microsoft scripting games 2007

I work in a Windows environment. I’ll likely work with Windows in some form or other for my entire career, unless I get completely sucked into networking. And yet I don’t know Windows scripting. Oh the travesty! Seriously, I like programming, but I’ve never freakin’ properly learned Windows scripting. I think I will be taking a good hard look at the Microsoft Scripting Games 2007 to see how things work and maybe tackle a few of the easier challenges and get my feet wet. Really, I don’t need to be some guru that uses scripting day in and day out. You can get by with things like maintenence scripting quite well with just occassionally challenging oneself to script a little bit.

And I like challenges like these Games. There are some ways to learn in this field of IT security, support, and networking. One way is troubleshooting fires that are burning. You can only learn so much theory from other people, books, and mentors. But you have to put it into practice to really get it in this area (hence my occassional disdain for analysts, IT journalists, and people who jus repeat “best practices” ad nauseum). I particularly love challenges, puzzles, and friendly competitions that run the gamut of amazingly fun to very competitive to real-life-mirroring scenarios.

In fact, in the sidebar menu way towards the bottom I have links to various “hacking” and other challenges mixed into the “cons/training” section. I have been putting off moving the actual challenge type items down to the new challenges section. I love those things, and even if I’m late to the party or don’t know the answers, reading the practical solutions offers some excellent insight.

Anyway, I’ll see how my schedule looks and give the Microsoft Scripting Games a try my hands at it.

Someday, I may actually post my answers to various challenges past and present on either this blog, or more likely on my wiki. I find that while reading is great theory, and hands-on is great experience, being able to regurgitate the steps and lessons on virtual paper for others to understand is the last step. When you can teach someone something, you reinforce your learning of it, even if the audience is non-existent and you’re just recording it down in a place no one else will look, or describing it to a loved one who really doesn’t care but is a willing sounding board.

Some *real* quick links from a Google search:
Windows PowerShell
Getting started (vbscript)
PowerShell blog and links
PowerShell FAQ

2 thoughts on “microsoft scripting games 2007

  1. I used to hate Windows scripting because of VBScript. PowerShell is actually really fun to work with, but VBS still worth knowing since every Windows box has it built in.
    See you at the games!

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