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Looping in Labtech (Connectwise Automate)

I’ve been looking for this article on several occasions, and there it was, in LinkedIn! Re-posting here….

So, you want to do a loop in Labtech.  No problem – as long as you keep a few things in mind.

First, you have to follow the logic!  Use script notes to let yourself know what you want to accomplish.  Also, you need to use Labels and Script GoTo to create the loop. Labels are Script Notes with “:” preceding the label.  Short, simple labels are best.  Know where you want to exit the loop and when to continue the loop.

In the above image, we are taking a “String of Stuff” and splitting it, then parsing the string for each start and taking two characters after that to be a Percent Free.

Note the “SET: @Counter@ = @Counter@ – 1” entry.  This is a Script Math line.  It is, however, not written as shown.  If you put @Counter@ in the variable section, it will use the Value of the variable previously set, so you may wind up with @4@ set to ‘3’ if you try this. 

Despite what the description says, it does matter whether you use @ or not!

In order to do a Loop successfully, you need to make sure that the “Variable” section of each Variable Set, Script Math, etc. that may change value in the loop (or otherwise) does not have the ‘@’ with the variable name.

Users can’t see on RDP Session

Sometimes we have a larger resolution on an RDP server and users complain they can’t see – or, just a couple users complain and everyone else thinks it is fine. Here are some methods to Magnify an RDP session, Make Text Bigger on the RDP session or, increase the scaling directly from the Remote Desktop Session’s .RDP file.

Using Magnifier on RDP session

First, lets change the settings on Magnifier, because it starts at 100% increments and that can just look ugly.  Start button and type “mag” should bring up the following.

There is a drop-down to pick the zoom level increments – pick 10% to start with

The directions on this page tell you how to use it.  (Ignore make everything bigger)

You can now turn on the Magnifier by pressing the Windows logo key on the keyboard, then the Plus Sign.

To turn the magnifier off, hold down the Windows Logo key and press ESC key.

Adjust Font Size on Remote Desktop session:

Click start or the Search in the lower left corner of the screen and type “Make Text Size Bigger” (may not have to type the whole thing)

Click on the Make text size bigger (system settings)

Drag the slider bar to the size you need, then click Apply

Adjusting the Text of the .RDP file

This is the last effort if neither of the above work properly, because it involves editing the .RDP using Notepad++ – or Notepad, if you don’t like better programs.

You will need the .RDP file you use to connect – or you can Save As on the Remote Desktop and save that to the local desktop.

You will need to right click and Edit with Notepad++, or select Open With – then choose Notepad

You may need to choose another app, then More Apps and scroll down to find Notepad, then click OK.

When open in Notepad++ (or Notepad), you will see a lot of text.  Scroll down to the bottom.

Add the following at the bottom:
desktopscalefactor:i:125
devicescalefactor:i:125

You can adjust these numbers, but I think 125% is good to start with.

While this is open, we can also make some performance improvements! Let’s find :

redirectsmartcards:i:1 and change the 1 to a 0 (zero). So it would be:

redirectsmartcards:i:0

And you may want to change the session bpp:i: – I suggest:
session bpp:i:24

Now, save and close Notepad++ (or Notepad).

Use the .RDP file to connect to your session.

Stop and Prevent Office apps from Saving to One Drive by Default

Are you troubled by the way Office M365 apps – Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook – all save to One Drive by default, because that can get pretty annoying.

Fortunately, preventing this behavior is rather simple – and not as extreme as unlinking and uninstalling One Drive – which you may be using for other reasons (or not).

Open Word, then click on Options in the lower left corner

Click on Save in the left menu, then check the Save to Computer by default.

This sets the option for the whole office suite of products, though, I would double check the next time you use them.

Edit Settings for RDP file in RDWeb

RDP has a lot of issues, one is how to get the users to use the right settings for the .RDP file they use to connect. In the past, I’ve downloaded the .rdp from RDWeb, edited it and distributed the file to end-users manually – via email or group policy to put it on their desktop, etc. That was getting old, so now, I have found a way to manage it via the Registry on the RDP connection broker.

One thing I’d like to mention before getting into the code is another registry entry : Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Terminal Server\CentralPublishedResources\PublishedFarms\{TheNameOfYourCollection}\RemoteDesktops\{YourRemoteDesktop} and the entry ShowInPortal – set that to 1 to show, 0 to hide (which 0 is the default).

Now, on to editing the RDPFileContents – oh, you saw that in the image above? Same location in the registry. This entry has the whole RDP file contents in it – new lines and all – that is downloaded from RDWeb links. Sure, you could (carefully) edit the line in the registry – but if you accidentally take out a new line between entries, you can’t put it back in! So, the better way to do it is to download the file from RDWeb, Edit with Notepad++ (or similar, I guess plain ole notepad would work as well).

You can now edit the file – I suggest Session bpp:i:24, redirectsmartcards:i:0 (This can clear up performance issues!), and drivestoredirect:s:C:\; (note the ; after) at a minimum. See the whole list of settings at Microsoft. ( Note the Remote Desktop Services column )

Once you have the settings down – and have tested using the file you just edited – you can use the following Powershell (edit the variables, of course…) Oh, you do need to run this on your RD Web Server, if it is separate from your Gateway, Connection Broker, Host, etc., to set the .rdp file configuration in your RDWeb registry. For RemoteApps, change the RemoteDesktops to RemoteApps in the registry path.

##Powershell to create a multi-line registry entry from a file
#_RDP registry location is : Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Terminal Server\CentralPublishedResources\PublishedFarms
##_Gather the Variable Information
#_The file to import the information from
$FileToImport = "\\Path\to\your\saved\RDP-Desktop.rdp"
#_Set the entry type - for RDPFileContents, this is String.
$RegType = "string"  # For New-ItemProperty, but not used in Set-ItemProperty
#_Set the path to the Key (Folder) level of registry.
$RegPath = "HKLM:\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Terminal Server\Test\PublishedFarms\{YourRDPName}\RemoteDesktops\{YourRDPName}"
#_The Registry entry to Edit
$RegEntry = "RDPFileContents"
#_Import the file contents to a variable
$rContents = [system.string]::Join("`r`n",(Get-Content -Path $FileToImport))
# Assign the value
Set-ItemProperty -Path $RegPath -Name $RegEntry -Value $rContents -Force

Now your settings will be downloaded from RDWeb! No more distributing .rdp files with customized settings! With that set up and all user workstations set to not use UDP for RDP sessions, things should run smoothly!