NTUser.dat and last updated

Regardless what type of estate of Windows-devices, there always seems to be a need of clearing out unused profiles from a computer to save diskspace, increase performance and what not.

In Windows 7 there was an issue (resolved by a hotfix) that simply loading up a ntuser.dat file would change the timestamp of when it was last written to. It seems that this has now been the defacto default behaviour for Windows 10, and a long-running thread disusses different ways of adressing the issue – how can you identify if a profile was recently used on a device? Nirsoft tools (aren’t they great?) provide a great and easy to read overview if logon history based on security event logs. 

That seems tedious. Using the written time for the folder doesn’t seem to be accurate – and the risk of removing active user profiles is high. However, if one could track the last-write time for the registry entry for the profile – we should be good, right? Unfortunately – last write time for the registry entry isn’t there out of the box using Powershell (or VBScript etc). Seems to be a few things posted on Technet Gallery (to be gone soon) that will provide the missing piecies. 

Where are we looking? Right here;

image

Use the function Add-RegKeyMember, loop through all profiles and then filter any potential things you want to leave behind – and we should be able to clear out not so active profiles. A few dangerous lines commented out so you can copy and paste at will. 

function Add-RegKeyMember {
 <#
 .SYNOPSIS
Adds note properties containing the last modified time and class name of a 
registry key.

.DESCRIPTION
 The Add-RegKeyMember function uses the unmanged RegQueryInfoKey Win32 function
 to get a key's last modified time and class name. It can take a RegistryKey 
object (which Get-Item and Get-ChildItem output) or a path to a registry key.

.EXAMPLE
 PS> Get-Item HKLM:\SOFTWARE | Add-RegKeyMember | Select Name, LastWriteTime

Show the name and last write time of HKLM:\SOFTWARE

.EXAMPLE
 PS> Add-RegKeyMember HKLM:\SOFTWARE | Select Name, LastWriteTime

Show the name and last write time of HKLM:\SOFTWARE

.EXAMPLE
 PS> Get-ChildItem HKLM:\SOFTWARE | Add-RegKeyMember | Select Name, LastWriteTime

Show the name and last write time of HKLM:\SOFTWARE's child keys

.EXAMPLE
 PS> Get-ChildItem HKLM:\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Lsa | Add-RegKeyMember | where classname | select name, classname

Show the name and class name of child keys under Lsa that have a class name defined.

.EXAMPLE
 PS> Get-ChildItem HKLM:\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall | Add-RegKeyMember | where lastwritetime -gt (Get-Date).AddDays(-30) | 
 >> select PSChildName, @{ N="DisplayName"; E={gp $_.PSPath | select -exp DisplayName }}, @{ N="Version"; E={gp $_.PSPath | select -exp DisplayVersion }}, lastwritetime |
 >> sort lastwritetime

Show applications that have had their registry key updated in the last 30 days (sorted by the last time the key was updated).
 NOTE: On a 64-bit machine, you will get different results depending on whether or not the command was executed from a 32-bit
       or 64-bit PowerShell prompt.

#>

    [CmdletBinding()]
     param(
         [Parameter(Mandatory, ParameterSetName="ByKey", Position=0, ValueFromPipeline)]
         # Registry key object returned from Get-ChildItem or Get-Item
         [Microsoft.Win32.RegistryKey] $RegistryKey,
         [Parameter(Mandatory, ParameterSetName="ByPath", Position=0)]
         # Path to a registry key
         [string] $Path
     )

    begin {
         # Define the namespace (string array creates nested namespace):
         $Namespace = "CustomNamespace", "SubNamespace"

        # Make sure type is loaded (this will only get loaded on first run):
         Add-Type @"
             using System; 
             using System.Text;
             using System.Runtime.InteropServices; 

