One annoying thing I’ve found when switching computers is that you lose all of your site exceptions in your Java Control Panel settings. In order to not have to type them all back in/try to remember them all, here is how you can easily migrate that data to a new computer. Continue reading “Java – How to Export Site Exceptions List to a Different Computer”
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Windows – How to Run Elevated Scripts as a Regular User with Task Scheduler -OR- How to Restart Services as a Standard User
Here is a neat workaround you can use in Windows to run a batch script or any other command that would regularly require elevated administrator credentials. Using this method, you can essentially bypass UAC and allow a script to be ran as a standard user without them having to enter in an admin password. In theory, you could probably even use this same approach to install software as a regular user if you wanted to. For my example below, I was able to allow a standard user to kill processes and then restart the services.
The problem that I had to overcome was that one of my VPN users who used Shrewsoft VPN client would occasionally get disconnected and then never be able to fully connect again. Oddly enough, the client would show connected on the user’s end and immediately disconnect but it never made a connection on the server side. The problem was that the “iked” process would get hung up and then the VPN client would subsequently never fully connect all the way. Continue reading “Windows – How to Run Elevated Scripts as a Regular User with Task Scheduler -OR- How to Restart Services as a Standard User”
CryptoWall 3.0 Ransomware – Ouch, It Hurts So Good…Get Out the Backup Tapes. You’ve Got Those Right?
Being the badass network admin that you are, you try to keep your servers up to date with all the latest Windows updates, you run antivirus on all your machines on your network and scan daily, you have made sure that none of your users have local admin rights to their machines so they can’t install any software, and so you think you are fairly well covered when it comes to viruses and spyware, well think again.
My company just got hit pretty hard with this new CryptoWall 3.0 virus. If you are unfamiliar with it, basically it encrypts any user accessible data on local and network shares that it has permissions to and holds it ransom for BitCoin payments. Continue reading “CryptoWall 3.0 Ransomware – Ouch, It Hurts So Good…Get Out the Backup Tapes. You’ve Got Those Right?”
VBScript – How to Access Environment Variables -OR- How to Get the Username, Domain, or a User’s SID
Here is a simple example of how to use VBScript to access environment variables, use the variables to obtain a user’s SID, and then print them to the screen. Continue reading “VBScript – How to Access Environment Variables -OR- How to Get the Username, Domain, or a User’s SID”
Server 2012 – Remove Network Icon from File Explorer Navigation Pane via Group Policy
After much research, some poking around in the registry, and a little dumb luck, I’ve discovered a way to disable the Network icon from the left side of the File Explorer navigation pane on a PER USER basis using Group Policy Registry Preferences.
Basically, I borrowed the concept from other posts and made it work for the current user profile. One problem that I ran into trying to use the HKLM key was that I couldn’t update the key using the SYSTEM account via Group Policy and I didn’t want to manually edit registry permissions on a bunch of RDS Servers. On top of that, more importantly, I didn’t want to disable the Network icon for my administrator accounts too! So here’s what you need to do… Continue reading “Server 2012 – Remove Network Icon from File Explorer Navigation Pane via Group Policy”
Classic Shell – Registry Entries for Custom Windows 7 Style Start Menu
When applying the Classic Shell Group Policy Templates in Windows 2012 RDS, there is an option called “Menu items for the Windows 7 Style”. In order to customize the menu items, you first need to make changes to some user profile that is using Classic Shell and then go and retrieve the entries from the HKCU\Software\IvoSoft\ClassicStartMenu\Settings\MenuItems7 key in the Registry to know what to enter there. Even on the Classic Shell forums, they didn’t have it documented so here goes…
First, you should have a list of entries titled “Items(1-23).Command=” followed by the friendly name of the item.
Item1.Command=user_files
Following each one of those entires, you may or may not have an additional entry for each item titled “Items(1-23).Settings=” followed by one or more of the display options depending on how you want it displayed.
Item1.Settings=NOEXPAND
As of Classic Shell version 4.1, here is a list of the Command names and their descriptions:
admin - %AppData%\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Administrative Tools Continue reading "Classic Shell – Registry Entries for Custom Windows 7 Style Start Menu"
Batch Script – RDS Start Menu Application and Taskbar Shortcut Removal Tool
Customizing or locking down a new server for Remote Desktop Services in a Server 2012 environment can be quite a time consuming and daunting task. Countless hours will be spent setting up Group Policies, testing them, and deploying them. But far worse than that, you will waste massive amounts of time researching for jacked up ways to do simple things, such as unpinning items from the Taskbar and customizing the Start Screen.
