If you make a living from developing scripts and macros for applications, operating systems and servers, you’ll be less than happy to hear about Microsoft’s latest move.

Microsoft has launched a network where IT professionals will be able to download free scripts developed in-house.

Called the All-In-One Script Framework, the new site will be similar to the All-In-One Code Framework, Microsoft's free code library that has code samples showing how to solve common programming tasks based on developer feedback.

The first script samples were released on August 1, with two Office 365 automation script samples, three Windows Server / Windows Client scripts, and three Exchange Server 2010 script samples. 

According to the site, all the scripts are based on frequently asked IT tasks that the team collected in TechNet forums and Microsoft Support Incidents. 

The blog post about the new site says that samples will illustrate the frequently asked IT scripting scenarios of Microsoft products including Windows Server, Windows Client, SQL Server, Exchange, Office 365, SharePoint, Lync, Dynamics, and Internet Information Server through scripting languages such as PowerShell, VBScript and T-SQL.

The first crop of scripts includes ways to modify mailbox folder permissions in Excel, and to report Exchange 2010 warnings and errors - an interesting inclusion, given these are gathered from frequent posts in the forums! There’s also a script to help monitor the growth of mailboxes.

If you are grinding your teeth at the thought of Microsoft handing out free scripts instead of letting developers make a living, one positive thought is the fact that they’re essentially formalizing the scripts already made available in the forums.

Feel better?

No, nor do we.

Free scripts are great for the users but not so great for the producers.