Microsoft WSH and VBScript Programming for the Absolute Beginner by Jerry Lee Ford Part 4. If you are new to programming with Microsoft WSH and VBScript and are looking for a solid introduction, this is the book for you. Developed by computer science professors, books in the for the absolute beginner series teach the principles of programming through simple game creation. You will acquire the skills that you need for more practical WSH and VBScript programming applications and will learn how these skills can be put to use in real-world scenarios. Best of all, by the time you finish this book,. | Microsoft WSH and VBScript Programming for the Absolute Beginner Second Edition You cannot touch the Windows operating system itself. This would be far too complex and difficult. Instead you must go through an interface. Windows operating systems support two such interfaces the Windows GUI and the Windows Shell. The Windows GUI is provided in the form of the Windows desktop Start menu and other graphical elements with which you normally interact when using your computer. The purpose of the GUI is to make the operating system easier to work with. Likewise the Windows shell is a text-based interface between you or your scripts and the operating system see Figure . You communicate with the Windows shell using the Windows command prompt by typing in Windows commands which the Windows shell then translates into a format that the operating system can process. The operating system then returns any results to the Windows shell which displays them in the Windows Console. Figure The Windows shell provides a text-based interface for working with the operating system. To access the Windows shell and begin working with it using the command prompt you must first open a Windows Command Console. For example to open a Windows Command Console on a computer running Windows XP you can click on Start All Programs Accessories and then choose the command prompt as shown in Figure . Definition The Windows command prompt enables you to submit commands to the Windows shell for processing. By default the command prompt appears in the form of a drive letter followed by a colon the backslash character and then the greater than character for example C . Chapter 1 Getting Started with the WSH and VBScript Figure The Windows Command Console provides access to the Windows command prompt. A program called provides the Windows Console. A quick way to open a Windows Console is to click on Start Run and then type CMD and press the Enter key. As you can see when the Windows .
