your chosen script editor isn't good enough for your projects.

That said, Advanced VBScript delivers what it promises. It is written for intermediate to advanced scripters and has the primary goal of introducing scripting formats, utilities, objects and processes that might otherwise be overlooked. The beginning introduces you to the WSF XML format for scripts, why you would want to use it, and how to convert your existing scripts to this format. From there you are shown how to utilize scripts as COM objects, how to add an interface to your scripts via HTML and HTA applications, performing remote scripting, and expand your scripts ability using database, ADSI, WMI components. The last section focuses on working with Exchange 2003, MOM 2005 and Virtual Server 2005. At around 500 pages, the book is certainly not an exhaustive reference for each component examined. You are provided a good introduction and general instructions to the topic, given many recipe scripts for immediate inclusion in your environment, and then provided additional detail on where to go to focus on the topic.

The book is formatted to not only be a start to finish textbook, but also serve as an excellent reference guide for the introduced components later on. Although you may find similar scripting information scattered about other VBScript books, here you have a great deal of well presented topics that cover a broad spectrum of concepts. Inclusion of this title to your reference library will provide you the information you need while keeping your bookshelf compact.