Apps from Kenzigs Barcamp Presentation that was canceled

People left very early from Barcamp at Citrix Synergy and I did not do my presentation so here are some of the utilities I was going to present. Please comment and let me know what some of your favorite utilities are that you use every day. Free ones especially!

Kenzigs favorite utilities that have helped eliminate stress!

The Citrix Presentation server 10.20 Client
http://www.citrix.com/English/ss/downloads/details.asp?downloadId=1339751&productId=186&c1=sot2755
Of course the number one thing I use all day long is the Citrix ICA Client. Connecting to admin apps is heavily used. The 10.x clients have improved Seamless Windows, Smooth Roaming, Speed Screen Image Acceleration, Wan Drive Access performance, SercureICA, Pass through Authentication, Printing and Keyboard passthrough. Have you upgraded to the latest version?

AltDesk
http://www.astonshell.com/altdesk/
This has got to be one of my all time favorite utilities. AltDesk creates several Virtual Desktops you can easily switch back and forth between. There is a portable version you can use on your USB key drive. I plug in the key when I go to users desktops, run this program up and switch to a new desktop and leave all their apps intact. When done I close the program and never changed a thing on their PC. $15 shareware

DameWare Mini Remote control
http://www.dameware.com/products/dmrc/
This is the least expensive licensed per administrator and not number of desktops and the only remote control software I have found that works within Windows Vista without requiring user interaction. (I can’t say I’m not liking GoToAssist Express Beta which comes in a close second. You can check that out at https://express.gotoassist.com/servlet/signup)

SequoiaView http://w3.win.tue.nl/nl/onderzoek/onderzoek_informatica/visualization/sequoiaview/
SequoiaView is a FREE product that gives you a treemap of files on your hard disk so you can visually see what files are taking up the most space. I use this from my USB key drive to see if there are large files I can delete prior to creating images for PC’s
TreeMaps are a novel idea you can even get your news like this at: http://www.marumushi.com/apps/newsmap/newsmap.cfm

PrintNow
http://www.msterminalservices.org/files/printnow.zip
PrintNow is a TSR utility that reenables the Print Scrn key. This is an old utility from PC magazine that still works even on Vista and within an ICA/RDP session it is invaluable!

System Center Virtual Machine Manager Beta
If you are using Virtualization go out and get yourself a Microsoft Connect Account and
check this product out! It will control both Hyper-V and VMWare ESX VM’s
http://www.microsoft.com/systemcenter/scvmm/default.mspx

Ctrl-Alt-Del Consultancy Utilities
Warren Simondson has written so many excellent utilities for Citrix and Terminal services they would be too numerous to mention here. But go out and have a look see for yourself at: http://www.ctrl-alt-del.com.au/CAD_ResGuides.htm But some samples are GetTSCIP a command line tool to get the Clients IP and GETPUBAPP a command line utility to get what server a Citrix Published app is on.
Oh did I mention they were all free?


Barracuda Spam Firewall
http://www.barracudanetworks.com/ns/products/spam_overview.php
Support calls for email garbage have all but been eliminated since we have installed this baby! It goes in between your switch and mail server, just point your SMTP mail IP to this guy and watch your spam disappear!

Here is a sample of just ONE days stats from our usage:
· Total emails processed: 309,868
· Blocked (bad recipient - no such username here): 53,102
· Blocked spam emails: 249,278
· Blocked (rate controlled) 1,058
· Blocked due to virus: 27
· Allowed - tagged: 1,342
· Allowed: 5,061
That is right it blocked almost a quarter of a million spam messages in one day for us!

RTO Software Virtual Profiles
http://www.rtosoftware.com/Products/VirtualProfiles/VP.htm
OMG I’ve seen demos of this product that speeds up loading profiles from 34 seconds down to 9 seconds. It only loads the part of the profile it needs to get you in and when you access other parts it downloads them on the fly as needed. I’ll admit we don’t use this yet but I plan to!
Citrix also just purchased Sepago Profiles from them.

Veeam FastSCP
http://www.veeam.com/vmware-esx-fastscp.html
If you are using VMWare ESX this utility is pretty much indispensible. It’s like FTP for your VMWare servers, you can use this to copy VM’s on or off of your servers.

Microsoft Remote Server Administration Toolkit for Vista/Server 2008
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=9ff6e897-23ce-4a36-b7fc-d52065de9960&DisplayLang=en
Updated version of RDesktops and Remote Admin tools for Vista and Server 2008. Boy I am so happy they finally released this! I use Rdesktops daily along with Active Directory Users and Computers Snapin all in one console to control my entire environment.

DTaskManager Task Manager Replacement
I’d have to say I probably keep this FREE utility running half the day. Every time IE stalls and you can’t close it with the regular task manger this one has a Kill Task option that works every time. Scroll down the page to find it. Also shows ports in use, User/Kernel modules. Also have a look at DShutdown at this site!http://dimio.altervista.org/eng/

2xExplorer
http://www.simtel.net/product.php?id=34054R
emember Windows 3.1 when you could have multiple panes of explorer open to copy between them. You could easily drag and drop files back and forth among partitions. 2xEplorer is a file explorer replacement that works on all Windows OS versions from 95 to Vista. (and yes in TS and Citrix sessions) I use this daily and it is a real time saver. This is the FREE version and uses a single executable that can be put on your USB jump drive.

PortableApps
These are applications made to run on your USB Key. Imagine a PC that doesn’t have Firefox or OpenOffice on it. Plug in your key and you are up and running.
http://portableapps.com/

DeNamik LoadGen
http://www.dabcc.com/downloadfile.aspx?id=344
This tool helps to perform massive load tests in a simplified manner, something which is important to any centralized computing environment. FREE

Instant Memory Cleaner
http://www.vasileios.gr/freesoft/inst_mem_clean.htm
This is a little front end utility for the cli ClearMem in Windows XP and Vista. When your machine slows to a crawl you click on the icon in your taskbar and it will free up your memory. This is a free tool. Lots of other useful utilities on this site also.

TSPE
http://www.gourami.eu/products/tspe-terminal-server
Edit your Terminal Services Profile path for multiple users all at once! FREE

Process Lasso
http://www.bitsum.com/prolasso.php
Automatically adjust the allocation of CPU cycles so that system responsiveness is improved in high-load situations. FREE

Customize Web Interface
http://www.thomaskoetzing.de
If you want to customize Web Interface and haven’t heard of my fellow CTP Thomas Koetzing you’ll need to go to his site. He has numerous tips and scripts to get you started.

Get rid of that Grey box
http://www.brianmadden.com/Forum/Post/96324
Ok I admit this one is mostly just a link to a discussion but the issue happens to all users as soon as you install Office on a Citrix Server. The language bar loads and if you are using seamless apps a grey box hangs around. Here is how to get rid of it.

There are 2 Web 2.0 web apps that have made my life easier. One is called http://Twitter.com. The other is called http://Tumblr.com . Twitter helps you keep up on what your coworkers and friends are downing. Tumblr makes blogging beyond simple.