Debugging VBScripts with Visual Studio .NET

How to debug a .vbs or .js file with Visual Studio .Net or Microsoft Script Debugger.

First off, your going to need a debugger... I prefer Visual Studio .NET but you can also use the MS Script Debugger.

First, you'll need a script to debug, so stick this code in notepad & save it to "c:\foo.vbs". Unless you already have your own of course.

'c:\foo.vbs
WScript.Echo "To Debut: Run -> cscript //d c:\foo.vbs"
WScript.Echo

num1 = 5
num2 = 13

'Here's your break point which will send this to the debugger.
STOP

WScript.Echo "num1: " & num1
WScript.Echo "num2: " & num2
WScript.Echo "num1 + num2: " & num1 + num2

WScript.Echo
Set oShell = CreateObject( "WScript.Shell" )
user=oShell.ExpandEnvironmentStrings("%UserName%")
comp=oShell.ExpandEnvironmentStrings("%ComputerName%")
WScript.Echo comp & "\" & user[/code]

Now you can start debugging the .vbs or.js file from Start -> Run or the Command Prompt.

Type:
cscript //d c:\foo.vbs (To use STOP as a breakpoint)
cscript //x c:\foo.vbs (To starting debugging immediately)

As soon as the Windows Script Host hits the STOP that is located after the first few lines, Windows will prompt you to select a debugger. Alternately, you can stick a //x to start the debugger at the start.

I just want to say how happy I was when I found this because manually debugging scripts was a really big PITA. If you have any problems, check out Microsoft's KB article #308364 because it just may help...


Thanks for reading and please leave a comment to let everyone know how this helped you out.