VBScript goes away – Our code will stay

Background

In October 2023 Microsoft added VBScript to the list of deprecated features in Windows that will be removed eventually. This was bad news for the Microsoft Access community, as the VBScript ecosystem includes classes important to Access developers.

The following libraries and components could have been affected by this change:

• VBScript core library (vbscript.dll) (aka “Microsoft VBScript Regular Expressions”)

  • Regular Expressions (RegExp)

• Microsoft Scripting Runtime (scrrun.dll)

  • Dictionary

  • FileSystemObject (FSO)

• Windows Script Host Object Model (wshom.ocx)

  • WshNetwork

  • WshShell

  • FileSystemObject (just a clone of Scripting.FileSystemObject)

Particularly the Dictionary, the File System Object, and Regular Expression classes, are frequently used in Access development and would be difficult to replace.

In May 2024 followed a more detailed announcement explaining that VBScript will become an optional feature (“Feature On Demand”, FOD) in Windows 11 24H2, which will at first be enabled by default, then disabled by default (in 2026 or 2027) and later being removed altogether.

But that announcement and also their sysadmin guide on preparing for VBScript deprecation, woefully failed to explicitly state which files/libraries will be affected by this change and thus created a lot of fear, uncertainty and doubt.

Good News – An Addition to VBA

On 9 September 2025 an unexpected but very pleasant development happened. In Office 365 version 2508 a new set of classes appeared in the VBA object library. The RegExp, Match, MatchCollection, and SubMatches classes implement the regular expression capabilities of VBScript and are now also included directly in VBA.

This applies to all versions of Microsoft Office which currently still receive updates. So, basically every version from Office 2016 onward, except the LTSC (Long Term Service Channel) releases.

The VBA RegExp classes in the VBA Object Browser

These new classes in VBA are fully compatible, probably identical to their well-known counterparts in VBScript. They even will retain their original class identifier "VBScript.RegExp".

This is a relief, as the RegExp classes are defined in the vbscript.dll itself which will be definitely removed in the deprecation process.

There were reports about two issues with these new classes, when using RegExp.Replace or Lookahead expressions. These were reported to Microsoft, and the first is fixed already. Considering the magnitude of this change, some smaller problems like these were to be expected and I’m confident that they and similar future issues will be sorted out quickly.

This development is great news in several ways. First, it is the first major addition to the VBA object library after 16 years! Then it resolves the problem with Regular Expressions. And finally, it shows that Microsoft does indeed listen to concerns voiced by the community and acts upon it.

More Good News – The State of Other VBScript Components

In contrast to the good news on RegExp, the future of the other relevant VBScript components has not been clarified by Microsoft to this date.

As the VBScript Feature on Demand package, which technically defines the scope of the deprecation, is now publicly available in Windows 11, we did some research ourselves to get to the bottom of this.

It appears, the only relevant file in the FOD package is just the vbscript.dll itself. If one removes the “VBScript” Feature from Windows, the vbscript.dll is removed, but the other potentially affected files remain in place.

With VBScript removed, all existing VBA code using any of the above-listed VBScript components will still work on future versions of Windows in currently supported versions of Office.

Please note, if you run VBA code in Office 2013 or older, it will not be able to use the RegExp classes once VBScript is removed from Windows.

Conclusion

The addition of Regular Expressions to the VBA object library is great news for every Access and VBA developer.

The early conversion of VBScript to the Feature On Demand was also a wise move, because it allowed people to analyze and prepare for the effects of the VBScript deprecation in advance. The results of our research are a great relief for the worried Office community.