Are you moving your many packages to the SCCM 2012 Application Catalog?  It can be a challenge getting the icons out of those huge MSI packages if you don’t want to install each one!  Not any more…

CSI_Reset_IE_32-bit_Shortcuts now handles all users and the default user - so you can run it from your software distribution system.  It intelligently processes user profiles so that...

The script CSI_GetSpecialFolder has been updated and renamed CSI_GetSpecialFolderToCMD.  It now sports...

Most everyone is familiar with creating Windows Installer Transforms (.MSTs) using an authoring tool.  CSI_INI2MST.vbs allows you to create transforms using just an INI file - or a whole set of INI files!  First let's talk about the usefulness of being able to create MSTs using a script and an INI file...

It is an increasingly common circumstance to hear of individuals or organizations who have had all their IE shortcuts pointed to 64-bit version of IE.  It does not take long for them to realize this was a mistake!  The attached script will help reset the IE Desktop and Start Menu shortcuts to the 32-bit version.

The CSI_IsAdmin script kit provides a quick and passive (doesn't try to change anything) way to check for admin rights on XP through Windows 7.  It includes code for VBScript (VBS), PowerShell (PS1) and Shell Scripting (.CMD/.BAT).  The previous version could report incorrect results under specific circumstances.

It is a common practice to have a corporate software registry key for tagging software installations that were performed by an official company prepared package.  Many times these keys are stored under HKLM\Software.  On 64-bit Windows this registry key is different for 32-bit and 64-bit applications - but it doesn't have to be!

Portable applications can be run without an installation.  Portabilization is the act of making an application run portably even though it was not designed to do so.  Although portable apps are generally used on a flash drive to allow someone to carry their productivity applications anywhere, they can also be very handy for running various IT utility on any server or VM without installation.  This solution is a true hidden gem!

Using the Win32_Product WMI class to inventory installed MSI products does some very unexpected and nasty things.  If you are using this class locally to retrieve product data we have a replacement that is not only much safer, it is a million times faster (roughly).

Our standard manifest templates have been updated to work with 64-bit EXEs.

After feedback from readers, this script has been enhanced to be able to sense when it is running under the 32-bit subsystem of 64-bit Windows.  Other improvements include...

For our BGInfo template I searched high and low for the best way to detect the Windows OS Bits (bit-ness) to display on the destop background.  Here is some script code that does the same thing - the implementation is uber-simple via some WMI code techniques you many not have seen before.

Have you ever need to view, update or add an internal manifest in an EXE?  Here is a tool that is Free, User Friendly, supports 64bit and is kept up to date.

Problem determination can be made more difficult by UAC Virtualization.  This is especially true of registry virtualization.  Since the VirtualStore registry key is specific to each user, you cannot get a global view of UAC registry key virtualization or even view it for a single user.  This script can list UAC virtualizated registry keys for another user or for ALL other users.

I am an unapologetic WinDbg illiterate.  I can’t read it and don’t understand it.  My 3 GB, dual-core computer can functionally translate any web page I visit into my native human language – does tracing Windows applications really have to be THIS difficult?  Not anymore.

If you are using internal or external manifests, it can be difficult to diagnose why they do not seem to be working correctly.  Sxstrace.exe is a utility built into Windows Vista and later that can diagnose these problems.  There is also a registry key that will cause Windows Vista and later to prefer external manifests (just like it is on XP).

Appendix A of Microsoft's App-V 4.5 Sequencing Guide has 12 pages of screenshots that comprise two of their three best practice configuration steps for a sequencing machine. These steps are good for any type application capture - whether you are doing traditional application packaging or virtualization with any product. We've scripted those steps for you.              (WKU2ANAAY3Z6)

If you are running the App-V client in a stand alone mode, you have probably run into some frustrating situations trying to get the MSI to install properly.  Worse yet, when the MSI package fails, it does not completely rollback the package addition to the client – so you end up with a half-baked deployment.  Let's take a look at the details and then give you some files and transforms that do all the work for you.

Windows 7 does not preserve drive letter mappings when a Protected Admin elevates to their full admin token.  This can be a pain when triggering elevation from a script that has started from a network mapped drive letter.  Here is a simple VBScript function to get around this problem.

