Export import Cookies

[knaapp]

Hi All,

We do export the cookies form a IE 11browser per user.

This does work fine. Overtime amount of cookies will increase and the export import will take longer.

Iám used to use a powershell script or use the option in a competitors UEM to get rid of cookies older than x days.

IF i do an import of the cookies the time/date stamp is ( creation date ) is not kept and will be the time of moment when import is done.

So using a script deleting cookies older than x days does not work as they have alle the same date/time stamp after import.

The profiles are deleted after logoff.

Any ideas? Options to take a look into?

Thanx in advance

Rgds

Patrick

[Pieter_S]

Hi Patrick,

I think you should do two things.

1. Enable in the "FlexEngine" policies at the "Profile archives" policy you should enable the option "Retain file modification dates". This option restores the last modified date then importing profile archives.

2. In the created configuration that is importing/exporting the cookies, Check at the "Advanced" tab. Select the option "Do not export files older than [   ] days. Insert the number of days that you like.

I think that should help you. Don't forget to save the webcache.dat file (This is the cookie database).

Greetings,

Pieter

[Pim_van_de_Vis]

Totally agree with Pieter, that's the best solution.

[whibr]

Hello Pieter,

Where can I get more information on this technique?  I have a Windows 2012R2 application farm with Mandatory user profiles and UEM 9.0.  I have folder redirection enabled with UEM for all the user profile folders except Programs Menu, but Internet Explorer cookies and history are not retained across sessions.  What is the solution to retaining cookies and history across user sessions?  Thank you.

-Brian

[VDIMega]

I can't get cookies to persist in Windows 10.  In UEM the <Cookies> export exports cookies for sure, but on import, they appear to not be recognized by IE11.  Exporting/importing LocalAppData>\Microsoft\Windows\WebCache doesn't seem to work either.

How do we get cookies working in Windows 10?  I need them for Thomson Reuters Eikon to remember the user password.

[Pim_van_de_Vis]

What browser? Internet Explorer, Edge, Chrome, Firefox? And what version?

[VDIMega]

The browser is IE11.589.10586.0 in Windows 10.

[Pim_van_de_Vis]

Hmm, typically when you use the UEM template 'Internet Explorer - Personal Settings' and combine it with this, the cookies should roam :

[IncludeFiles]

<LocalAppData>\Microsoft\Windows\WebCache\WebCacheV01.dat

What build of Windows 10 do you use? Anniversary Update? (1607)

[VDIMega]

We're on build 1511.

I thought that I was getting all the files in %AppData%\Local\Microsoft\Windows\WebCache, but I just realized that for some reason the WebCacheV01.dat file is not getting exported.

When I try to copy it manually, Windows says "The action can't be completed because the file is open in Host Process for Windows Tasks".

I ran "taskkill /im taskhostw.exe /f" and retried, but then the Com Surrogate process (dllhost.exe) locked the file.  I do not have access to stop that process.

Is there something specific I should do to make sure that file isn't locked before the export?

[Pim_van_de_Vis]

Typically that file should not be locked.

Could you try on a clean VM without all your corporate apps and plugins? Maybe one of those is keeping the file locked.

You could also try with the Win10 anniversary build 1607.

Another thing in order to make the WebCache work:

Active Setup and locally cached stored profile is removed after logoff

In Windows 8.x machines, if the Windows common settings template Active Setup is used and the cached profile is removed after logoff, IE requires that the WebCache folder is rebuilt during logon. To do this, exclude this registry tree in the Active Setup config file:

[ExcludeRegistryTrees]
HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Active Setup\Installed Components\{89820200-ECBD-11cf-8B85-00AA005B4383}

Note: Be aware that this workaround may increase the logon time because Internet explorer is setup for first use at every logon.

[VDIMega]

OK I got it to work with your help!

I added ""taskkill /im taskhostw.exe /f"" as a logoff script.  With that, UEM is able to properly copy the WebCacheV01.dat file.  I then had the entire WebCache folder imported at logon and now TR Eikon is able to remember the user's password no matter what machine the users log into.

I have the "HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Active Setup\Installed Components\{89820200-ECBD-11cf-8B85-00AA005B4383}" not excluded in my activesetup config, but this still works for me.

Thanks!

[Pim_van_de_Vis]

Good to hear! Please mark the correct response as answer to help others.

Cheers.

[VDIMega]

I think only the starter of this thread can do that.  Wish I could though!

[lizamarie123]

Hi,

Simply killing that task is not advisable as data is written to the webcache lazily and as such will more than likely result in some data loss. What is actually required for a consistent roaming experience is something that would completely manage webcache, cookies and all associated web data for you. Have a look at this blog from James Rankin on IE and cookie persistence: http://www.htguk.com/ie10-and-ie11-cookies-and-history-persistence-in-roamingcitrix-situations-the-l...

[Erossman]

Hi guys,

I saw today in one of my customer environment a similar issue that cookies don't work as expected.

We use Horizon 7 with UEM 9.2.1 and Windows 7x64 instant clones.

In UEM we take the default Internet Explorer configuration which contains the folder tree "<Cookies>".

I can also see that UEM stores a lot of txt cookies and also the container.dat file in the user archives zip.

During the login all files will be restored but IE11 seems not able to use them. I checked these on www.bbc.com.

I get everytime the cookies information on the top of the site again after I logoff and logon on a different vdi.

I find a way to solve it. I have so save the file webcachev01.dat below "LocalAppData\Microsoft\Windows\WebCache", too!

Is this really necessary? I don't want to save the webcachev01.dat because it can grow up to 100-200 MB.

Regards,

VM-Master

[lizamarie123]

Hi Erossman​, yes, you have to keep the webcache as the cookies are referenced in there and this is what Internet Explorer looks at and interacts with so you will have to keep both of those to get a consistent browsing experience. It is a very commonly known problem that these files grow large and problematic rather quickly. **Disclaimer** - I work for a company called Avanite Limited and we are specialists within this area, we are a technical alliance partner of VMware and if you have any further questions around this problem, please feel free give me a shout!

[Erossman]

Thanks lizamarie123 for your confirmation!

For the moment we disabled saving cookies in our User Environment setting.

How is our software WebData Control licensed for an enterprise company?

I think it's not a good idea to disable all cookies in our enviroment. This will lower the user experience for our VDI enviroment.

We work with floating, non-persistent desktops.

[lizamarie123]

Hi Erossman,

Happy to have a chat with you about this - as this is a forum I'm keen to take it offline. If you hit our website and send us an enquiry, I'll look out for it and we can have a chat - http://www.avanite.com

[alsmk2]

Just a note that the Webcache DB grows exponentially over time, which in UEM can lead to long log on times.

We've started creating a separate IE config file just for exporting / importing the webcache DB. We'll normally configure this to use Direct Flex with iexplore, coupled with a startup task to launch IE pointing to the companies intranet. That way the DB is still imported, just after logon, and goes unnoticed by users.

You could also just ensure DF is enabled on the default template, but we've found settings saved by IE that apply to other applications, so it's not always a clear cut decision to use DF on the default config.

There's a very good write-up on this below, including links to a third party tool (not free unfortunately) that can be used to manage it:

https://www.htguk.com/ie10-and-ie11-cookies-and-history-persistence-in-roamingcitrix-situations-the-...

[Edit] Heh - so the tool I mentioned is from the company lizamarie123 works for...