#Version 5.07 24-Apr-2022

• Change all Get-WMIObject to Get-CIMInstance
• General code cleanup
• In Function OutputNicItem, fixed several issues with DHCP data

You can always find the most current script by going to https://www.carlwebster.com/where-to-get-copies-of-the-documentation-scripts/

Thanks

Webster

Script Bug Fix Updates 7-Feb-2022

• Changed the date format for the transcript and error log files from yyyy-MM-dd_HHmm format to the FileDateTime format
  • The format is yyyyMMddTHHmmssffff (case-sensitive, using a 4-digit year, 2-digit month, 2-digit day, the letter T as a time separator, 2-digit hour, 2-digit minute, 2-digit second, and 4-digit millisecond).
  • For example: 20221225T0840107271.
• Fixed the German Table of Contents (Thanks to Rene Bigler)
  • From
    • ‘de-‘ { ‘Automatische Tabelle 2’; Break }
  • To
    • ‘de-‘ { ‘Automatisches Verzeichnis 2’; Break }
• In Function AbortScript, add test for the winword process and terminate it if it is running
  • Added stopping the transcript log if the log was enabled and started
• In Functions AbortScript and SaveandCloseDocumentandShutdownWord, add code from Guy Leech to test for the “Id” property before using it
• Replaced most script Exit calls with AbortScript to stop the transcript log if the log was enabled and started
• Updated the help text
• Updated the ReadMe file

Active Directory 3.09 7-Feb-2022

• • Added to Domain Information the data for ms-DS-MachineAccountQuota

Active Directory Health Check 3.09 7-Feb-2022

• • Add missing variable $Script:ThisScriptPath
  • Changed all Write-Verbose statements from Get-Date to Get-Date -Format G as requested by Guy Leech
  • Removed Function Stop-Winword
  • Updated Functions CheckWordPrereq and SetupWord with the versions used in the other documentation scripts

Citrix Federated Authentication Services 1.14 7-Feb-2022

Citrix Provisioning Services (PVS) New 6.03 8-Feb-2022

Citrix Provisioning Services (PVS) Old 4.32 10-Feb-2022

Citrix XenApp/XenDesktop 7.0 through 7.7 1.51 13-Feb-2022

• • Since the Citrix.GroupPolicy.Commands.psm1 module file was removed in  1.50,  removed the block for Elevation if $Policies is True

Citrix XenApp/XenDesktop 7.8 through CVAD 2006 2.46 15-Feb-2022

Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops V3.32 15-Feb-2022

Microsoft Configuration Manager 2012R2 V2.40 17-Feb-2022

Microsoft DHCP V2.05 17-Feb-2022

Microsoft DNS V2.03 18-Feb-2022

Citrix NetScaler Old (uses ns.conf file) V2.62 18-Feb-2022

• • Fixed $Null comparisons that were on the wrong side
  • Updated Functions CheckWordPrereq and SendEmail to the latest version

Parallels RAS V17 V1.02 18-Feb-2022

• • Added Function OutputReportFooter
  • Added Parameter ReportFooter
    • Outputs a footer section at the end of the report.
    • Report Footer
      • Report information:
        • Created with: <Script Name> – Release Date: <Script Release Date>
        • Script version: <Script Version>
        • Started on <Date Time in Local Format>
        • Elapsed time: nn days, nn hours, nn minutes, nn.nn seconds
        • Ran from domain <Domain Name> by user <Username>
        • Ran from the folder <Folder Name>
  • Updated Functions SaveandCloseTextDocument and  SaveandCloseHTMLDocument to add a “Report Complete” line
  • Updated Functions ShowScriptOptions and ProcessScriptEnd to add  $ReportFooter

Parallels RAS V18 V2.11 18-Feb-2022

• • Added Function OutputReportFooter
  • Added Parameter ReportFooter
    • Outputs a footer section at the end of the report.
    • Report Footer
      • Report information:
        • Created with: <Script Name> – Release Date: <Script Release Date>
        • Script version: <Script Version>
        • Started on <Date Time in Local Format>
        • Elapsed time: nn days, nn hours, nn minutes, nn.nn seconds
        • Ran from domain <Domain Name> by user <Username>
        • Ran from the folder <Folder Name>
  • Updated Functions SaveandCloseTextDocument and  SaveandCloseHTMLDocument to add a “Report Complete” line
  • Updated Functions ShowScriptOptions and ProcessScriptEnd to add  $ReportFooter

VMware vSphere 1.93 23-Feb-2022

Citrix XenApp 6.5 5.06 23-Feb-2022

If you have questions or issues, please email me. webster at carlwebster dot com.

