New Scripting Attitude

Windows Server 2003 marks a change in Microsoft’s attitude toward scripting as a method for desktop and server administration. In previous Windows server versions, Microsoft stressed the use of the graphic user interface (GUI) along with administration tools, such as the Microsoft Management Console, rather than scripting. Many server features had no scripting interface.

But administrators like scripting as a way to automate repetitive tasks, such as provisioning user accounts, or to perform one-time tasks for which a specific management tool is not available. For example, during the recent Slammer Worm incident, administrators needed to find all instances of the Microsoft Desktop Engine (MSDE) that were running on PCs in their organization. Without a product such as Systems Management Server, finding all the PCs running MSDE was difficult; however, an administrator could have written a script using Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI) to build a collection of all the PCs in a system (getting this information from the Active Directory [AD]), and then queried all the PCs to see whether they had the MSDE executable. With Windows Server 2003, Microsoft is now using WMI to provide uniform access to Windows management data through script or programming interfaces, including .NET Framework classes (system.management).