By Burt A.

There are a number of ways to generate useful, random passwords. In fact, there are a number of articles on 4Guys on generating random passwords. While these methods will generate variable-length, highly randomized passwords, there is another approach, and quick and dirty approach that requires just a few lines of code!

My method is to use the FileSystemObject's GetTempName, which returns the path to a temporary file. (If you're unfamiliar with the FileSystemObject be sure to read the FileSystemObject F.A.Q. These files have names like:

rad5VCE3.tmp

I thought to myself, why not just hack off the rad (using Right) and hack off the .tmp using the GetBaseName method? Those middle five characters are randomly generated and could serve as a random password. So, that's what I did. You can use this method to create random, five-length passwords. I find this technique useful for generating random passwords. If you run a site that requires members to create accounts, you may wish to assign them a default, random password. You may find this routine useful:

Dim fs, i, x Dim strTemp Response.Write "<U><B>Here are 50 Random " & _ "Passwords:</B></U><BR>" Set fs = CreateObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject") For x = 1 to 50 'Get just the filename part of the temp name path strTemp = fs.GetBaseName(fs.GetTempName) 'Hack off the 'rad' strTemp = Right(strTemp, Len(strTemp) - 3) Response.Write strTemp & "<br>" Next Set fs = Nothing

Pretty nifty, eh? You can view a running version of this code here. To generate a single random password, simply remove the For x = 1 to 50 and Next lines.

Happy Programming!

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