Easy, free VBScript debugging

As sys-admins we have to write scripts. Although the new thing is PowerShell, we still have a lot of old legacy scripts in VBScript.

I was searching for an easy way to debug a VBScript, the way software developers do it using an IDE… but I do not want to install the whole Visual Studio package. Sure there are non Microsoft tools to do it, but I could not find a good, free one.

After a lot of trials and tribulations, I found the easy way to debug a VBScript:

1. Install MS debugger. (download it from here). Yes it is super old, but still works, I tested it on Windows 8.1
2. On a command prompt, start debugging by invoking debugging like this:

c:\windows\syswow64\cscript.exe (script_path_and_name) //X

Note that a simple “cscript.exe (script_path_and_name) //X” does not work (for me at least). I need to invoke the 64bit cscript.