{"id":2639,"date":"2013-02-22T13:51:55","date_gmt":"2013-02-22T19:51:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.jasemccarty.com\/blog\/?p=2639"},"modified":"2013-03-21T07:50:48","modified_gmt":"2013-03-21T13:50:48","slug":"a-few-bginfo-vbscripts-for-my-vms","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.jasemccarty.com\/blog\/a-few-bginfo-vbscripts-for-my-vms\/","title":{"rendered":"A few BGInfo VBScripts for my VMs"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

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.\u00a0 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.<\/p>\n

Here are some of the scripts I regularly used when I was an Administrator.<\/p>\n

System Type<\/strong> – Displays the Hardware Manufacturer & Model Type<\/p>\n

\r\nConst wbemFlagReturnImmediately = &h10\r\nConst wbemFlagForwardOnly = &h20\r\n\r\n'*** Connect to this PC's WMI Service\r\nSet objWMI = GetObject("winmgmts:\\\\.\\root\\CIMV2")\r\n\r\n'*** Query WMI for Hardware\r\nSet items = objWMI.ExecQuery("SELECT * FROM Win32_ComputerSystemProduct", _\r\n"WQL", wbemFlagReturnImmediately + wbemFlagForwardOnly)\r\n\r\nFor Each item In items\r\nstrSystemType = item.Vendor & " " & item.Name 'What we're after\r\nNext\r\n\r\nIf Len(strSystemType) = 0 Then strSystemType = "Not Found in WMI"\r\n\r\necho strSystemType\r\n<\/pre>\n
Windows Version<\/strong> – Display the version of Windows<\/p>\n
\r\nConst wbemFlagReturnImmediately = &h10\r\nConst wbemFlagForwardOnly = &h20\r\n\r\n'*** Connect to this PC's WMI Service\r\nSet objWMI = GetObject("winmgmts:\\\\.\\root\\CIMV2")\r\n\r\n'*** Query WMI\r\nSet Items = objWMI.ExecQuery("SELECT Caption FROM Win32_OperatingSystem",_\r\n"WQL", wbemFlagReturnImmediately + wbemFlagForwardOnly)\r\n\r\nFor Each Item In Items\r\nstrWinVer = Item.Caption 'What we're after\r\nNext\r\n\r\n'*** Clean up the text\r\nstrWinVer = Replace(strWinVer,"Microsoft","") 'strip off MSFT\r\nstrWinVer = Replace(strWinVer,"(R)","") 'strip off (R)\r\nstrWinVer = Trim(strWinVer) ' Remove leading\/trailing spaces\r\n\r\nIf Len(strWinVer) = 0 Then strWinVer = "Not Found in WMI"\r\n\r\nSet WSHShell = CreateObject("WScript.Shell")\r\n\r\nIf Right(ProductName,2) = "R2" Then\r\n   strWinVer = Replace(strWinVer,", "," R2, ")\r\nEnd If\r\n\r\nEcho strWinVer\r\n<\/pre>\n
Time Zone <\/strong>– The Current Time Zone (with support for Daylight Saving Time)<\/p>\n
\r\nConst wbemFlagReturnImmediately = &h10\r\nConst wbemFlagForwardOnly = &h20\r\n\r\n'*** Connect to this PC's WMI Service\r\nSet objWMI = GetObject("winmgmts:\\\\.\\root\\CIMV2")'Dot is local computer\r\n\r\n'*** Query WMI\r\nSet Win32Computer = objWMI.ExecQuery("SELECT * FROM Win32_ComputerSystem")\r\n\r\nFor Each Item In Win32Computer\r\nDaySave = Item.DaylightInEffect\r\nNext\r\n\r\nSet Items = objWMI.ExecQuery("SELECT * FROM Win32_TimeZone")\r\n\r\nFor Each TimeItem In Items\r\n   DayDST = TimeItem.DaylightName\r\n   DaySTD = TimeItem.StandardName\r\nNext\r\n\r\nIf DaySave <> "True" then\r\n   DST = DaySTD\r\nElse\r\n   DST = DayDST\r\nEnd If\r\n\r\nEcho DST\r\n<\/pre>\n
x64<\/strong> – Display whether a system is 64-bit or not<\/p>\n
\r\nSet WshShell = CreateObject("WScript.Shell")\r\nSet WshSysEnv = WshShell.Environment("System")\r\n\r\nIf WshSysEnv("PROCESSOR_ARCHITECTURE") = "AMD64" then\r\n   Echo "64-bit System"\r\nElse\r\n   Echo "32-bit System"\r\nEnd If\r\n<\/pre>\n
GetNotes<\/strong> – Read the contents of a file named C:\\notes.txt so I can display whatever I wish
\n*I typically would put the role of the server, or any nuances of the application in this file<\/em><\/p>\n
\r\nSet objFS = CreateObject("Scripting.fileSystemObject")\r\nif objFS.FileExists("C:\\notes.txt") Then\r\n   strNOTES = "Notes:" & vbcrlf\r\n   Set objIN = objFS.OpenTextFile("C:\\notes.txt",1)\r\n\r\n   'Read everything in an array\r\n   inputData = Split(objIN.ReadAll, vbNewline)\r\n\r\n   For each strData In inputData\r\n      strNOTES = strNOTES & strData & vbcrlf\r\n   Next\r\n\r\n   objIN.Close\r\n   Echo StrNotes\r\nEnd If\r\nSet objFS = Nothing\r\n<\/pre>\n
Mac Address<\/strong> – Read the Mac Address of adapters with IP enabled<\/p>\n
\r\nConst wbemFlagReturnImmediately = &h10\r\nConst wbemFlagForwardOnly = &h20\r\n\r\n'*** Connect to this PC's WMI Service\r\nSet objWMI = GetObject("winmgmts:\\\\.\\root\\CIMV2")\r\n\r\n'*** Query WMI\r\nSet Win32MacAddr = objWMI.ExecQuery("SELECT * FROM Win32_NetworkAdapterConfiguration Where IPEnabled = True")\r\n\r\nFor Each Item In Win32MacAddr\r\n   MacAddr = Item.MACAddress\r\nNext\r\n\r\nEcho MacAddr\r\n<\/pre>\n
As Of Date<\/strong> – A little script to return when this BGInfo script was last run<\/p>\n
\r\nstrResult = formatDatetime(Date()) & " @ " & formatDatetime(Time(),3)\r\n\r\nEcho strResult\r\n<\/pre>\n
And some new ones I created after seeing Ivo’s blog post<\/a><\/strong>.<\/p>\n
