[lobster_johnson]

It's been years since I used Windows APIs -- back then there was OLE Automation, which allowed dynamically, late-bound (call by name, really) RPC calls into COM from scripting languages. Has this been superceded by something else? Using IDL-defined COM interfaces from scripts sounds like something nobody would want to do.

[vertex-four]

Indeed, nobody would want to do that, which is why Powershell exists. Scripting VB or Javascript against COM or whatever else the software vendor decided to use was generally an awful experience, if the interface was even documented at all. Powershell replaces all of that for system administration purposes - you can even run Powershell commands easily from within any .Net application and get structured, object-oriented output, which is what at least all the Windows Server GUI stuff does now.

You're still stuck with OLE/COM for e.g. Excel automation, though, I think.

[innocentoldguy]

I'm having to do this on a project right now, and I wholeheartedly agree. Nobody would want to do this.