Scripting

Locking a Virtual Desktop Session

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How to lock a remote VMware View session? I’ve had mixed results getting a consistent method for locking VDI workstation sessions using VMware View across different client types, so have endeavored to document all possible methods to help come up with a best practice.

Updated 4th September 2009: As per Resolved Issues in VMware View Manager 3.1.2

“In full-screen mode Windows special key combinations are not redirected to virtual desktops
In full-screen mode, View Client does not redirect Windows special key combinations (Windows+) to the remote desktop. This issue is inconsistent with the direct RDP. The issue is resolved in this release.”

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Deployment Script for the Ctrl-Alt-Del IT Consultancy Tools

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A good friend of mine, Warren Simondson from Ctrl-Alt-Del IT Consultancy, writes some awesome tools. There are a particular set I use for all Terminal/Citrix Server deployments I refer to as “User Self-Help Tools”. The below script is what I use to deploy them. Simply add the tools you wish to deploy to an array. It can create shortcuts in a Start Menu folder and/or on the Desktop simply by setting a couple of boolean values as documented in the script.

Simply place this script in the same folder with the tools. Setup the arrTools and arrToolNames arrays. Execute it using the cscript processor. And voila…all done 🙂

Enjoy!

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Using a Group Policy WMI filter to test for a registry value

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I wanted a clean and simple way to prevent group policies applying during an automated build process. This is because it can potentially cause some of the components of the build process to fail. One of the last tasks to run on all servers built using my unattended build method will stamp the registry with the build version and date, so I was pretty eager to implement a WMI filter that would read the build version to determine whether or not the policy should apply. Easier said than done! I found a great article on WMI Filters that went into the requirements and gave an example, but I found that I still needed to do a considerable amount of research in order for everything to start making sense.

Copy the below MOF file to…

%SystemRoot%\System32\wbem

Compile it by typing…

Mofcomp -class:forceupdate BuildInfo.mof

Test it by typing…

Wmic path BuildInfo WHERE (BuildVersion Like “2.%”) get BuildVersion

This will return the build number from the registry for all 2.x builds

WMI Filter will be…

select * from BuildInfo where (BuildVersion Like “2.%”)

This will return True for all version 2.x builds

Please review the MOF file below. It is fully documented, and will help anyone who wants to implement the same process.

Enjoy!

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Automate the population of the user’s MS Office Credentials

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This script will add the user’s correct Username and UserInitials to the MS Office registry key to prevent the first time prompt when a user runs up a program in the Office suite.

It has been specifically designed to populate the values for multiple versions of Office as per the arrVersions array. Please review the script below to understand how this works.

Enjoy!

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Enable Clock on Task Bar for Windows XP and 2003

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Microsoft made it a real challenge to automate the enabling of the Clock on the taskbar. Some clever people worked out how this can be achieved several years ago by manipulating certain bits of the Settings binary value under the “Stuckrects2” registry key. However, it would only take effect on the 2nd logon, because the Stuckrects2 key is only created on the first logoff for a new user profile. I’ve simply extended an earlier script, written by Jeff Durbin, to create the Stuckrects2 key structure and set the Settings value to a default value during the first logon. This then allows us to manipulate the value as intended so that we can ensure the task bar Clock is displayed for all new user logons.

Enjoy!

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The Challenges of Using VBScript to Create Shortcuts

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Updated 8th December 2008…

Today I was finalising the application deployment for a new XenApp farm. One of the final scripts to create was to place 9 shortcuts on the Desktop of the All Users profile. That’s quite a simple task, and for the most part some would probably just end up copying a bunch of previously created ones into place. But that would be too easy. I wanted to create them on the fly!

So whilst I was writing the script I was faced with three challenges:

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