NoMoreFour: An App-V 5.0 converter GUI application

 App-V, Applications, Powershell  No Responses »
Feb 112013
 

If you want to migrate to Microsoft App-V 5.0 you’ll soon discover that you can’t import your old App-V 4.5 and App-V 4.6 applications because they are in a different format.

The new Microsoft App-V 5.0 sequencer comes with two PowerShell cmdlets which help you test and convert your existing applications to the new App-V 5.0 “.appv” format.

NoMoreFour wraps these two cmdlets in an easy to use GUI application, allowing you to convert all of your applications to App-V 5.0 with zero PowerShell knowledge required.
Additionally, NoMoreFour can batch convert all your applications at once, saving you lots of time (and money) without having to resort to PowerShell scripting.
Continue reading »

Installing Symantec Endpoint Protection in a Citrix Provisioning Services vDisk using PowerShell

 Applications, Citrix, Powershell, Provisioning, XenApp, XenDesktop  7 Responses »
Apr 052012
 

If you install Symantec Enterprise Protection in a Citrix Provisioning Services vDisk in standard mode, you will notice that your clients will create duplicate entries in the Symantec Endpoint Protection Manager at every reboot.
Just like most other centrally managed anti-virus products (see my other post on Trend Micro OfficeScan), Symantec uses hardware id’s to uniquely identify clients and this causes issues with read-only vDisks. Continue reading »

PowerShell Robocopy script with e-mail notification

 Microsoft, Powershell  26 Responses »
Nov 252011
 

I wrote this PowerShell script to synchronize two folders with robocopy (each located on another physical hard disk) so I have a backup in case one hard disk fails.
The script will send the robocopy output log file as an attachment to the specified e-mail address. Continue reading »

PowerShell print server inventory script

 Microsoft, Powershell, Printing  47 Responses »
Sep 132011
 

Getting information from all installed printers on a print server can be an impossible task without third-party tooling or scripts. PowerShell can make this really easy.

I created a PowerShell script which lists all installed printers and gathers information like the printer name, driver, share name, location and the IP address (the actual IP address, not the portname without the “IP” prefix). Continue reading »

Local profiles with AppSense Personalization and PowerShell

 AppSense, Citrix, Powershell, Profiles, XenApp, XenDesktop  28 Responses »
Sep 022011
 

In almost all XenApp and XenDesktop environments I build, I solve user virtualization with AppSense Personalization and local profiles.
AppSense Personalization allows you to virtualize and personalize the user desktop without the need of a roaming profile, and by using  AppSense Personalization together with local profiles you get some big advantages over roaming and mandatory profiles:

  • Fast logon and logoff times (no profile has to be loaded over the network)
  • No profile corruption
  • No manual mandatory profile creation
  • No “hung” profiles

The only drawback of using local profiles is that they are not automatically deleted from the server or desktop when the user logs off, but this is where spoofing the state of the local profile with PowerShell comes in. Continue reading »

Better HA for Citrix provisioning: PowerShell conditional reboot script for target devices

 Citrix, Powershell, Provisioning, XenApp, XenDesktop  No Responses »
Aug 292011
 

Citrix has done a good job in helping us make a XenApp or XenDesktop environment based on provisioning high available.
Once your target devices are up, you’re mostly in the green zone:

  • A target device that has acquired license has a grace period.
  • Offline database support allows your SQL server to take a break.
  • 2 or more provisioning servers ensure high availability for your target devices.
  • NIC teaming
  • And so on…

However, when your target devices go into a (scheduled) reboot, you can go into the red zone.

Continue reading »