Jase's Place

I saw Ivo Beerens’ blog post about using BGInfo and VMware View: Display the protocol used on the VMware View desktop background and it made me think of some of the scripts I’ve used. I figured I would share them.

I’ve used BGInfo for years, and have collected several scripts that I have used for various pieces of info that isn’t always the easiest to get from either the Windows registry or other places.  When I worked for a Service Provider, it wasn’t uncommon to have systems spread across different Windows versions, multiple time zones, 64 or 32 bit, etc.

Here are some of the scripts I regularly used when I was an Administrator.

System Type – Displays the Hardware Manufacturer & Model Type

Const wbemFlagReturnImmediately = &h10
Const wbemFlagForwardOnly = &h20

'*** Connect to this PC's WMI Service
Set objWMI = GetObject("winmgmts:\\.\root\CIMV2")

'*** Query WMI for Hardware
Set items = objWMI.ExecQuery("SELECT * FROM Win32_ComputerSystemProduct", _
"WQL", wbemFlagReturnImmediately + wbemFlagForwardOnly)

For Each item In items
strSystemType = item.Vendor & " " & item.Name 'What we're after
Next

If Len(strSystemType) = 0 Then strSystemType = "Not Found in WMI"

echo strSystemType

Windows Version – Display the version of Windows

Const wbemFlagReturnImmediately = &h10
Const wbemFlagForwardOnly = &h20

'*** Connect to this PC's WMI Service
Set objWMI = GetObject("winmgmts:\\.\root\CIMV2")

'*** Query WMI
Set Items = objWMI.ExecQuery("SELECT Caption FROM Win32_OperatingSystem",_
"WQL", wbemFlagReturnImmediately + wbemFlagForwardOnly)

For Each Item In Items
strWinVer = Item.Caption 'What we're after
Next

'*** Clean up the text
strWinVer = Replace(strWinVer,"Microsoft","") 'strip off MSFT
strWinVer = Replace(strWinVer,"(R)","") 'strip off (R)
strWinVer = Trim(strWinVer) ' Remove leading/trailing spaces

If Len(strWinVer) = 0 Then strWinVer = "Not Found in WMI"

Set WSHShell = CreateObject("WScript.Shell")

If Right(ProductName,2) = "R2" Then
   strWinVer = Replace(strWinVer,", "," R2, ")
End If

Echo strWinVer

Time Zone - The Current Time Zone (with support for Daylight Saving Time)

Const wbemFlagReturnImmediately = &h10
Const wbemFlagForwardOnly = &h20

'*** Connect to this PC's WMI Service
Set objWMI = GetObject("winmgmts:\\.\root\CIMV2")'Dot is local computer

'*** Query WMI
Set Win32Computer = objWMI.ExecQuery("SELECT * FROM Win32_ComputerSystem")

For Each Item In Win32Computer
DaySave = Item.DaylightInEffect
Next

Set Items = objWMI.ExecQuery("SELECT * FROM Win32_TimeZone")

For Each TimeItem In Items
   DayDST = TimeItem.DaylightName
   DaySTD = TimeItem.StandardName
Next

If DaySave <> "True" then
   DST = DaySTD
Else
   DST = DayDST
End If

Echo DST

x64 – Display whether a system is 64-bit or not

Set WshShell = CreateObject("WScript.Shell")
Set WshSysEnv = WshShell.Environment("System")

If WshSysEnv("PROCESSOR_ARCHITECTURE") = "AMD64" then
   Echo "64-bit System"
Else
   Echo "32-bit System"
End If

GetNotes – Read the contents of a file named C:\notes.txt so I can display whatever I wish
*I typically would put the role of the server, or any nuances of the application in this file

Set objFS = CreateObject("Scripting.fileSystemObject")
if objFS.FileExists("C:\notes.txt") Then
   strNOTES = "Notes:" & vbcrlf
   Set objIN = objFS.OpenTextFile("C:\notes.txt",1)

   'Read everything in an array
   inputData = Split(objIN.ReadAll, vbNewline)

