Identify current session within Windows Forms application: session ID? - winforms

In ASP.NET, each session can be identified by its SessionID variable. Currently, I'm working on a project for which I want to be able to identify each separate user session. In other words, I'm looking for a session identifier or an equivalent variable.
I've looked in the Application, Environment and AppDomain classes, but I couldn't find such a variable. So my question is: how should one identify the session(s) an application is currently handling?

Maybe System.Diagnostics.Process.GetCurrentProcess().Id would cover your needs? That will give you a number that uniquely identifies the currently running process on the system. The number is valid only while the process runs, and when it has quit any other process may be assigned the same number when it is started.

I'm not quite sure I follow you, but if you're trying to track each instance of the application's lifecycle, you could create a GUID as an instance member somewhere appropriate. Whenever you feel a new "session" has been created, you can create and store this GUID - probably when the user logs in (or the main form loads if you don't have a login mechanism).
I'm assuming of course you have a multi-user enviroment with some kind of server attached, otherwise I can't really see a need for sessions.

You could check some of the options in the Environment class such as Environment.UserName, Environment.MachineName or Environment.UserDomainName

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Systems that Access AD Attributes

I have been assigned a task to export the AD Attributes than find out what systems are using these attributes. I have not had much luck in scripting or a tool that can provide just that. Is this feasible and if so how? I have already exported attributes. Just need to find what systems are using them.
This isn't possible with any reasonable accuracy, especially if "using" isn't defined for you.
The event logs on the domain controllers will tell you where login events are coming from, but only by IP. That doesn't tell you which application is authenticating. You would have to do monitoring on that computer and see which application is making the connection. But then the logs would be cluttered with connections made by Windows itself, or Exchange (if you use Exchange for email). It it would be very difficult to identify what is coming from an 3rd-party application rather than Windows itself.
Also, applications can request more information than they need. It's very easy when programming with LDAP to request every attribute for an object, even if you only intend to use one. For example, take this C# code:
var de = new DirectoryEntry("LDAP://example.com");
Console.WriteLine(de.Properties["name"].Value);
That only "uses" the name attribute. But because of the way LDAP works, it actually requests every non-constructed attribute that has a value. (there is a way to specifically ask for only one attribute, but you have to know that and use that)
So even if you could find logs saying that "this IP requested all of these attributes", and then figure out which application made that request, that doesn't mean it "used" all of those attributes.

msDS-UserPasswordExpiryTimeComputed global catalog replication

I am currently trying to find out AD users password expiry date.
Using the methods described on numerous pages for e.g. here work fine until a user or group in AD is using a fine grained password policy that does not follow the users domain password policy.
I found a property called msDS-UserPasswordExpiryTimeComputed that figures that all out without trying to do any calculations.
This works well, until we are using a global catalog since this property is not replicated by default. When I attempting to replicate the msDS-UserPasswordExpiryTimeComputed property in my global catalog, I get the following error:
Is there anyway to replicate this property or is something wrong with my setup that is not allowing me to replicate this property? Is there a better way to calculate user password expiry to take into account the fine grained password policy?
I suspect you can't. I can't find any authoritative documentation saying it is not possible, but here are the reasons I think it's not possible:
The attribute is constructed, meaning it's not stored, but it's calculated at the time you ask for it.
The date depends on the policy on the domain, thus the server returning the data needs to know the policy on the domain of the user.
Since a GC may not be on the domain of the user you find, it may not have the information needed to be able to calculate the value.
As a workaround, you can just rebind to a DC to get the value. You didn't say which language you're working with, but usually you can take the path of the object you found, which will start with "GC://", and just replace that with "LDAP://". Then grab the msDS-UserPasswordExpiryTimeComputed value.

