VBScript - List Installed Programs

I had been using InstalledPrograms.vbs, a VBScript script written by Bill James, to query systems for a list of installed programs. I ran the script today while logged into a user's account on a Microsoft Windows 7 system, I received an error message because the script was in a sudirectory beneath C:\Program Files and the script's output file is stored by default in the directory from which the script is run, but the user's account did not have permission to write to that directory. To fix the problem, rather than move the script to another directory or run the script from an administrator account, I added VBScript code from Rob van der Woude's Browse Folder Dialog function so that a user can select the directory to be used for the output file.

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List Installed Programs

I needed to produce a list of programs installed on a Microsoft Windows system to send to someone else so she could check it for no longer needed programs and tell me which ones are no longer needed, so I could remove them to free disk space. Bill James has a VBScript script, InstalledPrograms.vbs, which can be run from a command line, which prompts for the name of the system to check via a popup window, as shown below:

After that prompt, you are asked whether you wish to view the results produced by the program as shown below.

The list of installed programs is stored in a file that has the name of the system on which it is run followed by an underline, then the date in mmddyyyy (month-date-year) format, then another underscore followed by the time in military time, i.e. 24-hour clock time, another underscore and then "Software.txt". E.g. CRYSTAL_09252011_175147_Software.txt for a file produced when the program was run on a system named Crystal on September 25, 2011 at 5:51:47 PM. The file is stored in the directory in which the script is run.

If you click on "yes" to view the results, the file produced by the program will be opened in the default .txt file viewer, which, on Microsoft Windows systems, will likely be Notepad.

An example output file can be seen here. The list is similar to the list of installed programs that you would see by checking with "Add or Remove Programs" under the Control Panel. It is obtained by querying the registry key HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall\.

Download InstalledPrograms

• Developer's site
• MoonPoint Support

References:

1. VBScript Tools by Bill James
   BillsWay.com
2. VBScript
   Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

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Querying the Dell Service Tag with VBS

I needed to produce a list of the service tags for all of the Dell systems at a site. I found a Visual Basic script at Query Dell Service Tag that could query a Dell system for the service tag. There were two versions there, one that would request the system name through a pop up window and another that could be run from a command prompt.

I wanted to be able to run such queries from a command prompt, so the second version appealed to me. But it only queried one system at a time, so I modified the script to allow me to specify multiple systems at one time on the command line. The updated script is available at Dell-ServiceTag.vbs.

Usage:

cscript /nologo Dell-ServiceTag.vbs a b c

Output: 

Computer: a Dell Service Tag: AGXQVD1
Computer: b Dell Service Tag: BRKF462
Computer: c Dell Service Tag: 1NFWLB3

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Silent Runners

Silent Runners is a Visual Basic script, which can be used to scan a system for software that starts automatically when Windows starts, which may aid you in determining if a system is infected with malware.

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Visual Basic Script to Check CPU Utilization

A user of a Windows 2000 Professional system was complaining that his system has been running very slow. He has stated that when he is typing in a Word document or an email message that the time between when he types characters and when they appear on his screen can be quite lengthy. I've seen problems on his system before with high CPU utilization and wanted to use a script that would monitor and record CPU utilization on his system.

I found a script posted on TechRepublic at CPU Utilization Script¹. I modified the script so that I could specify the time interval between CPU utilization checks through an argument to the script when it is run. The modified script is available at CPU_Use.vbs ².

The script can be run with csript /nologo CPU_Use.vbs or alternatively cscript /nologo CPU_Use num where "num" is the number of seconds to wait between CPU checks, e.g. csript /nologo CPU_Use 300 to check every 5 minutes.

The output is placed in C:\Processor.log; the output location can be changed by modifying the value of the strLogFile variable in the script. Output will look similar to the following:

9/22/2007       09:43
9/22/2007       09:48   19
9/22/2007       09:53   17
9/22/2007       09:58   17
9/22/2007       10:03   35
9/22/2007       10:08   14
9/22/2007       10:13   15

The first two columns list the date and time the script was run while the third lists the CPU utilization at the time the script was executed. There is no value for CPU utilization for the first entry in the log.

The script requires Windows XP or later. It will not run on Windows 2000. If it is run on Windows 2000, you will see CPU_Use.vbs(48, 1) Microsoft VBScript runtime error: ActiveX component can't create object: 'WbemScripting.Swbemrefresher' ^{3, 4}

Most of the systems I support are Windows XP systems, so the script will still be useful to me, but I can't check the system I wanted to check in this case, since that system is a Windows 2000 system.