Millions of administrators worldwide depend on the ability of a Windows Service to display a message on the user desktop for coordination of software distribution activities. Generally this involves communications such as allowing the user to defer software distribution jobs, notification that a distribution job is underway in the background or informing that a software installation is complete. The new security feature in Windows 7 known as “Session 0 Isolation” now blocks this communication from occurring. This CSI-Windows.com Toolkit addition presents a reasonable secure, simple method for getting around the Session 0 barrier.

The VBScriptUACkit consists of a group of VBScript procedures that allow a script to check whether it is running with full admin rights and to relaunch elevated if needed.

It is able to check whether a user is a protected admin (unelevated admin) so that it can prompt only if admin permissions can be given.  This allows a better user experience and it allows proper status reporting, rather than script failures.

Last year I wrote the VBScript Function “IfUserPerms” to enable scripts to determine if the current user/session was a protected administrator (an administrator capable of elevating, but who is currently not elevated). It worked reasonably well, but had a few warts that needed clipping for its re-release with the upcoming CSI-Windows.com VBScript UAC Kit…

Our Bginfo template has been updated to version 1.6.  It has been updated to accurately report whether the OS is 32 bit or 64 bit and whether the Hardware is 32 Bit or 64 Bit.

This script code uses a fast and efficient method for determining whether the current session (process) has admin rights.  The compact code is provided in VBS (9 lines) and CMD/BAT (3 lines).  It works with XP / Server 2003 through Windows 7 / Server 2008.  It works with UAC (reports admin rights only if session / process elevated).  It uses passive methods to determine rights – in other words, it does not try to change anything on the target system.

Our Bginfo template has been updated to version 1.5.  The template content is the same, but the installer now handles XP, checking for a copy of bginfo.exe next to script, checking for elevated admin on Vista and later (Version 6 and later).  You can use the installer script to see a simple Shell (.BAT, .CMD) scripting method to check if someone is an elevated admin...

I had two different scenarios in two days where some of the top malware scanners completely ignored very concerning changes to systems I was working on…

UAC has caused a lot of buzz ever since Vista was released. Sometimes even I wonder if the topic of UAC comprises a measurable amount of the total web and email conversations about technology for the last two years ;)

The main concern about UAC has always been those pesky prompts asking your permission to do innocuous activities like deleting kernel32.dll. Sometimes you get them when you don’t want them and sometimes you don’t get them when you should. It turns out there are many ways to cause or suppress UAC prompts – this post attempts to document them all…

If you are just getting started with using manifest files to configure UAC elevation prompts, it can be difficult to remember what the options are and what to do if there is already a manifest. The following is a complete sample template of an application manifest and is commented so that you can…

Oh that sinking feeling after deleting a file that is your only good copy of a script.  However, the second sinking feeling of knowing there is no recycler copy because the deletion happened via another machine over the network is even worse!  I ended up using two products to attempt recovery – my paid for copy of Stellar Phoenix ($99) and the free and famous Recuva.  Guess which one out performed in multiple was…

4/5/2010 Update: This script function has been superceded by the much more capable
"IsSession.vbs" available here.

Maybe you have come across some of the UAC VBScript snippets for figuring out whether the current user is an administrator and even whether they are elevated or not. I wanted a quick and lightweight solution to figure our whether a user was admin and whether they were elevated. Once I got started, it didn’t take much to add checks for all the other groups and special permissions. And it’s all done in 40 lines…

Disabling unnecessary Windows services can result in significant performance gains for production machines and virtual machines. This script helps you manage and share templates for services optmization - including only starting services when they are needed. Some services optimization templates are included and instructions are included for converting from other services optimization tools. Click "Read More" for much more information about the benefits, uses and implementation of the script.

The attached file contains a .bgi template for Sysinternals BGInfo and an installation shell script. We use it on the virtual machines for all our courses. It places all the security and UAC details of a Windows 7 (or Vista) machine on the background bitmap. I have seem many threads on the net about trying to get bginfo to run for all standard users and do it without admin rights. Just run the installation script (bginfoinst.bat) in an elevated command prompt and then bginfo will run for all users who login, whether or not they are admins or elevated.

RegScanner is a very cool little utility for finding things in the registry.  RegEdit's built-in search functionality is similar to notepad.  Type your search string and keep pounding F3 until you find something similar to what you're looking for.  Lots of wasted time.

Here's some things I love about RegScanner:

ACT 5.5 has been released.  Microsoft has made sure that the entire toolset is Windows 7 ready.  The help documents have been enhanced with more information on Shims - Microsoft has been making big improvements on the help documents for over a year.

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