How to view browsing history of 2012 R2 remote desktop user

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We used to use BrowsingHistoryView to check what sites a user had visited in any browser, back when we had standalone 2008 R2 remote desktop session hosts.

We now have a load balanced 2012 R2 farm with user profile disks, and browsinghistoryview no longer seems to work, as it returns zero results.

If I run just for my account (domain admin), it shows nothing from any browser. If I run for all users or even a single user, no results are displayed (In all instances I have set the time frame to Any Time). I have tried running as administrator, and both 32 and 64 bit versions of the app.

Does anyone use this and have you got it working on 2012 R2 farm, or is there another tool I can use to accomplish the same task?

Eds

Posted 2017-05-05T09:26:44.260

Reputation: 337

You haven't really provided any meaningful information about the setup other than that you're using Remote Desktop Sessions on 2012 R2. Do your users use a proxy to access the internet? – Seth – 2017-05-05T11:43:03.483

Not really much to say, as everything is standard. It is a basic 2012 R2 RD deployment with no unusual settings/changes, other than the use of user profile disks (VHDs). No proxy in use, internet access is direct out via our WatchGuard firewall. I think this is more a Windows side thing, whereby storage of history has changed from 2008 R2 and 2012 R2. Just need to know what kind of solutions others use to interrogate user browsing history in 2012 R2 – Eds – 2017-05-05T11:50:04.360

If you think there are any other specifics that might help, please let me know so I can add them to the original question – Eds – 2017-05-05T11:51:20.860

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Well it's common thing to have a proxy that would give you that information. If this is the utility you're talking about there are already limitations for modern IE variations listed. Additionally it's likely depending on the user not clearing her/his history. You probably should contact the vendor. An alternative would be to use a proxy and collect the information there, collect the stores from user profiles or look for a different utility.

– Seth – 2017-05-05T12:00:38.803

Thanks. I'm happy to accept that as the answer if you want to submit it as one. – Eds – 2017-05-12T09:57:17.477

Answers

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Assuming that the utility you linked is BrowsingHistoryView by Nir Sofer, there are several limitations in regards to IE 10 and upwards. In addition it looks like the tool collects it's information by reading browser specific files. As such if a user clears his history or uses a private browsing feature the tool wouldn't pick it up. You could try to contact the author and work out with him it's not working and what could be done about it.

A common alternative would be to setup a proxy that is able to record every connection that is being made. In this case you should inform the users of the change (you should have for the original utility as well).

Alternatively you could try to find a way to collect those browser specific files and/or look for a different utility.

Seth

Posted 2017-05-05T09:26:44.260

Reputation: 7 657

Asked: 2017-05-05T09:26:44.260

Viewed: 1 045 times

Active: 2017-05-12T10:07:41.263