You can always find the most current script by going to https://www.carlwebster.com/where-to-get-copies-of-the-documentation-scripts/

Thanks

Webster

#Version 5.05 1-Dec-2021

• Added a test to see if $AdminAddress equals $Env:ComputerName
  • If they are the same, do not try and set up remoting since remoting is not needed
• Added Function OutputReportFooter
• Added Parameter ReportFooter
  • Outputs a footer section at the end of the report
  • Report Footer
    • Report information:
      • Created with: <Script Name> – Release Date: <Script Release Date>
      • Script version: <Script Version>
      • Started on <Date Time in Local Format>
      • Elapsed time: nn days, nn hours, nn minutes, nn.nn seconds
      • Ran from domain <Domain Name> by user <Username>
      • Ran from the folder <Folder Name>
• Added the missing section title for Policies and sub-section titles for IMA Policies and Active Directory Policies
• Changed all Write-Host $(Get-Date) to add -Format G to put the dates in the user’s locale
• Fixed several issues causing script errors with PowerShell V2
• Fixed several property tests in Function ProcessPolicies
• Fixed text output in Functions OutputNicItem, OutputServer, and ProcessPolicies
• Fixed HTML, Text, and Word/PDF output in Function OutputApplication
• In Function AbortScript, add test for the winword process and terminate it if it is running
• In Function OutputServer, if the server’s IP address is not present report “No data”
  • Usually is not present in PowerShell V2
• In Functions AbortScript and SaveandCloseDocumentandShutdownWord, add code from Guy Leech to test for the “Id” property before using it
• Removed Function Check-LoadedModule
• Removed Receive Side Scaling from hardware inventory since it is not available in Windows Server 2008 R2
• Removed the requirement for the Citrix.GroupPolicy.Commands.psm1 module file (Thanks to Guy Leech for the help)
  • Added the following functions from the module to the script and cleaned up the Citrix code
    • CreateDictionary
    • CreateObject
    • FilterString
    • Get-CitrixGroupPolicy
    • Get-CitrixGroupPolicyConfiguration
    • Get-CitrixGroupPolicyFilter
• Removed the block for Elevation if Policies are processed
• Updated Functions SaveandCloseTextDocument and SaveandCloseHTMLDocument to add a “Report Complete” line
• Updated Functions ShowScriptOptions and ProcessScriptEnd to add $ReportFooter
• Updated the help text
• Updated the ReadMe file

I want to thank James Rankin and Patrick Damen for testing this update and providing feedback.

You can always find the most current script by going to https://www.carlwebster.com/where-to-get-copies-of-the-documentation-scripts/

Thanks

Webster

#Version 5.04 30-July-2020

• Fixed a lot more code, especially parameter variable initialization, that just didn’t work in PoSH V2

You can always find the most current script by going to https://www.carlwebster.com/where-to-get-copies-of-the-documentation-scripts/

Thanks

Webster

#Version 5.03 9-May-2020

• Add checking for a Word version of 0, which indicates the Office installation needs repairing
• Add Receive Side Scaling setting to Function OutputNICItem
• Change color variables $wdColorGray15 and $wdColorGray05 from [long] to [int]
• Change location of the -Dev, -Log, and -ScriptInfo output files from the script folder to the -Folder location (Thanks to Guy Leech for the “suggestion”)
• Change Text output to use [System.Text.StringBuilder]
  • Updated Functions Line and SaveAndCloseTextDocument
• Reformatted the terminating Write-Error messages to make them more visible and readable in the console
• Remove the code that checks for the default value for script parameters
• Update Function SetWordCellFormat to change parameter $BackgroundColor to [int]
• Update Functions GetComputerWMIInfo and OutputNicInfo to fix two bugs in NIC Power Management settings
• Updated help text

You can always find the most current script by going to https://www.carlwebster.com/where-to-get-copies-of-the-documentation-scripts/

Thanks

Webster

I am sure I may have missed something, so if I did, please let me know.

You can always find the most current Excel file by going to https://www.carlwebster.com/where-to-get-copies-of-the-documentation-scripts/

Thanks

Webster

That may not be a good thing because if you run V1.00 of this script, or just blindly select every checkbox, you can find yourself missing all your downloaded files.

In this update, I added a -Downloads switch parameter. The parameter is $False by default so the DownloadsFolder is excluded. If you use -Downloads, that sets the switch to True which will cause the DownloadsFolder to be selected and then cleaned up the next time you run cleanmgr /SageRun:1.

I also added a -Reset witch parameter. If you use this switch, the script will set all items in HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\VolumeCaches to 0 which means the checkbox is unselected.