            $($Namespace | ForEach-Object {
                 "namespace $_ {"
             })

                public class advapi32 {
                     [DllImport("advapi32.dll", CharSet = CharSet.Auto)]
                     public static extern Int32 RegQueryInfoKey(
                         Microsoft.Win32.SafeHandles.SafeRegistryHandle hKey,
                         StringBuilder lpClass,
                         [In, Out] ref UInt32 lpcbClass,
                         UInt32 lpReserved,
                         out UInt32 lpcSubKeys,
                         out UInt32 lpcbMaxSubKeyLen,
                         out UInt32 lpcbMaxClassLen,
                         out UInt32 lpcValues,
                         out UInt32 lpcbMaxValueNameLen,
                         out UInt32 lpcbMaxValueLen,
                         out UInt32 lpcbSecurityDescriptor,
                         out Int64 lpftLastWriteTime
                     );
                 }
             $($Namespace | ForEach-Object { "}" })
 "@
     
         # Get a shortcut to the type:    
         $RegTools = ("{0}.advapi32" -f ($Namespace -join ".")) -as [type]
     }

    process {
         switch ($PSCmdlet.ParameterSetName) {
             "ByKey" {
                 # Already have the key, no more work to be done :)
             }

            "ByPath" {
                 # We need a RegistryKey object (Get-Item should return that)
                 $Item = Get-Item -Path $Path -ErrorAction Stop

                # Make sure this is of type [Microsoft.Win32.RegistryKey]
                 if ($Item -isnot [Microsoft.Win32.RegistryKey]) {
                     throw "'$Path' is not a path to a registry key!"
                 }
                 $RegistryKey = $Item
             }
         }

        # Initialize variables that will be populated:
         $ClassLength = 255 # Buffer size (class name is rarely used, and when it is, I've never seen 
                             # it more than 8 characters. Buffer can be increased here, though. 
         $ClassName = New-Object System.Text.StringBuilder $ClassLength  # Will hold the class name
         $LastWriteTime = $null
             
         switch ($RegTools::RegQueryInfoKey($RegistryKey.Handle,
                                     $ClassName, 
                                     [ref] $ClassLength, 
                                     $null,  # Reserved
                                     [ref] $null, # SubKeyCount
                                     [ref] $null, # MaxSubKeyNameLength
                                     [ref] $null, # MaxClassLength
                                     [ref] $null, # ValueCount
                                     [ref] $null, # MaxValueNameLength 
                                     [ref] $null, # MaxValueValueLength 
                                     [ref] $null, # SecurityDescriptorSize
                                     [ref] $LastWriteTime
                                     )) {

            0 { # Success
                 $LastWriteTime = [datetime]::FromFileTime($LastWriteTime)

                # Add properties to object and output them to pipeline
                 $RegistryKey | Add-Member -NotePropertyMembers @{
                     LastWriteTime = $LastWriteTime
                     ClassName = $ClassName.ToString()
                 } -PassThru -Force
             }

            122  { # ERROR_INSUFFICIENT_BUFFER (0x7a)
                 throw "Class name buffer too small"
                 # function could be recalled with a larger buffer, but for
                 # now, just exit
             }

            default {
                 throw "Unknown error encountered (error code $_)"
             }
         }
     }
 }


             $profiles = Get-ChildItem "HKLM:\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\ProfileList" | Add-RegKeyMember | Select Name, LastWriteTime
             foreach ($p in $profiles) {
             
             if ($p.lastwritetime -lt $(Get-Date).Date.AddDays(-90)) {
                     
                     $key = $($p.name) -replace "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE","HKLM:"
                     $path = (Get-ItemProperty  -Path $key -Name ProfileImagePath).ProfileImagePath
                     $path.tolower()
                     if ($path.ToLower() -notlike 'c:\windows\*' -and $path.ToLower() -notlike 'c:\users\adm*') {
                         write-host "delete " $path
                         #Get-CimInstance -Class Win32_UserProfile | Where-Object { $path.split('\')[-1] -eq $User } | Remove-CimInstance #-ErrorAction SilentlyContinue
                         #Add-Content c:\windows\temp\DeleteProfiles.log -Value "$User was deleted from this computer."
                     }

                }
             }