News

Microsoft Makes Free Script Repository Available Online

• By Kurt Mackie
• 08/02/2012

Microsoft recently unveiled a new Web portal that provides free scripts for IT professionals using Microsoft server products. The all-in-one script framework for IT pros site is an ongoing effort in which a Microsoft team develops scripts for users based on their feedback. The feedback is selected by the team from Microsoft's TechNet forum pages, as well as other social media, plus Microsoft's incident support.

The Microsoft team responsible for building the scripts decides on what scripts to create based on frequently asked questions, with the goal of developing scripts that will save time for IT pros, according to Microsoft's announcement.

The all-in-one script framework team has already spent about three months' time focused on the task, and they've produced 29 scripts to support typical IT pro tasks. The scripts are written in PowerShell, VBScript, T-SQL, JavaScript and other scripting languages. Exchange 2010 seems well represented in the current mix so far, but the portal is designed to house scripts that support various Microsoft products, such as Windows Server, Windows client, SharePoint and Microsoft Office, as well as cloud-based Office 365 software.

A few Office 365 scripts are available, as described in this blog post. There are scripts to report mailbox folder permissions and modify them. Another script will report Exchange 2010 warnings and errors. It's also possible to get a script that will report on mailbox database use, which can be used to monitor the growth of mailbox sizes.

Microsoft's announcement suggested that it already has 200 more scripts planned for the next year. Emerging Microsoft products also will be supported, such as Windows 8 and Window Server 2012.

The idea of building the all-in-one script framework for IT pros came from an existing resource that Microsoft had already produced for developers. Microsoft's "all-in-one code framework for developers" is an earlier sister site that currently houses about 3,500 free code samples specifically designed for application developers.