I don’t remember exactly when it happened but Microsoft had a scripting engine for JScript and VBScript for use in the browser and on the server. At some point they released Windows Script Host which allowed you to use the script engine outside the browser. Once I first tried VBScript under the Windows Scripting Host (WSH) I couldn’t stop coming up with reasons to use it.

I quickly found that I could use it to control Excel or Word. One of my first uses of it was to loop through all our Word documents and find out what types of objects were embedded in the documents. Through the power of COM you have access to all kinds of things with VBScript. It is also easy to write DLL’s to extend it’s functionality.

WSH provides two different types of runtime experience. Running your script with WScript.exe redirects your WScript.Echo commands to a MsgBox. Running your script with CScript.exe redirects your WScript.Echo to the console.

You have access to most COM objects so it is easy to even write scripts that manipulate databases using ADO. I have used VBScript to retrieve data from Oracle and Lotus Notes and save them in a 3rd database. Quickly and easily.

MSDN Scripting