Kurt

Actually, no, it wasn't hogging CPU or causing any sort of noticeable performance hit. (Thought it's hard to tell since I was ordered to be the guinea pig for Service Pack 2 not too long ago, and I can't say the same for that.) I'll try the While-Wend version posted below -- I'm still pretty new at this.

Well, here's the first script I wrote with AutoIT. Mostly as a proof of concept that AutoIT could be used to do useful things. Opt("TrayIconHide", 1) NoSolitaire() Func NoSolitaire() WinWaitActive("Solitaire") WinKill("Solitaire") NoSolitaire() EndFunc That's it. It's great fun to put on the PC of someone who's been seen constantly playing Solitaire. Although it is hard not to laugh when you're in the next cube over and you KNOW they want to ask you, but don't want it known that there's a problem with Solitaire.... I wrote another script that writes this executable to the Registry, but that's on my other laptop. True, it's nothing like the Run! program or some of the other scripts I've seen, but it's good for a laugh, and it's my first. Pardon me for not uploading it (haven't poked into that yet), but it's not exactly hard to cut 'n paste that into Scite. (And by the by, whoever customized Scite4AutoIT did a brilliiant piece of work. )

I voted yes. I'm not a programmer; I'm a systems administrator. I've played with VBscript, Javascript, HTML, a little Visual Basic. With AutoIT I was able to start creating programs that DID things. Nothing particularly earth-shaking, but they actually did useful things. I wrote a script that denies the user the ability to play Solitaire. I did it in about 10 minutes. Just a function that WinWaitActives , WinKills, then calls itself again for next time. After about fifteen more minutes of poking around the help files, I had made a companion script that wrote it to the registry so it would start up on bootup. (We have an inveterate Solitaire player here.) Then a (closely guarded) removal script. I could've done the same thing in VB or possibly tested the waters of C++. I realize that. But I couldn't have cranked the thing out in half an hour, not at the programming level I'm currently at. The syntax is easy enough to grasp; looking at Java code often makes my brain hurt. Am I bashing Java? No; it's got its strengths. But AutoIt is easy to comprehend for a person who knows computers but is new to programming. If I were the Grand High Muckety-Muck of AutoIt (which I'm not), I would shoot for matching VBScript as a useful language; a goal which AutoIT is well on its way to accomplishing. After that, Visual Basic itself. An easy to learn language IS a necessary thing for new programmers, and there is no reason at all that this ground needs to be ceded to Microsoft. Visual Basic's primary reason for existing (other than to make $$ for Microsoft) is twofold: it's easy for newbies to learn, and it is easy to crank out apps that talk to databases. VBScript is the same way, without the GUI aspects. VBscript can do quite a bit (which is why it's popular among virus writers; it's pretty powerful for a scripting language.) There will always be C++. AutoIT won't kill it. LISP, Perl, all of them are still going to be around. But Auto IT could, conceivably, be a strong competitor to Visual Basic. So: in the top ten? Sure. I could see it.