scripting, batch file and powershell

Salt0912

I work for xyz company and we use logmein all the time. I am looking into scripting, bat file and powershell. All the computers are mainly xp-8 and no older then xp. There are mountains of information on google and I have been reading forums for about 3 days now at work. I have found it difficult to find any direction to start as there is still lots of confusion on scripting, batch file and powershell. Below I will list what I don't understand.

Scripting:

any programming language that is easy to pick up and run simple programs or process i.e perl, php, python

Batch file:

Plan text commands that are executed in the cmd.exe.

Powershell:

from my understanding it replaces the cmd.exe because you can ping in powershell like in cmd.exe but also an advanced program that is like the unix shell command(sorry new to all of this I am a noob)

I mainly want to pick this up so I can run a script(programming language) or a batch file/powershell( if i can run these in a script or have them call scripts or vica versa(programming language) to execute command line, move files, move the mouse like a actual user was doing it to automate some things in a program, deactivate UAC.

would i not need batch files or power shell if a scripting language could do the examples i named above or would i need a scripting language and with in the scripting language embed a batch or powershell file? what would i call my scripting language i.e an exe? i know i need an interpreter for my scripting file. why batch or powershell if they do the same thing or do they do different things?

for example do i create a batch file to call on powershell or vica versa?

my other question is can i just omit batch file and use powershell all by itself with a scripting language?

scripiting> batchfile> powershell

scripting > powershell> batch file

powershell> scripting> batchfile

batch file> scripting> powershell

in that order or again can i just omit on or two of them and just run one that does everything. I also downloaded this from i believe logmein or googled it. when I import this, it pulled them up in my logmein tech terminal. it works but here another questions why is this in a xml file? when i imported it gave me a bunch of .bat i could run now. so this leads to my other question...you can write an xml(xml is a scripting langauge?) file that holds .bat files? so script langage> batch file=true but then you must be able to do a scripiting language> powershell> batch=true but why would i want to run a batch file if powershell does the same thing right? I can replace the xml file or extension with whatever programming language i want?

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<scripts>
<script>
<name>Initialize Screen</name>
<file>C:\RescueScripts\Initialize.bat</file>
<resource>C:\RescueScripts\ToggleDesktop.scf</resource>
<platforms>00000001</platforms>
<autoexec>false</autoexec>
</script>
<script>
<name>Clear Internet Temp Files</name>
<file>C:\RescueScripts\ClearInternetFiles.bat</file>
<resource></resource>
<platforms>00000001</platforms>
<autoexec>false</autoexec>
</script>
<script>
<name>Flush DNS Cache</name>
<file>C:\RescueScripts\FlushDNS.bat</file>
<resource></resource>
<platforms>00000001</platforms>
<autoexec>false</autoexec>
</script>
<script>
<name>Renew IP Addresses</name>
<file>C:\RescueScripts\RenewIPAddress.bat</file>
<resource></resource>
<platforms>00000001</platforms>
<autoexec>false</autoexec>
</script>
</scripts>


sorry its been 3 days and I have been digging through information.

thanks for any help.

ptilsen

You are mistakenly defining scripting as being different than writing batch files or powershell scripts. PowerShell scripts, vbscripts, and batch files are the most common scripting methods for Windows tasks. Scripting generally refers to writing code in any interpreted language and running it with an interpreter. PowerShell and the Windows Command Prompt are both interpreters, for example.

For automating Windows tasks, PowerShell is far and away the most versatile overall, offering ease-of-use, string manipulation comparable to (even superior, arguably) BASH or Python, hierarchy-based scripting, and capabilities similar to compiled programming languages, and lots of Cmdlets already designed to perform common operations. Limitations of PowerShell are that it's not as simple and easy-to-use as batch scripts for basic command-line tasks, and it is a mistake to think it replaces CMD. One can call CMD commands or execute as if using CMD within PowerShell several different ways, but there are some (admittedly frustrating) limitations, and ultimately to just perform really simple tasks, batch scripts can be better.

Vbscript is an alternative, and was probably the de facto way to script automation tasks in Windows for over a decade. Vbscript is still useful in that there are tons of existing scripts that still work just fine and it does not require any dependencies. PowerShell, by comparison, requires the appropriate version of PowerShell be installed for any Cmdlets or other features you want to use. PowerShell 2.0 is installed in Windows 7 and Server 2008 R2, and almost anything you'd want to do works in 2.0. In fact, almost everything works just fine in 1.0. However, XP and Server 2003 do not have PowerShell installed by default, so in automating tasks across multiple versions of Windows, this can be a big limitation, and in many cases it is not practical to install PowerShell everywhere just to use it instead of Vbscript. Vbscript is also going to arguably be easier for someone who has studied any form of Visual Basic and not studied object-oriented languages like C or Java. Not because PowerShell is object-oriented, but because it uses similar syntax and conventions. If you're not comfortable with any languages, PowerShell is a perfectly fine place to start.

Batch scripts are ideal for simple tasks. Complex tasks that require more complicated logic structures are easier in PowerShell and other scripting languages, and actually making .NET or WMI calls (which are needed for more "complicated" tasks, for lack of a better word) is not really an option with batch scripting.

Other scripting languages, such as Python, can be used in Windows, but they come with the disadvantage compared to PowerShell of not being expressly designed for Windows scripting, requiring just as painful (if not more so) dependencies, and in my opinion offer no real advantage.

You can definitely call batch files from PowerShell and PowerShell script from batch files (and vbscript, too, from both and vice versa). In some rare instances, I have done this because I can get a task completed faster using both, but in general it is IMO worth it to just write the whole thing in PowerShell (or even vbscript).