Running command line silently with VbScript and getting output?

I am pretty new to all of this, but I found that if the script is started via CScript.exe (console scripting host) there is no window popping up on exec(): so when running:

cscript myscript.vbs //nologo

any .Exec() calls in the myscript.vbs do not open an extra window, meaning that you can use the first variant of your original solution (using exec).

(Note that the two forward slashes in the above code are intentional, see cscript /?)


I have taken this and various other comments and created a bit more advanced function for running an application and getting the output.

Example to Call Function: Will output the DIR list of C:\ for Directories only. The output will be returned to the variable CommandResults as well as remain in C:\OUTPUT.TXT.

CommandResults = vFn_Sys_Run_CommandOutput("CMD.EXE /C DIR C:\ /AD",1,1,"C:\OUTPUT.TXT",0,1)

Function

Function vFn_Sys_Run_CommandOutput (Command, Wait, Show, OutToFile, DeleteOutput, NoQuotes)
'Run Command similar to the command prompt, for Wait use 1 or 0. Output returned and
'stored in a file.
'Command = The command line instruction you wish to run.
'Wait = 1/0; 1 will wait for the command to finish before continuing.
'Show = 1/0; 1 will show for the command window.
'OutToFile = The file you wish to have the output recorded to.
'DeleteOutput = 1/0; 1 deletes the output file. Output is still returned to variable.
'NoQuotes = 1/0; 1 will skip wrapping the command with quotes, some commands wont work
'                if you wrap them in quotes.
'----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
  On Error Resume Next
  'On Error Goto 0
    Set f_objShell = CreateObject("Wscript.Shell")
    Set f_objFso = CreateObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject")
    Const ForReading = 1, ForWriting = 2, ForAppending = 8
      'VARIABLES
        If OutToFile = "" Then OutToFile = "TEMP.TXT"
        tCommand = Command
        If Left(Command,1)<>"""" And NoQuotes <> 1 Then tCommand = """" & Command & """"
        tOutToFile = OutToFile
        If Left(OutToFile,1)<>"""" Then tOutToFile = """" & OutToFile & """"
        If Wait = 1 Then tWait = True
        If Wait <> 1 Then tWait = False
        If Show = 1 Then tShow = 1
        If Show <> 1 Then tShow = 0
      'RUN PROGRAM
        f_objShell.Run tCommand & ">" & tOutToFile, tShow, tWait
      'READ OUTPUT FOR RETURN
        Set f_objFile = f_objFso.OpenTextFile(OutToFile, 1)
          tMyOutput = f_objFile.ReadAll
          f_objFile.Close
          Set f_objFile = Nothing
      'DELETE FILE AND FINISH FUNCTION
        If DeleteOutput = 1 Then
          Set f_objFile = f_objFso.GetFile(OutToFile)
            f_objFile.Delete
            Set f_objFile = Nothing
          End If
        vFn_Sys_Run_CommandOutput = tMyOutput
        If Err.Number <> 0 Then vFn_Sys_Run_CommandOutput = "<0>"
        Err.Clear
        On Error Goto 0
      Set f_objFile = Nothing
      Set f_objShell = Nothing
  End Function

You can redirect output to a file and then read the file:

return = WshShell.Run("cmd /c C:\snmpset -c ... > c:\temp\output.txt", 0, true)

Set fso  = CreateObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject")
Set file = fso.OpenTextFile("c:\temp\output.txt", 1)
text = file.ReadAll
file.Close