Scripting has become an enormously popular method of managing and maintaining Windows NT and 2000 networks—as evidenced by the success of Windows NT Shell Scripting, which has sold over 30,000 copies in 2 years. Simpler than programming, yet allowing greater complexity and utility than packaged network management tools, scripting is now the tool of choice by many of you network administrators. Perl is yet another powerful element of the scripting arsenal, yet since it has been ported to the Windows environment, very little information has been published on how to employ this extremely effective tool. Win32 Perl is so powerful that it can accomplish virtually any task that you may want to perform. Dave Roth, prolific creator of Win32 extensions, is prepared to share his unique insight into how these tasks can be accomplished and provide scripts that can be immediately employed. This book illustrates how Perl can automate many current mundane administrative tasks.

One of the scripts needed to find a process by name. If the process wasn't running the script needed to start a new instance and send out an e-mail to notify the support team. Using Roth's book I was up and running in a matter of hours. Prior to that I had spent days combing the Internet looking for tips on digging into the bowels of Windows (not a pleasant image) with Perl.

Roth gives you multiple ways to tackle a problem, but voices his opinion on why you might want to choose one method over another. However, at times he makes assumptions about your knowledge of Windows which can lead to frustration. His section on WMI (Windows Management Instrumentation) is very brief for such a complex subject for example.

I wouldn't recommend this book for someone new to Perl, but if you are familiar with Perl and need to write scripts for Windows you will find Roth's book useful indeed.