Figure 1 shows the initial run of cleanmgr /SageSet:1. Running the script with no parameters, as shown in Figure 2, results in all but the Downloads item selected, as shown in Figure 3.

Using -Downloads will also select Downloads as shown in Figures 4 and 5.

Using -Reset will set all the items in HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\VolumeCaches to 0, as shown in Figures 6 and 7.

I hope you find the updated script useful, especially for keeping your computer, servers, and master images for Citrix XenApp/XenDesktop, VMware Horizon, Microsoft RDS, and Parallels RAS clean and disk space usage down.

Thanks

Webster

• Version 5.00 created on June 1, 2015
• V5.00 released to the community 14-Dec-2018
• Removed minimum requirement for PowerShell V3
• Fixed all code to make it work in PowerShell V2 (That was a royal PITA)
• Removed all SMTP related code as we could not could that code to work with PowerShell V2 (If you think you can make it work, let me know)
• Added HTML and Text output options
• Added parameters to bring the code up to the same standard as the other documentation scripts
  • AdminAddress
  • MaxDetails
  • Dev
  • ScriptInfo
  • Log
  • NoPolicies
  • NoADPolicies
• Update help text

Your first question is why did I bother to update an old script? I started adding HTML and Text output back in early 2015 and stopped in June, for a reason I don’t remember.  Recently, I have had a few projects to move companies from XenApp 6.5 to XenApp 7.15 LTSR. Unfortunately, none of the XenApp 6.5 servers had PowerShell 3 or later installed and I was not allowed to install PowerShell V3 either. Also, a couple of companies don’t publish WOrd so Word was not available. Also recently, I have received several emails from other consultants in the same boat. They have customers with lots of XenApp 6.5 Farms that needed to be documented before the migration or the consultant needed documentation to know what all was needed in the new 7.15 Site.

There were a lot of subtle differences in PowerShell code that had to be addressed to backport this script to work with PowerShell V2. Also, getting the email code to work with TLS 1.2 on Windows Server 2008 R2 was very problematic. It would work on one server but not work on any others. PowerShell V2 also did not like all the parameter sets the script uses to handle four output formats and SMTP. Unfortunately, we wasted a lot of time trying to get the SMTP stuff working but never could. I made the decision to remove all SMTP related help text, parameters, and code.

Along the way in updating the code, I found many typos and incorrect variables. Some had been in the code since 2011 and made me wondered why no one reported the report had missing data. Oh well, I fixed all I found.

For you consultants who needed HTML or Text output or who couldn’t use PowerShell V3+, here you go. I hope you find this update useful.

For those that helped test this script, thank you for your time. The Citrix community rocks.

You can always find the most current script by going to https://www.carlwebster.com/where-to-get-copies-of-the-documentation-scripts/

Thanks

Webster

I am sure I may have missed something, so if I did, please let me know.

You can always find the most current Excel file by going to https://www.carlwebster.com/where-to-get-copies-of-the-documentation-scripts/

Thanks

Webster

I am sure I may have missed something, so if I did, please let me know.

You can always find the most current Excel file by going to https://www.carlwebster.com/where-to-get-copies-of-the-documentation-scripts/

Thanks

Webster

In Windows 10 1803 and Server 2016 with all updates, running cleanmgr.exe /sageset:1 shows 24 options for items that can be cleaned up. These items are called Disk Cleanup Handlers. Full details can be found at Creating a Disk Cleanup Handler. The Handlers are registered in the registry at Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\VolumeCaches. The number of entries in VolumeCaches varies by Windows version and which updates are installed. Instead of spending a couple of minutes manually selecting every item in the dialog for cleanmgr.exe, I decided to script the process. On my test virtual machines, setting all 24 entries takes less than one second.

The “magic” is in the entry named StateFlagsnnnn and setting a REG_DWORD value of 2. This is explained in the MSDN article:

<quote>

By running the disk cleanup manager’s executable file—Cleanmgr.exe—from a command line, you can declare cleanup profiles. These profiles are composed of a subset of the available handlers and are given a unique numeric label. This allows you to automate the running of different sets of handlers at different times.

The command line “cleanmgr.exe /sageset:nnnn“, where nnnn is a unique numeric label, displays a UI allowing you to choose the handlers to be included in that profile. As well as defining the profile, the sageset parameter also writes a value named StateFlagsnnnn, where nnnn is the label you used in the parameter, to all of the subkeys under VolumeCaches. There are two possible data values for those entries.

• 0: Do not run this handler when this profile is run.
• 2: Include this handler when this profile is run.

