Hide Password Input

Well..... short answer is no.  You could use a VBScript with some complex code like this:

http://www.edugeek.net/forums/coding/6951-masking-password-inputbox-vbscript.html

(Pqassword function that calls IE half way down). or mask it a little by changing screen colours, e.g. with a bit of fiddling you can make a small popup for entering using just batch:

@echo off
Echo Please enter your password in the popup window and then press enter
set tempbat="%temp%\p.cmd"

REM Create temporary batch file to make popup window for entering password 'masked'
echo mode 20,1 >%tempbat%
echo color 01 >>%tempbat%
echo Title Enter Password >>%tempbat%
echo setlocal enabledelayedexpansion >>%tempbat%
echo set /p Pass= >>%tempbat%
echo echo !pass!^>"%temp%\pass.txt" >>%tempbat%
echo exit >>%tempbat%
echo exit >>%tempbat%

start /wait "" %tempbat%

set /p Password=<"%temp%\pass.txt"
echo The password is %password%

Which incorporated in your script is:

@ECHO OFF
rem setting the date variable for the Logfiles
 
FOR /F "TOKENS=1 DELIMS=/ " %%d IN ('DATE/T') DO SET DD=%%d
FOR %%A IN (%Date:/=%) DO SET Today=%%A
call :getpassword
@echo ##################################################################
@echo #                                       Script Done By Sybase DBA's                                        #
@echo #                                         Press "Y" To Run The Script                                         #
@echo ##################################################################
 
@echo off
set Verify=
set /p Verify=Are You Sure You Want To Run The Batch[Y/N]?
if /i not "%Verify%"=="Y" (echo Script cancelled & goto :eof)
 
isql -Usa -P%pwd% -Ssybase -iD:\Documents\Scripts\Batches\batch1.txt -oD:\Documents\Scripts\Batches\batch1%dd%_%today%.txt
isql -Usa -P%pwd% -Ssybase -iD:\Documents\Scripts\Batches\batch2.txt -oD:\Documents\Scripts\Batches\batch2%dd%_%today%.txt
isql -Usa -P%pwd% -Ssybase -iD:\Documents\Scripts\Batches\batch3.txt -oD:\Documents\Scripts\Batches\batch3%dd%_%today%.txt
isql -Usa -P%pwd% -Ssybase -iD:\Documents\Scripts\Batches\batch4.txt -oD:\Documents\Scripts\Batches\batch4%dd%_%today%.txt
 
pause
exit /b

:getpassword
Echo Please enter your password in the popup window and then press enter
set tempbat="%temp%\p.cmd"

REM Create temporary batch file to make popup window for entering password 'masked'
echo mode 20,1 >%tempbat%
echo color 01 >>%tempbat%
echo Title Enter Password >>%tempbat%
echo setlocal enabledelayedexpansion >>%tempbat%
echo set /p Pass= >>%tempbat%
echo echo !pass!^>"%temp%\pass.txt" >>%tempbat%
echo exit >>%tempbat%
echo exit >>%tempbat%

start /wait "" %tempbat%
del %tempbat% 2>NUL

set /p Pwd=<"%temp%\pass.txt"
del "%temp%\pass.txt" 2>NUL


t0t0 - I can't get the VBScript version to work... maybe it is my Windows 2000 or IE6 on there that is preventing the easy option (I was trying my version while you had already posted of course, sorry).

From a google this is in XP onwards... bout time I rebuilt this machine me thinks!

Steve

oBdA

Neat! I can see it's uses....

Personally, I would remove the following line of code:

   echo Please enter the Sybase password in the popup window "%InputTitle%"

It's not needed. It just adds clutter.

Another (simpler) alternative is my editv32/editv64 utility:

http://www.westmesatech.com/editv.html

It has a "-m" parameter that lets you hide (mask) the typed input, and it stores the typed input into an environment variable. Bill.

oBdA & t0t0 thanks alot for your support,

can we user stars ****** instead of nothing written?

Not with my solution, sorry, that's why I used a large font and a block cursor.
The input is hidden by using the same color for background and foreground, but with plain batch, it's impossible to change the output that "set /p" generates.

which is why I suggested either using a very similar color blue on black so pretty well hidden in a pop up windows (similar idea but without registry entry bit) or to use vbscript as suggested?
The other thing  thought is change to using Symbol font

Hi palserv, editv32/editv64 displays "*" when you use the -m parameter. Bill.

editv32 and editv64 are not native to the OS - they are third-party programs which means the batch file would not be partable to other machines unless they also have these third-party programs installed.

Yes, that's true, but they were specifically designed to address this specific problem and are easier to use and simpler to implement than the other suggested workarounds. This is usually a non-issue unless a company policy specifically prohibits third-party applications. You can typically put a copy of editv32/editv64 in the same directory as the shell script (the term "batch file" is rather antiquated) and call the executable that way. Bill.

Admittedly, Editv presents itself as a nice tool and one which I'm yet to add to my toolbox. For a one-off solution I can see it being the preferred choice. In some establishments it is better to just get the job done and if Editv does this with minimal maintenance then that's a bonus as far as time, expense and debugging time is concerned.

As I haven't used it myself, I'm not sure whether it displays anything as you type in password mode.

I like the length-limiting option as well as the time-out option.

All these have their uses in certain circumstances.

I presume Editv32 and Editv64 are written in both 32-bit and 64-bit native code....

I think I read somewhere, it can convert to upper-case and that it can validate numerical input too. Unfortuantely, it did not do the opposite - convert to lower-case and validate to just letters of the alphabet - or am I thinking of another program?...

EditV32/EditV64 displays '*' characters instead of the typed input if the '-m' parameter is present. It can convert to upper-case but not lower-case, and it can allow numeric-only input but not alphabetic-only. Alphabetic-only input is more complicated than you might think due to localization. In fact, as the code is written right now, the "force to uppercase while typing" option only works on lowercase English characters. I may change this to "uppercase after the fact" instead of "uppercase while typing" and use an international-friendly uppercase function if there's a demand, and if I do that, lowercase is just as easy. Bill.

Bill, you make it sound as though you're the author of Editv.... Are you?

Yes. However, I need to qualify my earlier comments. Localization is more complicated than I initially remembered because of the MS-DOS versions of the EditVar and Choose programs. The uppercase feature is going to stay as-is for the time being, because it's a bit of work to make it work on alphabets other than English. Bill.

Just to add another into the mix.... here is one I have on my website and forgot about:

http://www.dragon-it.co.uk/links/info.htm  Password.exe down the bottom.

but better off with the new 32/64 bit utils!

Hi dragon-it, I originally started with that method (create a temporary batch file and depend on the user to call the batch file and delete it when finished), but now I simply write the variable to the environment. (This was tricky in the Windows 32-bit and 64-bit worlds.) Bill.

palserv - Did you try any of these out at all or where we all just chatting amongst ourselves?  Perhaps you could at the solutions given to your question and accept the answer(s) you wish...