VBScript

VBScript (short form of Visual Basic Script Edition) is an Active Scripting engine bundled with Microsoft Windows. It uses a dialect of Visual Basic (essentially a subset of VB language with a few added features). VBScript can be used in Internet Explorer, Active Server Pages and Windows Script Host as a general-purpose scripting language. It is often used in conjunction with Windows Script Host as a replacement for batch files.

VBScript is interpreted by a script engine vbscript.dll, which can be invoked by ASP engine asp.dll in a web environment, wscript.exe in a Windows GUI environment, and cscript.exe in a command-line environment. When VBScript source code is contained in stand-alone files, they typically have the file extension .vbs.

When employed in Internet Explorer, VBScript is very similar in function to JavaScript - it processes code embedded in HTML. Both VBScript and JScript can be also used to create stand-alone HTA applications, which require IE to be run. However, many webmasters prefer to use JavaScript instead for better compatibility with alternative web browsers.

VBScript is also the language some notable e-mail worms, such as ILOVEYOU, were written in. There are several reasons for this: first, the funny scroll-like icon of VBS files may lure users with little Windows experience to think that it s a text file; second, it makes it easy to write a basic e-mail worm in VBS in just a few lines of code. Microsoft has since fixed the security holes that such worms exploited, thereby resulting in their demise.

=See Also=

*Hello world program#Windows Script Host with VBScript

=External links=

*[http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.aspurl=/library/en-us/script56/html/vbstutor.asp VBScript User s Guide] *[http://www.microsoft.com/technet/scriptcenter/scripts/default.mspx The Script Center - Script Repository] *[http://www.microsoft.com/technet/scriptcenter/resources/qanda/default.mspx Hey, Scripting Guy! - VBScript Column] *[http://www.w3schools.com/vbscript/default.asp Learn VBScript at www.w3schools.com]