Wsh get windows version

How do write a windows script which will install a service. Error installing Windows Scripting host 5. How to check if Windows Scripting is installed. Does anyone know the "proper" or recommended method for checking 1 If Windows Scripting is installed on a machine and 2 The Windows Scripting version?

I think your method is good, but another way is to use Wscript. Richard Quote:. That's one of the core WSH files so I would think not. You should still do the registry read to confirm the path, shouldn't you? Actually I thought about that a bit too late to cancel my post. How to check if Windows Scripting is installed Does anyone know the "proper" or recommended method for checking 1 If Windows Scripting is installed on a machine and 2 The Windows Scripting version?

How to check if Windows Scripting is installed I think your method is good, but another way is to use Wscript. How to check if Windows Scripting is installed You should still do the registry read to confirm the path, shouldn't you? How to check if Windows Scripting is installed Actually I thought about that a bit too late to cancel my post.

Mike Whalen Windows Script Dev. Slapping my forehead for forgetting this one ;- -- torgeir. Page 1 of 1. Windows scripting host - Checking a service in Windows NT 4 4. If you're using a mouse, point to the lower-right corner of the screen, move the mouse pointer up, click Settings , and then click Change PC settings. Under Windows you'll see which edition and version of Windows your device is running. If you're having a problem with activation, see Activate Windows 7 or Windows 8. Select the Start button, type Computer in the search box, right-click on Computer , and then select Properties.

Under Windows edition , you'll see the version and edition of Windows that your device is running. Learn more. Windows 11 Windows 10 Windows 8. Related links If you're having a problem with activation, see Activate in Windows. Related links If you're having a problem with activation, see Activate Windows. Find operating system info in Windows 8. If your device is running Windows 8. Related links If you're having a problem with activation, see Activate Windows 7 or Windows 8.

Find operating system info in Windows 7 Select the Start button, type Computer in the search box, right-click on Computer , and then select Properties.

Support for Windows 7 ended on January 14, We recommend you move to a Windows 11 PC to continue to receive security updates from Microsoft.

I'll discuss ShowUsage and other benefits of metadata later. The WSH object model did not undergo a significant restyling in the transition from version 2. Aside from the necessary changes brought about by the introduction of remote scripting and script controllers, the set of methods and properties for the main objects remained nearly identical. From this object, you can create three new objects: WScript. Shell, WScript. Network, and WScript. The Shell object provides access to the native shell for Windows and some of its core objects, such as the registry, shortcuts, special folders, and the memory environment.

The Network object gives you access to the shared resources on the network to which the computer is connected. A fourth object that depends on WScript is WshArguments. Instead, a script must obtain a reference to an existing instance of this object. When a script references the WScript. Arguments collection for the first time, a WshArguments object is implicitly created, initialized, and returned to the caller. WshArguments provide access to the entire collection of command-line parameters in the order in which they were originally specified.

The StdIn property represents the read-only input buffer. The StdOut property represents the write-only output stream, and the property StdErr is the write-only stream where error messages will be output. These properties only work when the script is run with CScript. If the script is run with WScript. These three properties are all implemented through a TextStream object. This object was originally introduced with the scripting runtime to facilitate sequential access to a file's content.

The following example shows how to ask for text and to display what has been entered. ReadLine returns all the text entered until it encounters a carriage return.

Read expects an integer argument that denotes the maximum length of the returned text. The Arguments property returns the collection of the command-line arguments for the script. Such a collection is rendered by the WshArguments object. You already know about the number of arguments through the Count property and you know how to retrieve individual arguments using a zero-based index. WSH prepares and fills the Arguments property only on demand. Arguments returns an empty, but non-null object if no argument has been specified.

I'll discuss these properties in more detail later in this article. The WshShell object has a new property called CurrentDirectory that gets and sets the current working directory for the active script host—wscript. This property defaults to the root of the C drive, not the path of the current script. The WSH programming interface for the registry provides only basic functionality—reading, writing, and deleting—and has limited support for types.

The registry methods lack the ability to enumerate the subkeys or the entries found under a certain node. Aside from supporting the enumeration of network shares and printers, the WshNetwork object also provides properties that return the local computer, domain, and user names. This information is not particularly useful if you want to bind to the user or the computer object in an Active Directory scenario. Next, I'll review in more detail the new features of WSH 5.

WSH was originally designed to be a tool for system administrators to programmatically access programs, the file system, e-mail, FTP sites, and so forth. Scripts are not encrypted nor signed with certificates, and can come from any Internet source, including untrustworthy ones.

Once WSH is properly installed on a given machine, the system treats files with a. These features include the ability for administrators to enforce strict policies that determine which users have privileges to run scripts locally or remotely.

Administrators can also configure WSH to authenticate a script before running it. A script is considered authentic and guaranteed when it comes with a digital certificate issued by a trusted authority.

