I'll recomend to use Windows Scripting (WSH) or Windows powerShell.
The reason are:
- you will probably get more use for
that tecnology in a Windows
enviroment than of python. (I like python but this is true)
- It's
included in all Windows Version (the
scripting tecnology).
- You can do a lot of things in a easy way... check WMI, services, restarts, manage logs,
files, odbcs, external software, uninstall software...
There's many Web with sample scripts, and a blog of microsoft with a lot of information:
Scripting Web
And they provide a free tool to help you in programming and with a lot of examples:
Scriptomatic 2.0
And now, the Solution.
First of all, you need Mysql ODBC driver
installed in the XP
Then, Here's a link of a sample code, that explain how works and that you can configure to your needs.
Example Script
For executing those scripts, simply open a CMD window and use the command: cscript script.vbs
As you can see, the solution is in the same web that told before, there's a huge database and can do anything with them.
Hope this helps.