References:

1. CPU Utilization Script
   By: neilb
   Posted: January 4, 2006
   TechRepublic
2. CPU_Use.vbs
   By: Jim Cameron (modifications to script written by neilb)
   MoonPoint Support
3. ActiveX component can't create object: 'WbemScripting.Swbemrefresh
   Posted By: Daniel
   Date: April 19, 2005
   Ureader.com - Microsoft community
4. SWbemRefresher Object
   Microsoft Developer Network

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Who is Logged On to a Computer - VBS Script

If you need to know whether anyone is logged into a remote computer in your domain or who that might be, you can use LoggedOn.vbs, a script I found at List User Logged On To A Remote Computer, which was written by Cheyenne Harden and is available at the LazyNetworkAdmin.Com website or from this site (see links below).

To use the utility, you can enter LoggedOn.vbs at the command line while in the directory where the file is located. A small window will open prompting you for the name of the computer to query.

You will see the logged on user displayed in a small Windows Script Host window as shown below:

If no one is logged on to the system, you will see "null" displayed in the small Windows Script Host window that opens.

If you want the logged on user information displayed in a form that you can copy and paste into a document, you can use cscript /nologo LoggedOn instead. The results will then be displayed on the command line as below:

If no one is logged into the system, you will see "null" displayed on the command line.

If the system can't be queried, you won't see an error message. Instead, you won't see anything displayed.

Information on other utilities to display the logged on user can be found at Who Is Logged On?.

LoggedOn.vbs
LoggedOn.zip

References:

1. List User Logged On To A Remote Computer
   By Cheyenne Harden
   LazyNetworkAdmin.com
2. Who Is Logged On?
   MoonPoint Support

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Who Is Logged On?

If you need to determine who is logged into a Windows system, there are several alternatives for collecting that information from a command line interface. One of method is to use a Visual Basic script to determine who is logged on, such as the WhoLogon.vbs script by Guy Thomas. Or you can use the free PsLoggedOn utility by Mark Russinovich at Sysinternals. There is also a whoami utility within the Native Win32 ports of some GNU utilities, which contains ports of some common GNU utilities to native Win32.

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Prnmngr.Vbs

Microsoft provides a prnmngr.vbs script with Windows XP and Small Business Server (SBS) 2003 systems. This script can be found in %windir%\system32, which will normally be c:\windows\system32. The script can be used to add, delete, and list printers or printer connections. It can also be used to set or display the default printer. If you run the script using cscript without any parameters it will display the usage information shown below. If you are unfamiliar with cscript, it provides a mechanism for running VBS scripts. The "/nologo" option for cscript supresses the display of the Microsoft logo information normally displayed when a script is run with cscript. You can run the script from a command line. You need to change to the %windir%\system32 directory or include the full path to the script when you run it, e.g. cscript /nologo c:\windows\system32\prnmngr.vbs -l.

C:\WINDOWS\system32>cscript /nologo prnmngr.vbs
Usage: prnmngr [-adxgtl?][c] [-s server][-p printer][-m driver model]
               [-r port][-u user name][-w password]
Arguments:
-a     - add local printer
-ac    - add printer connection
-d     - delete printer
-g     - get the default printer
-l     - list printers
-m     - driver model
-p     - printer name
-r     - port name
-s     - server name
-t     - set the default printer
-u     - user name
-w     - password
-x     - delete all printers
-?     - display command usage

Examples:
prnmngr -a -p "printer" -m "driver" -r "lpt1:"
prnmngr -d -p "printer" -s server
prnmngr -ac -p "\\server\printer"
prnmngr -d -p "\\server\printer"
prnmngr -x -s server
prnmngr -l -s server
prnmngr -g
prnmngr -t -p "\\server\printer"

If you want to view the default printer for a system you can use the -g parameter.

C:\WINDOWS\system32>cscript /nologo prnmngr.vbs -g The default printer is Microsoft Office Document Image Writer

If you want to view all of the printers for a system and save the output to a file, such as printers.txt, you could use the following command.

C:\Documents and Settings\Administrator>cscript /nologo c:\windows\system32\prnmngr.vbs -l >printers.txt

The information that will be displayed for each printer when you use the -l option will be similar to that shown below.

Server name
Printer name HP Business Inkjet 3000 PCL 6
Share name Pam HP3000
Driver name HP Business Inkjet 3000 PCL 6
Port name USB002
Comment
Location
Print processor WinPrint
Data type RAW
Parameters
Attributes 8776
Priority 1
Default priority 0
Status Unknown
Average pages per minute 0

References:

1. Microsoft Windows XP - Prnmngr.vbs"
2. Handy VBS Scripts

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