Thread: Enabling and disabling Windows Scripting Host

The Windows Scripting Host is a potential security risk. Since you hardly use this function in any case, you want to disable the same. However, at the same time, you should be able to reactivate it quickly for running other scripts.

The Windows Scripting Host can be deactivated by means of a registry entry. If you wish to enable and disable this system function more often, it is worthwhile to spend some extra time at one go to integrate a new setting in the folder options of Windows Explorer.

DISABLING WSH:

To start with, we will explain the fundamental procedure here: To disable, open 'Run' in the Start Menu, enter 'regedit' and click 'OK'. Now navigate to the 'HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\ SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows Script Host\Settings' key, click on the right part of the window and open 'Edit I New I String Value'. Now enter the name 'Enabled' and press [Enter]. To edit, double-click the new entry, set the Value to '0' and confirm with 'OK'. The setting is effective immediately without a restart. As soon as you start a VBS script, an error message, saying that Windows Scripting Host is deactivated for this computer, is displayed. To enable, set the new value to '1' again.

Setting the change-over switch:

In order to integrate a change-over switch in the Internet Options of Windows Explorer, open Notepad and enter the lines given below.

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
[HKEY LOCAL MACHlNE\ SOFTWARE\Microsoft\ Windows\CurrentVersion\ Explorer\Advanced\Folder\ EnableScriptHost]

'Type'='checkbox' 'Text'='Windows Script Host enable'
'HKeyRoot' =dword: 80000001
'RegPa th' =' Software \\Microsoft\\
Windows Script Host\\Settings' 'ValueName'='Enabled' • 'CheckedValue'=dword:OOOOOOOl 'UncheckedValue'=dword:OOOOOOOO 'DefaultValue'=dword:OOOOOOOO

Save the content as 'Scripthost-option. reg' and close the editor. Now start the REG file with a double click. Confirm the same with 'Yes' and click 'OK', Windows will integrate the data automatically into the registry.

Activating WSH using the option:

In Windows Explorer, select the 'Tools I Folder Options' command and go to the 'View' tab. In the 'Advanced Settings' area, you will now find the new 'Activate Windows Scripting Host' option at the end, which is disabled by default. In the future, you can comfortably control the settings from here.