   For each strData In inputData
      strNOTES = strNOTES & strData & vbcrlf
   Next

   objIN.Close
   Echo StrNotes
End If
Set objFS = Nothing

Mac Address – Read the Mac Address of adapters with IP enabled

Const wbemFlagReturnImmediately = &h10
Const wbemFlagForwardOnly = &h20

'*** Connect to this PC's WMI Service
Set objWMI = GetObject("winmgmts:\\.\root\CIMV2")

'*** Query WMI
Set Win32MacAddr = objWMI.ExecQuery("SELECT * FROM Win32_NetworkAdapterConfiguration Where IPEnabled = True")

For Each Item In Win32MacAddr
   MacAddr = Item.MACAddress
Next

Echo MacAddr

As Of Date – A little script to return when this BGInfo script was last run

strResult = formatDatetime(Date()) & " @ " & formatDatetime(Time(),3)

Echo strResult

And some new ones I created after seeing Ivo’s blog post.

View Broker – Display some View Broker info

Set wshShell = CreateObject ("Wscript.Shell")

echo "Broker: " & wshShell.ExpandEnvironmentStrings ("%ViewClient_Broker_DNS_Name%")
echo "Domain: " & wshShell.ExpandEnvironmentStrings ("%ViewClient_Broker_DomainName%")
echo "Remote IP: " & wshShell.ExpandEnvironmentStrings ("%ViewClient_Broker_Remote_IP_Address%")
echo "Tunneled: " & wshShell.ExpandEnvironmentStrings ("%ViewClient_Broker_Tunneled%")
echo "Tunnel URL: " & wshShell.ExpandEnvironmentStrings ("%ViewClient_Broker_Tunnel_URL%")
echo "URL: " & wshShell.ExpandEnvironmentStrings ("%ViewClient_Broker_URL%")

View Client – Display some View Client info

Set wshShell = CreateObject ("Wscript.Shell")

echo "View Client Username: " & wshShell.ExpandEnvironmentStrings ("%ViewClient_Broker_UserName%")
echo "View Client IP Address: " & wshShell.ExpandEnvironmentStrings ("%ViewClient_IP_Address%")
echo "View Client LoggedOn Domain: " & wshShell.ExpandEnvironmentStrings ("%ViewClient_LoggedOn_Domainname%")
echo "View Client LoggedOn Username: " & wshShell.ExpandEnvironmentStrings ("%ViewClient_LoggedOn_Username%")
echo "View Client Machine Name: " & wshShell.ExpandEnvironmentStrings ("%ViewClient_Machine_Name%")
echo "View Client MAC Address: " & wshShell.ExpandEnvironmentStrings ("%ViewClient_MAC_Address%")
echo "View Client Protocol: " & wshShell.ExpandEnvironmentStrings ("%ViewClient_Protocol%")
echo "View Client Type: " & wshShell.ExpandEnvironmentStrings ("%ViewClient_Type%")
echo "View Client Timezone: " & wshShell.ExpandEnvironmentStrings ("%ViewClient_Windows_Timezone%")

View Client Logged On As/From – Display only who/where a user is logged on from, and with what protocol

Set wshShell = CreateObject ("Wscript.Shell")

echo "Logged on as " & wshShell.ExpandEnvironmentStrings ("%ViewClient_LoggedOn_Domainname%") & "\" & wshShell.ExpandEnvironmentStrings ("%ViewClient_LoggedOn_Username%")
echo "From " & wshShell.ExpandEnvironmentStrings ("%ViewClient_Machine_Name%") & " using " & wshShell.ExpandEnvironmentStrings ("%ViewClient_Protocol%")
echo wshShell.ExpandEnvironmentStrings ("%ViewClient_Windows_Timezone%")

To add any of these as an available option in BGInfo, it is pretty straightforward.  Just follow these steps:

1. Click Custom
2. Click New
3. Enter the Indentifier
4. Select VB Script file
5. Enter the path to the vbs
6. Click Ok
7. The new Identifier is available in the Fields selection window

Here is a resulting BGInfo execution on the vCenter Server in my lab:

I hope they are useful to others as they have been useful to me.

Just a disclaimer… I haven’t tried any of these on Windows 2012…

Cheers,
Jase

Update: In the comments section, Alexandru asked for how I was pulling the VMware Tools version.  I’m simply pulling a file version from the vmtoolsd.exe executable.