My name is Alan Kaplan; welcome to my blog. My posts concentrate on Windows scripting, administration and security.
My bio: I have been electronics hobbyist since my early teens, and became a computer hobbyist before the PC was marketed by IBM in 1982. I graduated from college with a degree in Philosophy, and went on to law school. For 16 years I was a practicing attorney in Charlotte, North Carolina, with a general civil practice. My practice included family law, personal injury, contract, and other general civil litigation matters. I ran child support collection court in Mecklenburg County for over 10 years.
My first macro was an envelope script for Apple Talk on an Apple III. When the PC came out in 1982, I began writing macros for WordPerfect DOS, which I released as shareware.
Although I was a competent and well regarded attorney, I never learned to “love the law”, as I had been promised in law school. I had a part-time computer consulting business for many years.
In 1998, I ran for Clerk of Superior Court for Mecklenburg County on a technology platform against a multi-term incumbent. (Thanks to the 65,853 people who voted for me). After losing the election, I closed my law practice and became a full-time computer consultant.
I have always been interested in automating tasks. During a year 2000 project I was told that the client wanted to use VBScript for their logon script. VBScript became my tool of choice. In 2000 I began a consulting job at the Department of Veterans Affairs. After four and one half years working as a consultant for the VA, I went to work for them, and have stayed with the VA at various positions ever since.
As a computer guy, I have specialized in SCCM, security, server and workstation management, and Active Directory, I write PowerShell, and VBScript scripts, and complex NT command files. I have also written in WinBatch and created SMS Installer executables.
Many years ago I authored macros for WordPerfect 5.0 and 5.1, which were favorably reviewed by both PC Magazine and PC World. I am a member of the Carolina IT Professionals Group and the Charlotte PowerShell User Group. I have been a guest author for the Microsoft Scripting Guy Blog.
I started writing and supporting freeware and shareware back in the early 1990’s because I wanted to give back to the online community. This was pre-internet, and the online community was a much smaller space. I have had people help me and I do the same. If you have any questions or problems with the scripts posted here, please send me a note. My personal email is my first name at the domain name.
Thanks for visiting.
Alan