Like all Office programs, Outlook has a rich object model for external automation, but there's a potential hitch: Such a script will work only if the user is running Outlook with the desired mail profile. Do you set up Outlook using the ORK tools so that all users have a mail profile of the same name as their default profile? If so, then you should be able to use something like this in a .vbs script:

   On Error Resume Next
   Set objOL = GetObject(, "Outlook.Application")
   If objOL Is Nothing Then
       Set objOL = CreateObject("Outlook.Application")
       Set objNS = objOL.GetNamespace("MAPI")
       objNS.Logon "Profile Name", "", "", True
       blnWeStartedOL = True
   End If
   Set objFolder = GetFolder(objNS, "Public Folders\All Public Folders\Parent Folder\Contacts Folder")
   If Not objFolder Is Nothing Then
       objFolder.ShowAsOutlookAB = True
   End If
   Set objFolder = Nothing
   If blnWeStartedOL Then
       objNS.Logoff
       objOL.Quit
   End If
   set objNS = Nothing
   Set objOL = Nothing
   
Function GetFolder(objNS, FolderPath)
 ' folder path needs to be something like
 '   "Public Folders\All Public Folders\Company\Sales"
 Dim aFolders
 Dim fldr
 Dim i
 Dim objNS

 On Error Resume Next
 strFolderPath = Replace(FolderPath, "/", "\")
 aFolders = Split(FolderPath, "\")

 'set the root folder
 Set fldr = objNS.Folders(aFolders(0))

 'loop through the array to get the subfolder
 'loop is skipped when there is only one element in the array
 For i = 1 To UBound(aFolders)
   Set fldr = fldr.Folders(aFolders(i))
   'check for errors
   If Err <> 0 Then Exit Function
 Next
 Set GetFolder = fldr
End Function

If you don't know the profile name, then use this Logon statement instead:

   objNS.Logon "", "", True, True