AutoIT vs Power Shell

[k93]

How does AutoIT compare to Power Shell is terms of functionality, complexity and learning curve?

Currently my interest is for non-GUI functionality, especially for disk/folder/file management, PC maintenance, registry work, date/time, string maniputation, file I/O, interfacing with MS Office, interaction with external programs such as robocopy, access to and work on networked PCs and storage.

 

[BrewManNH]

I'd say they're roughly equal, powershell may come out slightly ahead in some areas and AutoIt in others, choose the one that you feel more comfortable with.

[k93]

Is the learning curve for AutoIT less than Power Shell, especially if one uses it only occationally?

[BrewManNH]

With AutoIt's help file and this forum, there's pretty much everything needed to learn how to use it available and easily accessible. I don't use power shell, so I don't know what kind of support it has available.

[water]

Can't say anything about learning curve etc.

I've only used it once to create an Exchange mailbox. Performance is horrible. It takes forever to create the PS environment and it takes much, much memory to run. Creating a mailbox takes about 80MB of storage and about 20 seconds to process (the script is not being run on the Exchange server). That's bad if you have to create a lot of mailboxes at once.

[JLogan3o13]

The drawbacks to Powershell, in my mind:

• If I want to run a PS script on a machine, I have to install PowerShell. There is no standalone option like with AutoIt (unless I convert it to a .Net app).
• When connecting to remote servers, PS is known to leave some holes open, which is a potential security issue.
• This from just my personal experience, and in agreement with what water states - I have never done a PS script that I could not do as well, and that runs more efficiently, with AutoIt.

[AdamUL]

I prefer AutoIt, but if I have to use PowerShell for some things.  I use the >PowerShell COM UDF to integrate PowerShell into my AutoIt scripts where it is needed.  I haven't had to do this very often, as AutoIt does what I need it to do.  

On the learning curve, it depends on what you want to due.  For what I'm using AutoIt for, I have found it easier to learn AutoIt, then PowerShell.  For some things, the syntax for PowerShell is surprisingly similar to AutoIt.  

 

Adam

[DicatoroftheUSA]

Ask the same question on a powershell forum, and put the cross-link on this page for comparison. Of course you will get biased answers.

Edited February 19, 2014 by DicatoroftheUSA