Read Binary Data in Scripting

People who use Windows Scripting or who build ASP web pages have no method to read binary data. Microsoft has provided Visual Basic code to create an object to remedy this ( http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/Q193/9/98.ASP ). As is typical, they don't provide a compiled binary. Just to be nice, I've compiled it as an OCX (instead of as a DLL) with the FREE Visual Basic Control Creation Edition. Compiling as a DLL would have meant using the non-free version of Visual Basic. What good is open source without open compilers?:

OCX FILE  

The OCX has a "q193998.BinRead" object which exposes a single function "ReadBinFile".  The function return a Byte Array which can be read from scripting. The control needs to be registered before you can use it with a command like:
regsvr32.exe "C:\Wherever\q193998.ocx"

To run the OCX, you'll need to have the Visual Basic 5 run-time files on your computer. You probably already have these files. If not, you can get the runtime files from either of these places:
Ziff-Davis HTTP  Microsoft FTP

Good News:   If you have Microsoft Data Access Components installed, you can read binary files into byte arrays with no special controls needed. Try script like this:

Function ReadByteArray(strFileName)
Const adTypeBinary = 1
Dim bin
    Set bin = CreateObject("ADODB.Stream")
    bin.Type = adTypeBinary
    bin.Open
    bin.LoadFromFile strFileName
    ReadByteArray = bin.Read
End Function

Function ByteArray2Text(varByteArray)
'Convert byte array into a string with ADODB.Recordset
Dim rs
Const adLongVarChar = 201
    Set rs = CreateObject("ADODB.Recordset")
    rs.Fields.Append "temp", adLongVarChar, LenB(varByteArray)
    rs.Open
    rs.AddNew
    rs("temp").AppendChunk varByteArray
    rs.Update
    ByteArray2Text = rs("temp")
    rs.Close
    Set rs = Nothing
End Function

Function ByteArray2Text(varByteArray)
'Convert byte array into a string with ADODB.Stream
'Data should be real plain text because binary data will be mangled
Dim byt
Const adTypeText = 2
Const adTypeBinary = 1
    Set byt = CreateObject("ADODB.Stream")
    byt.Type = adTypeBinary
    byt.Open
    byt.Write varByteArray
    byt.Position = 0
    byt.Type = adTypeText
    byt.CharSet = "us-ascii"
    ByteArray2Text = byt.ReadText
    byt.Close
    Set byt = Nothing
End Function

Function ByteArray2Text(varByteArray)
    'Convert byte array into a string with VBScript
    '60kb = 2 seconds, 100kb = 5 seconds, 200kb = 25 seconds
    Dim strBuffer, lngCounter
    strData = ""
    strBuffer = ""
    For lngCounter = 0 to UBound(varByteArray)
        strBuffer = strBuffer & Chr(255 And Ascb(Midb(varByteArray,lngCounter + 1, 1)))
        'Keep strBuffer at 1k bytes maximum
        If lngCounter Mod 1000 = 0 Then
            strData = strData & strBuffer
            strBuffer = ""
        End If
    Next
    ByteArray2Text = strData & strBuffer
End Function