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How to: Set Microsoft Office initials with Active Directory information using RES Workspace Manager 2014

When you’ve installed Microsoft Office in your environment, the first time the user starts one of the Office products, they receive a pop-up box for the initials. Default there are two things the user has to fill in. The username and the initials. The username is the displayname within Active Directory. The initials is the first letter of the username. But, what if you want to fill this field also with some Active Directory information, like the property Initials.

In this environment I’m using RES Workspace Manager 2014, so there’re also possibilities to set some user variables in your session. First I’ve created a new environment variable with a query to read the information from Active Directory.

1.) Open the RES Workspace Manager Console and create a new environment variable. In my example it is Initials
2.) Give the new variable the following value $adinfo(Initials) There’re some more values possible, like firstname, lastname, etc….
3.) Login to your session, in my example a Windows 8.1 VDI desktop and open the command prompt
4.) Type the command set and search for the new variable Initials. It’s the information from the Active Directory
5.) Now return to the RES Workspace Manager Console and create a new User Setting (User Registry)
6.) The values are stored in the following registrykey:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\Common\Userinfo
7.) Add this path in the new registry setting and create two new REG_SZ keys
UserInitials with the value %Initials%
Username with the value %Username%
8.) Configure the Access Control and the Workspace Container
9.) Login again into a new session and start Microsoft Office, for example Word, Excel, Outlook, PowerPoint, etc…
10.) Open the options and take a look at the user initials.

This is a realy powerfull solution to control your users initials. You can choose to apply the User Registry settings once, so the users are able to edit the initials. You can use a User Preference to store this information in a .UPR (User Preference) with RES Workspace Manager.

How to: Print multiple documents from Windows Explorer using RES Workspace Manager

Normally users have the ability to right click on a file, or multiple files in the Windows Explorer, and print the file(s). When using RES Workspace Manager, this option is default not available for all your file extensions. This is a feature that you want enable for your users, for example for PDF files. So let’s configure this option.

1.) First of all start the RES Workspace Manager console
2.) Navigate to Composition / Applications / Adobe Reader XI (in my example for PDF files)
3.) Navigate to the Properties / File Types tab and click Add
4.) Add the PDF file extension
5.) Select the command Print
6.) Select the parameter “%1”, this is default
7.) Now login with a user again and the Print option for PDF files within the Windows Explorer is back again!

How to: Remove public Libraries in Windows Server 2008 R2 using RES Workspace Manager 2012

Default in Windows Server 2008 R2, there’re libraries available for each user. This Libraries are located in the left bar in the Windows Explorer. When you’re using a Server Based Computing environment, for example Remote Desktop Services or Citrix Xenapp, you want to edit this libraries. Default, the users have own libraries, but also an public library. The public libraries are located to C:\Users\Public. In an Server Based Computing environment, the users haven’t access to that location. Let’s have a look on have to delete this public libraries.

In this environment I’m using Windwos Server 2008 R2 with the Remote Desktop Services role enabled. The workspace is managed with RES Workspace Manager 2012. The users are using mandatory profiles, published as a custom resources with RES Workspace Manager.

1.) First of all, let’s have a look in the Windows Explorer. In the left bar there’re the libraries.
2.) The library folders are located in the directory
C:\Users\username\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Libraries
Documents.library-ms
Music.library-ms
Pictures.library-ms
Videos.library-ms
3.) Let’s open these files in notepad (or another texteditor)
4.) There’re two sections. One for the library and one for the public library.
5.) Right-click on each public library and choose Remove Location from library
6.) The public libraries are located to C:\Users\Public. In an Server Based Computing environment, the users haven’t access to that location.
7.) After deleting the public libraries, navigate back to the library directory in your profile
C:\Users\username\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Libraries
Documents.library-ms
Music.library-ms
Pictures.library-ms
Videos.library-ms
8.) Open each file within notepad and delete the rows
<ownerSID>….</ownerSID>
<serialized>….</serialized>
This will make the files generic for using as a baseline for all the users.
9.) Open your RES Workspace Manager Console and navigate to Administration, Custom Resources
10.) Open your mandatory profile and navigate to
Mandatory Profile\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Libraries
11.) Delete the orrigional files and add the four customized files into this folder
12.) Update the cache of your RES Workspace Manager Agents and login with a user
13.) The public libraries are gone now and users didn’t receive error messages anymore 🙂

Hopefully this blogpost is usefull for your own production envirenment!

How to: Show recent files in the Start Menu when using RES Workspace Manager 2012

When you are using RES Workspace Manager 2012 and you have configured to apply the Windows Shell, the recently files are not shown in the start menu. This is a feature that is a must for some users, so let’s have a look on how to enable this option!

1.) In the first screemdump, the recently files are not shown
2.) Open the registry (regedit.exe)
3.) Navigate to the following section in the registry:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Advanced
4.) Create a new REG_DWORD with the name Start_ShowRecentDocs with the value 1
5.) You also can create a new User Registry within RES Workspace Manager 2012, though this option it’s available for all users!
6.) Logoff the user and login again. As you can see, there are the recently files!
7.) The recently files are stored in the folder:
%APPDATA%\Microsoft\Windows\Recent
8.) When you’re using mandatory profiles or you doesn’t redirect de AppData folder, configure a User Preference within RES Workspace Manager 2012 to save the recently files.
9.) Create a new User Preference and select the option Folder tree to the path %APPDATA%\Microsoft\Windows\Recent

Remove duplicate personal folders within Windows 2008 R2 when using folder redirection

When you are using folder redirection within Windows Server 2008 R2 to redirect some personal folders, you will see some duplicate folders when you are opening the Windows Explorer. One is the redirected folder to your network, the other is the orrigional folder. When opening the origioal folder, you will receive an error. The redirected folder works fine.

To resolve this duplicate folder issue, you have to add a registry key to the HKEY_CURRENT_USER environment. I have used RES Workspace Manager 2012 to deploy this registry key, but you can also use a loginscript or other third party software.

1.) Open the RES Workspace Manager 2012 Management Console
2.) Navigate to User Registry
3.) Create a New Registry, in my example “OS – Remove duplicate user personal folder”
4.) Add the following registry key
HEKY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\NonEnum
5.) Create a REG_DWORD
{DFFACDC5-679F-4156-8947-C5C76BC0B67F}
6.) The REG_DWORD value should be 1 (0x00000001)
7.) Distribute this to all the users or just to a group of users

After login again, you will see that the duplicate folders are gone! This is much better for the user now.