Re: Almost cool: removable drive "finder" instead of windows autoplay

Can you try this? I wrote this sub:

####################################################################
#
# This function returns a list of logical drives in Windows.
# Each list element starts with drive letter, followed by
# drive type, serial number, file system, label, total space
# and free space. All items will be separated by a '*' character.
#
# If one or more letters are provided as an argument,
# then data will be returned only about those drives.
# Example:
#   GetDriveInfo('CE') => Returns data about drive C: and E:
# If drive E: does not exist, then it will be left
# out of the list!
#
# Usage: STRING = GetDriveInfo([DRIVEs])
#
sub GetDriveInfo
{
  my $DRIVES = defined $_[0] ? $_[0] : 'ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ';
  return RunJS("V='$DRIVES';try{FSO=new ActiveXObject('Scripting.FileS
+ystemObject');}catch(e){WScript.Quit(0);}A=[];function ToHex(N){N|=0;
+var i,X='';for(i=0;i<32;i+=4)X='0123456789ABCDEF'.charAt((N>>i)&15)+X
+;return X;}for(i=0;i<V.length;i++){L=V.charAt(i)+':';if(FSO.DriveExis
+ts(L)){D=FSO.GetDrive(L);if(D.IsReady){S=ToHex(D.SerialNumber)+'*'+D.
+FileSystem+'*'+D.VolumeName+'*'+D.TotalSize+'*'+D.FreeSpace;}A.push(L
++'*'+D.DriveType+'*'+S);}}WScript.StdOut.WriteLine(A.join(\"\\r\\n\")
+);");
}


#
# Usage: INTEGER = RunJS(JSCODE)
#
sub RunJS
{
  no warnings;
  $^O =~ m/MSWIN/i && defined $_[0] && length($_[0]) or return 0;
  mkdir "C:\\TEMP";
  my $TEMPFILE = "C:\\TEMP\\JSTMP001.JS";
  my $CSCRIPT = "C:\\WINDOWS\\SYSTEM32\\CSCRIPT.EXE";
  -f $CSCRIPT or return 0;
  local *FILE;
  open(FILE, ">$TEMPFILE") or return 0;
  binmode FILE;
  print FILE $_[0];
  close FILE;
  -f $TEMPFILE && -s $TEMPFILE == length($_[0]) or return 0;
  my $E = system("$CSCRIPT //NOLOGO $TEMPFILE");
  unlink $TEMPFILE;
  return $E + 1;
}
[download]

Comment on Re: Almost cool: removable drive "finder" instead of windows autoplay Download Code

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Re^2: Almost cool: removable drive "finder" instead of windows autoplay by pryrt (Abbot) on Jun 08, 2025 at 19:52 UTC
You used Perl to call an external JavaScript interpreter to call a scripting object that is not native to either. I can get those same numbers from the underlying Win32 API using a couple of easy Perl modules. It's amazing what you can do in Perl without resorting to external executables calling external interpreters when you are willing to use a module or two. # Recreate the JS in actual Perl with Win32-based modules, because the +re's no reason to spawn a javascript interpreter to run a ScriptingOb +ject library to do the underlying win32 api calls that they wrap use warnings; use strict; use Win32API::File (); # comes pre-installed with Strawberry +Perl use Win32::DriveInfo (); # installed using `cpanm Win32::DriveI +nfo` sub GetDriveInfoPL { my $drives = defined $_[0] ? $_[0] : join('', 'A'..'Z'); local $\ = "\n"; my $retval = "\nPerl Gets:\n"; for ( split //, $drives ) { my $drive = $_ . ':'; # GetDriveType is one of many ways to determine whether it's a +n active drive or not, with the benefit that it can distinguish betwe +en types of drives my $type = Win32API::File::GetDriveType($drive); next unless $type > Win32API::File::DRIVE_NO_ROOT_DIR; my $typestr = (qw/DRIVE_UNKNOWN DRIVE_NO_ROOT_DIR DRIVE_REMOVA +BLE DRIVE_FIXED DRIVE_REMOTE DRIVE_CDROM DRIVE_RAMDISK/)[$type]; #print "GetDriveType($drive) = $type => $typestr"; my $fsotype = $type - 1; # the FSO .DriveType is off-by-one fr +om the Win32API::File::GetDriveType() call: <https://learn.microsoft. +com/en-us/office/vba/language/reference/user-interface-help/drivetype +-property> # GetVolumeInformation grabs most of the attributes available +from the FSO Drive object properties warn "GetVolumeInformation($drive) failed: $^E\n" unless Win32 +API::File::GetVolumeInformation("${drive}/", my $osVolName, 99, my $o +uSerialNum, my $ouMaxNameLen, my $ouFsFlags, my $osFsType, 99 ); my $hexSerialNum = sprintf '%X', $ouSerialNum; #print "GetVolumeInformation(${drive}/) => $osVolName, $ouSeri +alNum = 0x$hexSerialNum, $ouMaxNameLen, $ouFsFlgs, $osFsType"; #... except size info, which can be gotten through Win32::Driv +eInfo my @space = Win32::DriveInfo::DriveSpace($drive); #print "DriveSpace($drive) = ", join ', ', @space; $retval .= "$drive$fsotype$hexSerialNum$osFsType$osVolName +$space[5]$space[6]\n"; } print $retval; } # GetDriveInfoJS(); # this is the GetDriveInfo sub from [harangsolt33] +'s answer (so not repeated here) GetDriveInfoPL(); [download] and the results: `JS Gets: C:2BE093728NTFSOS1001296752640719091134464 J:3BBA13F0FNTFSMyNAS29842102026242221555318784 T:3448F8317exFATOffBrand Cloud Drive5476083302454619620864 Perl Gets: C:2BE093728NTFSOS1001296752640719091134464 J:3BBA13F0FNTFSMyNAS29842102026242221555318784 T:3448F8317exFATOffBrand Cloud Drive5476083302454619620864` [download] (volume labels obfuscated)	[reply] [d/l] [select]
Re^2: Almost cool: removable drive "finder" instead of windows autoplay by Intrepid (Curate) on Jun 08, 2025 at 18:37 UTC
Well, it runs. I have to be honest, it's a torturous way to go about getting drive info; writing a temp file, executing a different language's interpreter, and so on. But it's a trick some of us might not have seen before (cscript.exe invoked by perl). That aspect of your code intrigues me, I'll file it away for future reference. Jun 08, 2025 at 18:37 UTC	[reply]