For example, suppose that the command line “cleanmgr.exe /sageset:1234” is run. In the UI that is presented, the user chooses Downloaded Program Files, but does not choose Temporary Internet Files. The following values are then written to the registry.

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE
   Software
      Microsoft
         Windows
            CurrentVersion
               Explorer
                  VolumeCaches
                     Downloaded Program Files
                        StateFlags1234 = 0x00000002
                     Internet Cache Files
                        StateFlags1234 = 0x00000000

The command line “cleanmgr.exe /sagerun:nnnn“, where the value of nnnn matches the label declared with the sageset parameter, runs all of the handlers selected in that profile.

A generic StateFlags value is written to the registry when Disk Cleanup is run normally. This value simply stores the state (checked or unchecked) of the handler the last time it was presented as an option to the user. There are two possible data values for those entries.

• 0: The handler was not selected.
• 1: The handler was selected.

</quote>

Depending on how long the master image (or computer) has been in production and how many Windows updates have been installed/replaced/superseded, running cleanmgr.exe /SageRun:1 can take from a minute to many hours. The longest I have seen is on a XenApp 7.5 Windows Server 2012 manually provisioned server that had been in production for a couple of years and was fully patched. The cleanup process took 4.5 hours and reclaimed over 40GB of hard drive space on the almost full C drive.

As I stated at the beginning of this post, I am really surprised by how many admins do not know about this handy tool and how to use it to free up space on their computers and images. For manually provisioned computers, you can also use Task Scheduler to schedule running this process at a regular interval.

The script is very simple to use. Let me know what you think.

You can always find the most current script by going to https://www.carlwebster.com/where-to-get-copies-of-the-documentation-scripts/

Thanks

Webster

I am sure I may have missed something, so if I did, please let me know.

You can always find the most current Excel file by going to https://www.carlwebster.com/where-to-get-copies-of-the-documentation-scripts/

Thanks

Webster

I am sure I may have missed something, so if I did, please let me know.

You can always find the most current Excel file by going to https://www.carlwebster.com/where-to-get-copies-of-the-documentation-scripts/

Thanks

Webster

• Added: Browser Content Redirection – Allowed
• Added: Enable XenApp Optimization – Disabled
• Added: Large File Handling List – Files to be created as symbolic links – Blank
• Changed: NTUSER.DAT backup – Enabled was Disabled
• Added: Path to XenApp optimization definitions: – Blank

Computer XenDesktop Settings:

• Added: Browser Content Redirection – Allowed
• Added: Enable XenApp Optimization – Disabled
• Changed: HDX Adaptive Transport – Preferred was Off
• Added: Large File Handling List – Files to be created as symbolic links – Blank
• Added: Logon Exclusion Check – Enabled
• Changed: NTUSER.DAT backup – Enabled was Disabled
• Added: Path to XenApp optimization definitions: – Blank

User XenApp Settings:

• Added: Browser Content Redirection ACL Configuration – https://www.youtube.com/.*
• Added: Browser Content Redirection Proxy Configuration – Blank
• Added: Display lossless indicator – Disabled
• Added: Optimize for 3D graphics workload – Disabled

User XenDesktop Settings:

• Removed: Automatic installation of in-box printer drivers
• Added: Browser Content Redirection ACL Configuration – https://www.youtube.com/.*
• Added: Browser Content Redirection Proxy Configuration – Blank
• Added: Display lossless indicator – Disabled
• Added: Optimize for 3D graphics workload – Disabled
• Added: Tablet Mode Toggle – Allowed

Thanks

Webster

I am sure I may have missed something, so if I did, please let me know.

You can always find the most current Excel file by going to https://www.carlwebster.com/where-to-get-copies-of-the-documentation-scripts/

Thanks

Webster

I am sure I may have missed something, so if I did, please let me know.

You can always find the most current Excel file by going to https://www.carlwebster.com/where-to-get-copies-of-the-documentation-scripts/

Thanks

Webster

Originally, it wasn’t my plan to have a Part 2 in the first place. When I started writing the script, it was my goal to include all checks into a single script.
I rather quickly abandoned that idea because the script became too bloated and slow. At the time, some checks that are now part of Part 2, were based on WMI queries. We all know WMI, but not for it’s speed, right?

So I decided to keep it simple, and at least start somewhere instead of keep on trying. The result is Part 1.
But I couldn’t just pass up on my original idea either.