If a script has a certificate, WSH can immediately detect unauthorized modifications and, if found, will return an error at run time. WSH checks the embedded certificate against your machine-specific list of trusted sources, and runs the script only if a match is found. There are two main security mechanisms in WSH 5. One is based extensively on Windows XP security features, and the other is backward compatible with previous versions of Windows.

I'll explain these two models next. Windows XP provides a suite of settings to control which software can run on your machine and how it can run. So SRP is not something specific to script, but is a more general mechanism built directly into the operating system machinery. SRP is based on a set of rules that apply to the software available from a given machine in the network. A typical example of these security rules might be a statement that says no EXE file can run from a given folder or Web site.

A common SRP setting may force users to run only scripts signed with a particular certificate. You could even disable WSH completely in this way. The dialog box in Figure 4 shows that an additional rule has been defined to disallow all. If you attempt to violate one of the SRP path rules, you'll get an error see Figure 5. A path rule prevents all scripts from running whether they come from a trusted source or not.

To allow certified scripts to run normally, you must set up a certificate rule, as shown in Figure 6. Figure 6 Certificate Rule You create a certificate rule by right-clicking in the right panel of the SRP snap-in and selecting the proper menu item.

You select the certificate that must be used to sign the scripts you accept and set the security level to unrestricted. The certificate must be registered in the system and issued by a recognized authority see Figure 7. For testing purposes, you can get a test certificate from the Windows Certificate Server or from tools like selfcert. When running on older versions of Windows, WSH 5. The registry key is:. The TrustPolicy entry can take any one of the three integer values that are listed in Figure 8.

Of course, administrative privileges are required to modify the TrustPolicy key; the average user won't be able to make these changes. Verifying a script is the process that determines whether the script that you are about to run is coming from a trusted source. Prior to WSH 5. This tool is not strictly part of any version of the Microsoft Windows operating system. Signer that does the same thing.

The following simple script signs a file using the specified certificate and store:. Script verification can also be accomplished programmatically through the methods of the Scripting. Signer object. You use the VerifyFile method to verify the validity of the embedded signature and check that it belongs to a person whom you trust, listed in the Trusted Publishers list.

In addition, the VerifyFile method makes sure that the script has not been tampered with since it was signed. Although the VerifyFile method programmatically confirms the digital signature, bear in mind that security is about mutual trust. Therefore you should periodically verify that you really trust the sources listed in the Trusted Publishers list.

The Scripting. Signer object enables a developer to sign a script with a digital signature. To work properly and sign the given script file, the object requires a valid certificate. Figure 9 lists the methods of the Scripting. SignFile needs to process the certificate by name and assumes that all certificates are in a store called "my. However, you can indicate any valid store according to the certificate's settings:. In addition to signing a script file, you can also sign code stored in an in-memory string by using the Sign method.

You must indicate the file extension of the script as a way to help the operating system detect the type of the script file being verified. Once a script file has been signed, its source code looks like the following:. In this code snippet the whole signature block appears in a commented section. The signature block is commented and placed at the end of. To programmatically verify the authenticity of a script file, call the VerifyFile method and pass it the script file name plus a boolean flag indicating whether or not you want user interface elements to be displayed:.

The method denotes the outcome of the operation by returning a boolean value that equals False if the script cannot be trusted, and True otherwise. If the method can successfully read the private key information and the certificate authority that issued the certificate, it first verifies that the code has not been tampered with and then returns True.

It does this by instantiating script programs directly on remote computers. As mentioned earlier, Remote WSH has nothing to do with remote scripting. You instantiate the WshController object as follows:. The WshController object has no properties and exposes just one method, CreateScript.

By invoking CreateScript, you obtain a reference to a WshRemote object:. The scriptName argument indicates the script's path and switches as they would be typed at the command prompt. The path to the script must be relative to the caller machine. The serverName parameter is optional and indicates the UNC name of the remote machine where you want the script to run.

If omitted, the script runs locally. The WshRemote object represents an instance of a local WSH script which is ready to run across process, computer, and network boundaries, as defined by the serverName argument. You can execute, control, and terminate the script remotely by setting the properties of the WshRemote object. When you generate a remote WSH script instance, the controller loads the local script file from the directory path you have specified and sends its text to the server process over the network.

The DCOM marshaler takes care of all this. The script file and all of its embedded resources such as included files are never persisted to a server destination path, not even temporarily. Instead, they are copied directly into the server process's memory. To enable Remote WSH functionality, you must first set up the remote machine with the proper security settings.

For one thing, both the remote and local machines must be running Windows NT 4. The user who will run scripts remotely must be a member of the Local Administrators group on the target machine. Finally, Remote WSH must be enabled on the remote server machine.

Remote WSH is not an interactive process like login, so remotely instantiated scripts cannot display any kind of user interface on the remote computer, including pop-up messages. If you try to instantiate a process that displays a user interface, the script may fail or have unreliable results.