Windows Me Annoyances

Manipulating Internet Explorer from Scripts

Because VBScript owes its existence, in part, to Internet Explorer, it seems only fair that there would be some integration between WSH and IE. The key is the Internet Explorer object and the properties and methods associated with it.

Begin with the following lines in your script (which start IE) initialize the IE object, and open a blank IE window:

Set IEObject = CreateObject("InternetExplorer.Application")
IF Err.number <> 0 Then
   MsgBox "Internet Explorer Not Found."
   wScript.Quit
End If
IEObject.Left = 75
IEObject.Top = 75
IEObject.Width=400
IEObject.Height=300
IEObject.Menubar=0
IEObject.Toolbar=0
IEObject.Navigate "About:Blank"
IEObject.Visible=1
Do while IEObject.Busy
  Rem—wait for window to open --
Loop

Note the error checking at the beginning, which quits if there’s a problem loading Internet Explorer. The subsequent commands customize the window to our needs; the Left, Top, Width, and Height properties are all in pixels; for the MenuBar and Toolbar properties, 0 means hidden and 1 means visible. Lastly, the Navigate property specifies the URL to load.

Once the IEObject.Visible=1 command is issued, the window appears, and the real fun begins. The following lines are used to construct a simple page:

IEObject.Document.Write "<html>"
IEObject.Document.Write "<h1>Hello World</h1>"
IEObject.Document.Write "<p>"
IEObject.Document.Write "<i>Aren't we sick of that phrase yet?</i>"
IEObject.Document.Write "</html>"

This has nearly limitless ...