Microsoft Visual Basic Scripting Edition, the newest member of the Visual Basic family of programming languages, brings active scripting to a wide variety of environments, including Web client scripting in Microsoft Internet Explorer and Web server scripting in Microsoft Internet Information Server.

Easy to Use and Learn

If you already know Visual Basic or Visual Basic for Applications, VBScript will be very familiar. Even if you don't know Visual Basic, once you learn VBScript, you're on your way to programming with the whole family of Visual Basic languages. Although you can learn about VBScript in just these few Web pages, they don't teach you how to program. To get started programming, take a look at Step by Step books available from Microsoft Press.

ActiveX Scripting

VBScript talks to host applications using ActiveX® Scripting. With ActiveX Scripting, browsers and other host applications don't require special integration code for each scripting component. ActiveX Scripting enables a host to compile scripts, obtain and call entry points, and manage the namespace available to the developer. With ActiveX Scripting, language vendors can create standard language run times for scripting. Microsoft will provide run-time support for VBScript. Microsoft is working with various Internet groups to define the ActiveX Scripting standard so that scripting engines can be interchangeable. ActiveX Scripting is used in Microsoft® Internet Explorer and in Microsoft® Internet Information Server.

VBScript in Other Applications and Browsers

As a developer, you can license VBScript source implementation at no charge for use in your products. Microsoft provides binary implementations of VBScript for the 32-bit Windows® API, the 16-bit Windows API, and the Macintosh®. VBScript is integrated with World Wide Web browsers. VBScript and ActiveX Scripting can also be used as a general scripting language in other applications.