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I need some help automating some tasks in XP. Most of them are of console nature. Now in Linux this probably wouldn't be too difficult to pull off but I'm not too acquainted with Windows automation capabilities. There are couple of scripts I need. I presume there are ways to script this in Windows 7 using Microsoft-DOS but I'm unsure. Just to be clear I'm merely listing what I would need to be done, so you know what feature set I require, I'm not asking to write scripts for me.

Script #1
1. Zip folder
2. Add the rest of the folder including the previous zip into SVN.
3. Open Zip and overwrite some folder.

Script #2
1. Copy file to a specific folder
2. Execute that file in a browser

So what tool would allow me to automate these tasks?

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There are endless number of tools. I guess the question is what are you trying to do?? – surfasb Nov 15 '11 at 8:25
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2 Answers

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The inbuilt Task Scheduler will allow you to do all that easily (I'm presuming you know how to write simple batch scripts?). In Windows 7 it's accessible through Administrative Tools.

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Only superficially, I know echo and calling programs from command line. Toss a few links about more advanced stuff (e.g. zipping/extracting files in Windows 7) and I'll consider this answered. – Daniel Fath Jul 17 '11 at 16:27
This is a great resource for using 7zip from the command line: dotnetperls.com/7-zip-examples You should be able to just run eg. path_to_firefox.exe <filename>. – Andrew Moss Jul 18 '11 at 7:15
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up vote 1 down vote

If you expect to be automating windows on a regular basis (or even if not really) it would probably be worth the effort to learn Powershell. It is the scripting language that MS plans to move to for automation. Most current MS products (including Operating Systems) already support it and MS has committed to making as many future products as possible support easy automation via Powershell.

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You could also use the Scripting host along with VBScript or JScript. – surfasb Nov 15 '11 at 8:24
You could do that. The only drawback is that you would be spending your time learning technology that MS has said they will no longer be improving as opposed to learning a technology that they have said they will be improving moving forward. – EBGreen Nov 15 '11 at 15:41
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