So I decided to take the same framework (with loop, offset timer, and other parameters) and add the other tests. And at the same time trying to avoid the usage of WMI queries as much as possible.
Tests I included:

• CPU usage
• Memory Usage
• Disk Usage
• Disk queue length

In the end, I was forced to use a single WMI query, and that was needed to determine the amount of memory for a machine:

$MEMtotal = ((get-wmiobject -Computername $server -class “win32_physicalmemory” -namespace “root\CIMV2”).Capacity)

This proved to be a challenge, because that query doesn’t return a single value, but returns the value for each memory module in an array.

But what about VM’s? They have “virtual” memory modules. One per 16Gb of memory (as far as I could check). So as long as your VM has less than 16Gb, a single value is returned. When the VM has more, multiple values are returned. So I needed to find a way to cope with these different possibilities.

This is the solution I found:

$sum = $MEMtotal -join ‘+’
$MEMsum = Invoke-Expression $sum

The first line creates an expression with all array values and adds a “+” sign in between them.
The second one “executes” that expression, effectively returning the sum of all (virtual) memory banks.

The end result is again saved as an HTML file, and I integrated that one into another IIS page using an iframe.

The end result looks something like this:

I didn’t include any logging in this 1.0 version, I wanted to assess the value of these readings first.

You can always find the most current files by going to https://www.carlwebster.com/where-to-get-copies-of-the-documentation-scripts/ and looking in the Bart Jacobs’ Toolbox section.

Stay tuned for more!

Thanks

Bart Jacobs

More specifically, monitoring XenApp with Powershell.

Since many of my customers are still running 6.5 (yeah, I know), I’m focussing on that version first.
And I know that lately, others have been releasing monitoring scripts and even entire frameworks.

Yet, I still wanted to put my work out there, not because I think my scripts are better, but to give you another option, or another source of inspiration.

In this first blog post, I’m presenting my XenApp dashboard script.  The script was based on the Farm Health Report by Jason Poyner, over at https://deptive.co.nz/xenapp-farm-health-report/. I reached out to Jason at one point, and he was ok for me to base my script on his script and even publish it. But he certainly deserves some credit too.

Basically, it comes down to this. The original script is a one-off, meaning, the script produces an outcome and that outcome is mailed or otherwise made available. But that’s it, once the output is there, the script is done.

I wanted something more like a dashboard. So I built a loop around the script and scheduling at server boot. So the script would continuously generate output. Output, in this case, an HTML file, that I would integrate into another website using your everyday iframe.

But that wasn’t the full solution because I wanted data to refresh faster. Since I couldn’t find a way to run through the server checks faster, I worked on the only alternative I could think of: the looping of the script. So I introduced an offset parameter, allowing me to start the script at a given time (sleep) interval. And I would schedule multiple script launches at server boot, each with their won offset. So let’s say if it takes 60 seconds on average to check all servers, I would schedule a script with offset 0 and 30. So when the first script finishes after 60 seconds, the second one will finish approximately 30 seconds later.

This has worked really well for me, producing output like:

As you all know,  using server silos is a popular implementation of XenApp 6.5. So that’s the final parameter I added. You still need to include the logic for the silo naming, however. For example, you could include all servers starting with “BE” in a silo etc.

Versions 1.0 and 1.1 of the script were never published out in the open, but I’ll tell my story on them anyway. They are about logging to CSV. In 1.0, there was no logging, only a “real-time” dashboard. In version 1.1, a CSV per server was generated containing date/time, the number of active sessions and the server load. In version 1.2, the version I’m “releasing” today, at every offset 0, I would add data of servers to a “datacenter CSV” file, a file containing all data of the data center. Those CSV’s can be used to drive PowerBI or Excel PowerPivot stuff.

Again, I’m not trying to convince you my script is any better than those already out there. It’s not. I only hope that it would give you some food for thought and even some inspiration.

You can always find the most current files by going to https://www.carlwebster.com/where-to-get-copies-of-the-documentation-scripts/ and looking in the Bart Jacobs’ Toolbox section.

Stay tuned for more!

Thanks

Bart Jacobs

Fellow CTP, Esther Barthel (the CTP’s favorite Minion), updated all the ADMX file worksheets. She also split the three ShareFile ADMX files into their own worksheet.

If you find any errors or omissions, please send an email to webster@carlwebster.com.

We hope you find the Excel file with all the policy settings and Citrix related ADMX files useful.

You can always find the most current Excel file by going to https://www.carlwebster.com/where-to-get-copies-of-the-documentation-scripts/

Thanks

Webster, Esther, Markus, Carl and Jon

I am sure I may have missed something, so if I did, please let me know.

You can always find the most current Excel file by going to https://www.carlwebster.com/where-to-get-copies-of-the-documentation-scripts/

Thanks

Webster