Introduction

Microsoft has officially announced deprecating of VBScript language from future versions of Windows. As per Microsoft, it will be an optional feature in future releases and will be preinstalled to allow uninterrupted usage for VBScript customers, while they get opportunity to migrate their scripts to other supported technologies. Microsoft Windows 11 Insider Preview Build released to Canary channel already has this change. Please refer the links in the References section for more information.

Solution

We recommend our customers who are currently using VBScript to start their migration process to another scripting option before Microsoft announces its complete removal in future releases. In InstallShield, VBScript has been widely used by customers to write automated build scripts and MSI custom actions. As an alternative to VBScript, we suggest using PowerShell or DLL based custom actions based on the customer use cases. Please explore blog posts and knowledge base articles available in InstallShield community for the PowerShell related topics.

References

InstallShield automation sample scripts using PowerShell:

https://community.revenera.com/s/InstallShield-Knowledge-Base/Use-PowerShell-to-Create-a-Project-and-Add-a-PowerShell-Custom/ta-p/184098

https://www.revenera.com/blog/software-installation/getting-started-with-installshield-automation-and-powershell/

Calling PowerShell custom actions:

https://docs.revenera.com/installshield/helplibrary/CAPowerShell.htm

Deprecated features list from Microsoft:

Resources for deprecated features in the Windows client - What's new in Windows | Microsoft Learn

Deprecated features in the Windows client - What's new in Windows | Microsoft Learn