In the past, I had already configured a company wide Group Policy for our old 2003 Terminal Server environment and it was simple and easy. No guesswork, no crazy workarounds, shit just worked. The Group Policies covered almost every scenario or task needed to lock down a server but unfortunately, that is not the case any more.
It seems Microsoft has made the process of doing pretty much anything ridiculous and overcomplicated. As a side rant, we (the world) desperetely need a good open source solution for a thin client type environment with something that mimicks Group Policy. I know I’m not the only person out there that would love to give Microsoft the old stink finger once and for all! I for one am tired of sitting and watching companies succumb to the endless money pit that is Microsoft licensing. Where you at Linux Devs?
Anyhow, I decided to write this script for a lot of shortcomings I’ve encountered along the way. One of which that I want to gripe about is that resorting to changing file permissions to remove shortcuts is just plain fucking retarded and redirecting all of the user’s start menus to a network share seemed like massive overkill to an already complicated scenario. On top of that, I had 6 separate Remote Desktop servers to fully setup and configure so I needed to streamline the process a bit. Suprisingly enough, my solution relies solely on batch scripting (and a little makeshift VB).
Enough chit chat, the script is extremely well documented so here are the highlights/features:
- Removal of the Server Manager and PowerShell links in the Taskbar
- Ability to backup the All User’s and Default User’s Programs directories to a zip file
- Ability to copy the All Programs Start Menu shortcuts to a list of administrator or power user profile directories
- Customized list of applications to remove from the Classic Shell Start Menu or the Windows Start Screen
- Deleted Start Menu Program entries go into the active user’s Recycle Bin and can be restored if necessary
- Remove System Tools, Accessories, Accessibility, Administrative Tools, Windows Store, PC Settings, Control Panel, Run, Command Prompt, and PowerShell shortcuts from Menus
Download the “Custom_RDS_Start_Menu.bat” script here.
:: RDS SERVER 2012 CUSTOM START MENU AND TASKBAR SHORTCUT REMOVAL :: Author: Nathan Thomas :: Date: 02/11/2015 :: :: This script should be ran on the RDS server after your server administrators have already :: logged in at least once so that they get all the shortcuts they need (otherwise you will :: need to manually copy them later on) but before your end users log in for the first time. :: In addition, it assumes you have not already made changes or any customizations to the :: All User's or Default User's Start Menus profiles and that you have already installed all :: of the applications that the server will be running. Please note that if you decide :: to install software after you've ran the script, you will manually have to remove that :: program from the All User's Start Menu folder and copy it to your administrator profiles Continue reading "Batch Script – RDS Start Menu Application and Taskbar Shortcut Removal Tool"
KB947222 – Addressing the User Profile Redirection Display Problem with a Different Approach
Instead of using the PowerShell or VB scripts that are out there to address the User Profile Redirection display problem mentioned in Microsoft’s KB947222 article, I didn’t like the idea of having to waste precious CPU cycles on calling one of these scripts every couple of minutes so I decide to take matters into my own hands to come up with a different approach.
Those solutions do indeed work, but even if you’re running this script like once a minute, you still run into the possibility that a user might log in, which in turn creates their redirected documents folders, and then, anyone attempting to access the network share that contains the user profiles at that exact moment, would still run into the same issue until the next time the script ran via task scheduler. Not exactly a great solution.
In addition to that, at least for me, using the PowerShell script seemed to add a whole nother layer of document shortcuts that was reflected upon inside of the user’s environment making it to where they had to click on documents twice just to get into their documents folder. Again not an ideal solution.
Continue reading “KB947222 – Addressing the User Profile Redirection Display Problem with a Different Approach”
Batch Script – Sending Items to the Recycle Bin Without Calling Any Third-Party Applications
While writing another larger script, I wanted the ability to send folders or files to the Recycle Bin, which I found out you can’t do natively via the command line without using some third-party apps or PowerShell.
I also found that when looping through a list of files in a batch script, it makes it really difficult to delete folders versus files because you have to either use the “del” command for files or the “rmdir” command for folders. With no simple way to differentiate between the two without a bunch of extra code, I kept looking for an alternative solution.
Continue reading “Batch Script – Sending Items to the Recycle Bin Without Calling Any Third-Party Applications”