VBS in HTA cannot find specific file but Batch can

Question

I have a HTA to do some tasks, this sub is for manipulating some local directories. When I run this line:

oShell.run "rename ""C:\DSS\Scanbay\Data"" ""DataX"""

it doesnt work, naturally I have defined oShell ect...

When I run this line as a batch file:

rename "C:\DSS\Scanbay\Data" "DataX"

it works fine!

I cannot figure out why the vbs returns file not found error, any help please?

Try oShell.Run "cmd /c rename ""C:\DSS\Scanbay\Data"" ""DataX"" instead. You might find SS64 on VBScript '.Run' useful. The .ShellExecute method might also be of interest. — Jeff Zeitlin
The RENAME command is an internal cmd.exe command so if you are not explicitly within a batch file or at a cmd prompt you will need to specifiy the use of CMD /C within your vbscript as @JeffZeitlin has pointed out. — Squashman

Ansgar Wiechers Ansgar Wiechers · Accepted Answer · 2017-10-25T15:07:28

As others have already pointed out, rename is a CMD-builtin command, not an external program that you can invoke directly. You can invoke it via CMD, though:

oShell.Run "cmd /c rename ""C:\DSS\Scanbay\Data"" ""DataX"""

With that said, a better approach to renaming files or folders would be using the FileSystemObject:

Set fso = CreateObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject")

Set d = fso.GetFolder("C:\DSS\Scanbay\Data")
d.Name = "DataX"

VBS in HTA cannot find specific file but Batch can

1 Answers