A COM object to extend the WSH environment
Many everyday programming problems exist for which the Windows Script Host (WSH) object model just can't provide a definitive and satisfying solution. The WSH object model is designed to offer minimal support to scripters—a sort of survival kit. Certainly, the WSH object model can't compete with the Windows software development kit (SDK); indeed, it isn't supposed to.
The WSH object model collects facilities for script programmers, but if you consider it a kind of COM-automation version of the Windows SDK, you couldn't be further from the truth. For example, tasks that you can easily accomplish in Microsoft Visual Basic (VB) are impossible in VBScript. This month, I illustrate some of these problems and provide a COM object that solves them.
The Windows XP Password Component
In Bob Wells, Rem, November 2001, InstantDoc ID 22712, Wells answered a question about whether WSH has a component that can accept and verify a password without displaying it as the user types it in a text box. Although WSH doesn't provide a facility for data entry, you can rely on the services of VBScript's InputBox function to obtain basic input functionalities. However, the dialog box that the InputBox function displays works only with clear text and provides no programmatic way to hide the typed text. . . .
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