One of the most appealing aspects of a Windows network is the fact that Windows servers have a detailed GUI, which you can navigate to figure out how to accomplish most tasks. This makes it fairly easy to learn the basics of managing a Windows network. However, to get to the advanced stages of Windows administration and to most effectively manage a Windows network, you must learn how to take advantage of Windows' command line tools and scripting options—the two of them often work together. Of course, the most popular implementation of these two options involves the use of logon scripts.

To help you get up to speed on creating your own logon scripts and using scripting for other time-saving tasks, we have combined the articles from Allen Rouse's popular eight-part series on scripting in a Windows network. The result is our "Scripting guide for Windows administrators," which you can download for free.