A facility within Windows that executes VBScript and JScript, which are Microsoft's ActiveX scripting languages. Via the installation of additional scripting engines, Windows Script Host (WSH) can execute programs in PerlScript, Ruby, Python and other scripting languages. The scripts can be run from the desktop using the WSCRIPT.EXE program or from a command line using CSCRIPT.EXE.
Windows supports commands and batch files similar to DOS, but the Windows Script Host, introduced with Windows 98, enables a lot more comprehensive set of languages to be run in the Windows environment. Such languages can gain access to more internal functions than can the batch commands. In most cases, Windows Script Host has given way to Microsoft's PowerShell. See
VBScript,
JScript and
PowerShell.