https://www.theregister.com/2023/10/10/microsoft_says_vbscript_will_be/ # # Sign in / up The Register(r) -- Biting the hand that feeds IT # # # Topics Security Security All SecurityCyber-crimePatchesResearchCSO (X) Off-Prem Off-Prem All Off-PremEdge + IoTChannelPaaS + IaaSSaaS (X) On-Prem On-Prem All On-PremSystemsStorageNetworksHPCPersonal TechCxOPublic Sector (X) Software Software All SoftwareAI + MLApplicationsDatabasesDevOpsOSesVirtualization (X) Offbeat Offbeat All OffbeatDebatesColumnistsScienceGeek's GuideBOFHLegalBootnotesSite NewsAbout Us (X) Special Features Special Features All Special Features Cloud Infrastructure Week Cybersecurity Month Blackhat and DEF CON Sysadmin Month The Reg in Space Emerging Clean Energy Tech Week Spotlight on RSA Energy Efficient Datacenters Vendor Voice Vendor Voice Vendor Voice All Vendor VoiceAmazon Web Services (AWS) Business TransformationDDN Google Cloud Data TransformationGoogle Cloud for StartupsGoogle Cloud InfrastructureGoogle WorkspaceHewlett Packard Enterprise: AI & ML solutionsHewlett Packard Enterprise: Edge-to-Cloud PlatformIntel vPro VMware (X) Resources Resources Whitepapers Webinars & Events Newsletters [oses] OSes comment bubble on black Microsoft says VBScript will be ripped from Windows in a future release comment bubble on black It's PowerShell or something similar in the not too distant future icon Thomas Claburn Tue 10 Oct 2023 // 22:29 UTC # Microsoft has stopped developing VBScript after a 27-year relationship and plans to remove the scripting language entirely in a future Windows release. The Windows biz said on Monday that VBScript, short for Visual Basic Scripting Edition, has been deprecated in an update to its list of "Deprecated features for Windows client." "VBScript is being deprecated," Microsoft said. "In future releases of Windows, VBScript will be available as a feature on demand before its removal from the operating system." [oses] Only a month ago, Microsoft announced the pending retirement of another software elder, WordPad. [oses] [oses] VBScript debuted in 1996 and its most recent release, version 5.8, dates back to 2010. It is a scripting language, and was for a while widely used among system administrators to automate tasks until it was eclipsed by PowerShell, which debuted in 2006. "Microsoft Visual Basic Scripting Edition 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 Service," Redmond explains in its help documentation. [oses] Unfortunately, Microsoft never managed to get other browser makers to support VBScript, so outside of Microsoft-exclusive environments, web developers tended to favor JavaScript for client-side tasks. * Farewell WordPad, we hardly knew ye * Microsoft does not want ValueLicensing CEO anywhere near its confidentiality ring * Microsoft drops official support for Python 3.7 in Visual Studio Code * Microsoft Cortana's farewell tour comes to the Windows Insider program It's not as if anyone didn't see this coming. At least as far back as 2016, Microsoft said VBScript was deprecated in Internet Explorer. In 2017, Zhihua Lai, a Microsoft software engineer based in the UK, launched a website called IsVBScriptDead.com that argues all's well with the scripting language. VBScript, he says, "My favorite programming language..." The claim that VBScript is alive and well became harder to sustain two years later when, in August 2019, Microsoft disabled VBScript in Internet Explorer, before retiring Internet Explorer in June 2022. Nonetheless, the VBScript website, last updated December 31, 2020, insists, "VBScript may seem outdated, and the support for VBScript is discontinued, but it is still being used in many places. Windows administrators may find it easier to learn/write than Powershell scripts." [oses] VBScript's pending demise also means the end for Microsoft Deployment Toolkit, which depends on VBScript. MDT is already on notice now that it's not supported with Windows 11. Microsoft's planned discontinuation of VBScript may be in part motivated by security concerns, given that VBScript can be a malware vector. 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