Windows Me Annoyances

Using Command-Line Parameters in Scripts

A command-line parameter is a bit of text specified after the filename of a script when it is executed from a command prompt (see the following examples). The function to convert a single command-line parameter into a variable is the following:

Function CommandLine(Number)
  Set Arguments = WScript.Arguments
  If Number <= Arguments.Count Then 
    CommandLine = Arguments(Number - 1)
  Else
    CommandLine = ""
  End If
End Function

For example, to display the second command-line parameter passed to a script, issue the following statement:

MsgBox CommandLine(2)

Although the command line may seem to be an antiquated concept, it’s still very much a part of Windows. When you double-click on a .vbs file, for example, Windows actually executes the following command:

wscript.exe filename.vbs

where filename.vbs (the file that was double-clicked) is the command-line parameter for wscript.exe, telling it which script to run. Scripts also accept command-line parameters, which is accomplished like this:

wscript.exe filename.vbs param1 param2

The two additional parameters, param1 and param2, are both passed to the script as command-line parameters when it is run.

The problem with providing command-line arguments to your script is that Windows considers scripts to be documents instead of executables. This means that you can’t run a script with a command-line parameter without typing; you can’t drag a file onto a script icon or put a script directly into your Send To menu. ...