One of the cool new built-in features that is included with Windows Server 2008 is Windows PowerShell (note: Versions of Windows PowerShell are also available for Windows XP SP2, Windows Server 2003, and Windows Vista and be download from Microsoft’s website). Windows PowerShell is an admin-focused scripting language that “allows IT professionals to to more easily control system administration and accelerate automation.” Windows PowerShell has over 130 built in command line tools to administer your Windows environment.

One of the cool things about PowerShell is that you can create your own command line functions (or cmdlets) leveraging COM, WMI, etc. An infamous COM server in the Citrix world is MFCOM. Using MFCOM with PowerShell allows you to perform many of the functions your would normally do in the CMC or ASC via a command line. This allows you to add more automation to your Citrix and Terminal Services environments.

Here is an example of using MFCOM with PowerShell to export Citrix published applications to a CSV file (as seen on Dennis Verwiej’s website):

# First the known steps to connect to the mfcom and initialize the object
$c_farm = new-object -com metaframecom.metaframefarm
$c_farm.initialize(1)
# Now we read the properties of the published applications
$c_farm.applications|select-object
@{e={$_.appname};n=’appname’},
@{e={$_.groups|foreach {$_.groupname}};n=’groupname’},
@{e={$_.users|foreach{$_.username}};n=’username’},
@{e={$_.distinguishedname};n=’distinguishedname’},
@{e={$_.description};n=’description’},
@{e={$_.apptype};n=’apptype’},
@{e={$_.browsername};n=’browsername’},
@{e={$_.winappobject.enableapp};n=’enableapp’},
@{e={$_.winappobject.hidefrompnenum};n=’hidefrompnenum’},
@{e={$_.winappobject.hidefrombrowserenum};n=’hidefrombrowserenum’},
@{e={$_.winappobject.defaultencryption};n=’defaultencryption’},
@{e={$_.winappobject.defaultinitprog};n=’defaultinitprog’},
@{e={$_.winappobject.defaultworkdir};n=’defaultworkdir’},
@{e={$_.winappobject.defaultwindowwidth};n=’defaultwindowwidth’},
@{e={$_.winappobject.defaultwindowheight};n=’defaultwindowheight’},
@{e={$_.winappobject.defaultwindowcolor};n=’defaultwindowcolor’},
@{e={$_.winappobject.defaultwindowtype};n=’defaultwindowtype’},
@{e={$_.winappobject.defaultsoundtype};n=’defaultsoundtype’},
@{e={$_.winappobject.defaultwindowscale};n=’defaultwindowscale’},
@{e={$_.winappobject.desktopintegrate};n=’desktopintegrate’},
@{e={$_.winappobject.mfattributes};n=’mfattributes’},
@{e={$_.winappobject.publishingflags};n=’publishingflags’},
@{e={$_.winappobject.PNAttributes};n=’PNAttributes’},
@{e={$_.winappobject.PNFolder};n=’PNFolder’},
@{e={$_.winappobject.parentfolderDN};n=’parentfolderDN’},
@{e={$_.winappobject.AllowMultiInstancePerUser};n=’AllowMultiInstancePerUser’},
@{e={$_.winappobject.StartMenuFolder};n=’StartMenuFolder’},
@{e={$_.winappobject.PlaceUnderProgramsFolder};n=’PlaceUnderProgramsFolder’},
@{e={$_.winappobject.WaitOnPrinterCreation};n=’WaitOnPrinterCreation’}|
# The last step is to pipe this to the export-csv cmdlet
export-csv c:\citrix\Citrix_apps.csv

If you would like to learn more about Windows PowerShell, be sure to check out Microsoft’s free PowerShell course book.

For more information about MFCOM, be sure to check out Scripting MetaFrame Using MFCOM.

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