Windows Script Host: Sending an Email Attachment with Microsoft Outlook

If Microsoft Office applications are installed on the target, they can be accessed via their COM automation interfaces. The example script below illustrates how Outlook can be used to email a file attachment. The script takes command line arguments for the recipient email address and the pathname of the file attachment. If Outlook is already running, the script gets a reference to its process and sends the email message. If it is not running, Outlook will be instantiated in a headless mode and it will send the message and terminate. In the latter case, the only visual indication a user would have that the Outlook was running would be a brief appearance of the Outlook icon in the system tray.

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' SendMailWithAttachment.vbs

' Uses Microsoft Outlook to create and send a message with a file attachment.

' The recipient's address and file are passed on the command line.

dim Args, Outlook, MAPI, RecipientAddress, Subject, Body, Message

dim FileSystemObject, AttachmentPathName, AttachmentName

if WScript.Arguments.Length <> 2 then

WScript.Echo "Usage: SendMailWithAttachment.vbs <Recipient Address> " + _

"<Attachment Absolute Pathname>"

WScript.Quit

end if

set Args = WScript.Arguments

RecipientAddress = Args.Item(0)

AttachmentPathName = Args.Item(1)

' Get a reference to Outlook if it is already running.

' If not, start it.

set Outlook = WScript.GetObject("", "Outlook.Application")

if Outlook is nothing then

WScript.Echo "Launching Outlook"

set Outlook = WScript.CreateObject("Outlook.Application")

else

WScript.Echo "Outlook was already running"

end if

set FileSystemObject = CreateObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject")

AttachmentName = FileSystemObject.GetFileName(AttachmentPathName)

Subject = "Testing Outlook script automation"

Body = "This is a test message from SendMailWithAttachment.vbs" + vbCrLf

set Outlook = WScript.CreateObject("Outlook.Application")

set MAPI = Outlook.GetNamespace("MAPI")

WScript.Echo "Generating message"

set Message = Outlook.CreateItem(olMailItem)

Message.Subject = Subject

Message.Body = Body

Message.To = RecipientAddress

WScript.Echo "Attaching file: " + AttachmentPathName

Message.Attachments.Add(AttachmentPathName).Displayname = AttachmentName

Message.Save

WScript.Echo "Sending message..."

Message.Send

WScript.Echo "Message sent"

set Outlook = nothing

set MAPI = nothing

Here is a sample invocation of the script and its output

D:\wsh>cscript SendMailWithAttachment.vbs aginos@webmd.net D:\wsh\test.txt

Microsoft (R) Windows Script Host Version 5.8

Copyright (C) Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

Outlook was already running

Generating message

Attaching file: D:\wsh\test.txt

Sending message...

Message sent