I often need to run a command multiple times (hundreds/thousands), and instead of using a really long batchfile and waiting for each command to run sequentially, I came up with this script (ghetto_threads.pl).

The script takes two arguments from the command-line.
1 - The command to execute(use quotes if the command contains spaces)
2 - a text file containing additional arguments (typically a list of hostnames) to be passed to the command specified.(use quotes if the path/filename contains spaces)

I mainly use this for things like ping, nslookup,WMI queries, etc..., but I'm sure someone will have another use I haven't thought of.

I know it is not pretty.... but it works for me...

#Ghetto threading - for Windows...

#Usage:
#ghetto_threads.pl "myCommand.exe /option argument" "path/to/list_of_m
+achines_to_execute_against.txt"
use warnings;
use strict;

my $maxThreads = 50; #maximum number of commands running at one time

my $cmd = $ARGV[0];
my $list = $ARGV[1];

print "Command: $cmd\n";

open(F, $list) or die "$!\n";
  while(<F>){
    chomp $_; #remove the newline character
    spawn($cmd,$_); #create a new thread
  }
close F;

sub spawn{
  #Create a new instance of $cmd
  my $cmd = shift;
  my $arg = shift;
  return unless $arg;
  #if the current number of running threads
  # is less than the maximum allowed, run the command.
  if ( processAccounting($cmd) < $maxThreads ){
    if ($cmd =~ /\.vbs$/){
      # if the command specified is a .vbs file, suppress the VBScript
+ logo text
      print "$cmd($arg)->" . system("start /B $cmd //NoLogo $arg") . "
+\n";
    } else {
      print "$cmd($arg)->" . system("start /B $cmd $arg") . "\n";
    }
  } else {
    print "$cmd($arg)->No threads available.\nWaiting for available th
+read..\n";
    sleep(1);
    spawn($cmd,$arg);
  }
}

sub processAccounting{
  #List the number of $cmd instances
  my $procCount = 0;
  my $cmd = shift;
  use Win32::Process::List;
  my $P = Win32::Process::List->new();
  my %list = $P->GetProcesses();
  foreach my $key ( keys %list ) {
    # $list{$key} is now the process name and $key is the PID
    if ( ($cmd =~ /vbs$/) && ($list{$key} =~ /wscript\.exe/ || $list{$
+key} =~ /cscript\.exe/) ){
      print "$list{$key} has PID $key\n";
      $procCount++;
    } elsif ($list{$key} =~ /$cmd/){
      print "$list{$key} has PID $key\n";
      $procCount++;
    }
  }
  print "Threads: $procCount\n";
  return($procCount);
}
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