liferay id generator accross the database

I have been given a task to migrate users from customers database to liferay portal.
I have already managed to find all the places I need to fill with data, to make a user functional (USER_, USERS_GROUPS, CONTACT_, LAYOUTSET, EXPANDOVALUE).
The only problem I have faced are the IDs. Liferay doesn't use a sequence to generate them (at least I haven't found one), but appears to generate them from the code. What's even more concerning, It looks like all the IDs (UserID, GroupId, RowID, etc) need to be unique not only in scope of a table, but whole database.
I need to find a way to get the last used ID in database and a way to set last ID used by my script, so that Liferay doesn't use it again.
I don't have access to an application server, just the database, that's why I can't use the API...
First of all I would like to ask, why do you have no access to the application server? Changing things in the database is like repairing a modern car without tools and manual. It is possible to get all things right - but it is possible as well to screw all things up, if you forget anything that the API is usually thinking off.
That having said:
The counter ID is saved in the COUNTER table in the row with name com.liferay.counter.model.Counter. It is incremented by the value of the property counter.increment (usually 100). Check the class CounterFinderImpl to see how Liferay is using it.
Ensure that the server is stopped before modifying anything in the database - as Liferay is caching many things, especially the current counter value.

Get AD Site from LDAP Property

In a domain with AD Sites and Services configured is it possible to get the Site of a computer from LDAP? Is it stored as an attribute?
Unless this has changed over the last couple of years outside of my knowledge, there is not. Historically this was never done as AD site knowledge was ephemeral...the assumption was that computers move around so storing where they are is silly. Plus there was no global need for the knowledge.
You could of course add this. By this i mean, you could do something like, extend the schema with a new attribute for this and set a start-up script on your domain-joined machines to write this (if it has changed since they last wrote) to the directory. Obviously you'll want to test this well to ensure it doesn't create more problems than it solves...
On the Win32 point of view you've got the DsAddressToSiteNamesEx API. I don't know how to find it using pure LDAP.

Ability to detect if this is the users first login to Windows 7

I have an windows application (WPF) in which we are running on each login, however when the user first logs into a new PC the application will need to do some specific tasks, but only on the users first login and never on subsequent times.
Is there a way in .Net 3.5 to query wether the user has logged in before (ie some kind of login count)?
Failing any native support I will create a txt file in the users registry however I wanted to know if there is a native way of achieving this first.
We use redirected folders so the user may have already logged into a PC on our network these special events should only occur when the user hasnt logged in onto the PC and Windows has had to create a new profile for the user on the PC.
If I am not clearly explaining what I am seeking, please dont hesiate in letting me know.
Matt
Failing any native support I will create a txt file in the users registry however I wanted to know if there is a native way of achieving this first.
I'd recommend going with this option. Don't try to detect it, just create your own state on first run.
I suggest this, not because it is technically impossible to achieve the functionality you describe, but because it is a better user experience. It provides an easy way to re-do the action without having to recreate the user.
... a txt file in the users registry ...
I'm not sure what this means. You can create text files under the user's profile directory, and you can insert string values in the registry (but not files of any sort).
As for the particular mechanism, I suggest you consider:
An App.Config value. Clearing out the value is easier to support or batch-script than a registry value, and makes the user less scared that their machine will explode if you have to tell them to edit the settings. Users are scared of the registry.
A sentinel text file under the user profile directory. Wiping out the file is super-easy to support and batch-script. Instead of editing a text file, they can just delete one. But this makes it so you have multiple config mechanisms, so multiple points of failure. I'd only do this if I were using the App.Config for additional settings in the program and thought the user wouldn't be technical enough to hand edit it.
The windows registry. Remote registry access might be easier than remote file access, if you're having to do remote troubleshooting. It also might be easier to mess with via group policy, in case this is an intranet app and you need to force a re-run on all machines in your org.
I'd carefully consider my options and which is most likely to ease support (be understandable by my users) before committing to one. I'd also consider the remote-troubleshooting/remote reset scenario.
This may not be what you're looking for but I'm hoping it will help you anyway.. I do not know from the top of my head how to do this in WPF but I do know you can use an "unattend.xml" file and the FirstLogonCommands to execute a script or application on first logon. I have used this for Windows 7, it may not apply to XP.

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