View Broker<\/strong> – Display some View Broker info<\/p>\n
\r\nSet wshShell = CreateObject ("Wscript.Shell")\r\n\r\necho "Broker: " & wshShell.ExpandEnvironmentStrings ("%ViewClient_Broker_DNS_Name%")\r\necho "Domain: " & wshShell.ExpandEnvironmentStrings ("%ViewClient_Broker_DomainName%")\r\necho "Remote IP: " & wshShell.ExpandEnvironmentStrings ("%ViewClient_Broker_Remote_IP_Address%")\r\necho "Tunneled: " & wshShell.ExpandEnvironmentStrings ("%ViewClient_Broker_Tunneled%")\r\necho "Tunnel URL: " & wshShell.ExpandEnvironmentStrings ("%ViewClient_Broker_Tunnel_URL%")\r\necho "URL: " & wshShell.ExpandEnvironmentStrings ("%ViewClient_Broker_URL%")\r\n<\/pre>\n
View Client<\/strong> – Display some View Client info<\/p>\n
\r\nSet wshShell = CreateObject ("Wscript.Shell")\r\n\r\necho "View Client Username: " & wshShell.ExpandEnvironmentStrings ("%ViewClient_Broker_UserName%")\r\necho "View Client IP Address: " & wshShell.ExpandEnvironmentStrings ("%ViewClient_IP_Address%")\r\necho "View Client LoggedOn Domain: " & wshShell.ExpandEnvironmentStrings ("%ViewClient_LoggedOn_Domainname%")\r\necho "View Client LoggedOn Username: " & wshShell.ExpandEnvironmentStrings ("%ViewClient_LoggedOn_Username%")\r\necho "View Client Machine Name: " & wshShell.ExpandEnvironmentStrings ("%ViewClient_Machine_Name%")\r\necho "View Client MAC Address: " & wshShell.ExpandEnvironmentStrings ("%ViewClient_MAC_Address%")\r\necho "View Client Protocol: " & wshShell.ExpandEnvironmentStrings ("%ViewClient_Protocol%")\r\necho "View Client Type: " & wshShell.ExpandEnvironmentStrings ("%ViewClient_Type%")\r\necho "View Client Timezone: " & wshShell.ExpandEnvironmentStrings ("%ViewClient_Windows_Timezone%")\r\n<\/pre>\n
View Client Logged On As\/From<\/strong> – Display only who\/where a user is logged on from, and with what protocol<\/p>\n
\r\nSet wshShell = CreateObject ("Wscript.Shell")\r\n\r\necho "Logged on as " & wshShell.ExpandEnvironmentStrings ("%ViewClient_LoggedOn_Domainname%") & "\\" & wshShell.ExpandEnvironmentStrings ("%ViewClient_LoggedOn_Username%")\r\necho "From " & wshShell.ExpandEnvironmentStrings ("%ViewClient_Machine_Name%") & " using " & wshShell.ExpandEnvironmentStrings ("%ViewClient_Protocol%")\r\necho wshShell.ExpandEnvironmentStrings ("%ViewClient_Windows_Timezone%")\r\n<\/pre>\n
To add any of these as an available option in BGInfo, it is pretty straightforward.\u00a0 Just follow these steps:<\/p>\n
    \n
  1. Click Custom<\/li>\n
  2. Click New<\/li>\n
  3. Enter the Indentifier<\/li>\n
  4. Select VB Script file<\/li>\n
  5. Enter the path to the vbs<\/li>\n
  6. Click Ok<\/li>\n
  7. The new Identifier is available in the Fields selection window<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
    \"BGINFO\"<\/a><\/p>\n
    Here is a resulting BGInfo execution on the vCenter Server in my lab:<\/p>\n
    \"BGINFO-VC\"<\/a><\/p>\n
    I hope they are useful to others as they have been useful to me.<\/p>\n
    Just a disclaimer… I haven’t tried any of these on Windows 2012…<\/p>\n
    Cheers,
    \nJase<\/p>\n
    Update:<\/strong> In the comments section, Alexandru asked for how I was pulling the VMware Tools version.\u00a0 I’m simply pulling a file version from the vmtoolsd.exe executable.<\/p>\n
    \"vmtools-ver\"<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
    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 … <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,11,14,12,13],"tags":[136,159,99,105,137],"class_list":["post-2639","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-citrix","category-vbs","category-vdi","category-virtualization","category-windows","tag-bginfo","tag-vdi","tag-view","tag-vmware","tag-xendesktop"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jasemccarty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2639","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jasemccarty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jasemccarty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jasemccarty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jasemccarty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2639"}],"version-history":[{"count":33,"href":"https:\/\/www.jasemccarty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2639\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2752,"href":"https:\/\/www.jasemccarty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2639\/revisions\/2752"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jasemccarty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2639"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jasemccarty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2639"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jasemccarty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2639"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}