Run Applications

'Create the shell object
Set WshShell = CreateObject("WScript.Shell")

'Run notepad
WshShell.Run "notepad"

'Run notepad with parameters
WshShell.Run "notepad c:\mydoc.txt"

'Run notepad maximized
WshShell.Run "notepad c:\mydoc.txt", 3

'Run notepad and wait for the process to end
WshShell.Run "notepad c:\mydoc.txt", 3, true

Read/Write Text Files

'Declare constants
Const ForReading = 1, ForWriting = 2, ForAppending = 8

'Declare the file system object
Dim fso, f, Msg
Set fso = CreateObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject")

'Create a file and write some text
Set f = fso.OpenTextFile("c:\testfile.txt", ForWriting, True)
f.Write "Hello world!"

'Open the same file for reading
Set f = fso.OpenTextFile("c:\testfile.txt", ForReading)
ReadTextFileTest = f.Read(5)

//Open, read a text file line by line and then properly close it (Javascript)
var fso;
fso = new ActiveXObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject");
f = fso.OpenTextFile("inputfile.txt", 1);

while (!f.AtEndOfStream)
{
    inputString = f.ReadLine( );
    //...
}
f.Close( );

Create Shortcuts

Set WshShell = CreateObject("WScript.Shell")
strDesktop = WshShell.SpecialFolders("Desktop")
msgbox strDesktop
msgbox ScriptFullName

Set oShellLink = WshShell.CreateShortcut(strDesktop & "\Shortcut Script.lnk")
oShellLink.TargetPath = "notepad.exe"
oShellLink.WindowStyle = 1
oShellLink.Hotkey = "CTRL+SHIFT+F"
oShellLink.IconLocation = "notepad.exe, 0"
oShellLink.Description = "Shortcut Script"
oShellLink.WorkingDirectory = strDesktop
oShellLink.Save
Set oUrlLink = WshShell.CreateShortcut(strDesktop & "\Microsoft Web Site.url")
oUrlLink.TargetPath = "http://www.microsoft.com"
oUrlLink.Save

Access the Windows Registry

' Creates the shell object
Dim WshShell, bKey
Set WshShell = CreateObject("WScript.Shell")

' Creates/sets the defaul value of the \Test\ key
WshShell.RegWrite "HKCU\Software\MySoft\Test\", 1, "REG_BINARY"

' Sets a string value
WshShell.RegWrite "HKCU\Software\MySoft\Test\value1", "this is a test value", "REG_SZ"

' Reads the previously set values
bKey = WshShell.RegRead("HKCU\Software\MySoft\Test\")
msgbox WshShell.RegRead("HKCU\Software\MySoft\Test\value1")

' Removes them
WshShell.RegDelete "HKCU\Software\MySoft\Test\value1"
WshShell.RegDelete "HKCU\Software\MySoft\Test\"
WshShell.RegDelete "HKCU\Software\MySoft\"

Specs:

References

Full documentation here:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en-us/script56/html/wsMthRun.asp

Full documentation on the file system object:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en-us/script56/html/FSOoriFileSystemObject.asp