Laptops - how do you do it?

[soveryapt]

Right, looking at streamlining again, and following a couple of comments from a couple of members of staff, I'm looking to change the way laptops are used.

 

Currently, the laptops are setup pretty much the same as the desktops. That is they have a base image created with Office 2010 on it and all the latest patches for Office and W7 up to that day that I create the base image (usually created in June/July for when I "reset the school" over summer), then the rest of the software is installed via a mix of WPKG-GP and GPO, depending on whether there is an MSI etc.

 

We have 3 distinct sets of software setups: Admin, Staff and Curriculum. Staff and Curriculum are pretty much the same thing, other than the odd piece of management software the students don't need but the staff do on their laptops. Admin is very much the basics (Office, Textease, standard plugins (Flash etc) SIMS and BSquared) so they don't need to have all the educational bits and pieces installed on the curriculum machines. These software sets get installed out to all machines within those groups, so curric workstations are the same as laptops, etc.

 

Now, the issue I'm looking at is a couple of members of staff say they "don't want all the crap installed and why should they have it if they don't need it for their lesson" so I have explained that the laptops are used by the whole school and there's a wide degree of needs from one class to the next, but I'm just wondering what everyone else does. Do I go down the route of stripping them back so they simply have the basics on (essentially like the Admin network but without SIMS etc, obviously) that way they are cleaner to use and separate them off, or do people make them mobile ICT Labs, like ours currently are.

 

I hope that makes some form of sense.

Andy

[Michael]

You introduce different desktops, for different groups of users using Folder Redirection.

 

All the software is installed, but they only see icons applicable to them

[soveryapt]

You introduce different desktops, for different groups of users using Folder Redirection.

 

All the software is installed, but they only see icons applicable to them

 

True, this could be done, but then it's different desktops for different classes depending on which teacher is teaching them at the time .. that get's complicated then ..

[3s-gtech]

WMI filtering based on timetable xml exported from the MIS What could possibly go wrong?

 

Our laptops have a slightly slimmer image than desktop suites, but essentially they're setup to meet the needs to all users, not just those using them at the time. To be honest, it's not like it slows them down, unless the disk is over-full or loads of processes are running constantly

[plexer]

I wouldn't let a few individuals dictate what you do when they have to be available to multiple groups of people.

 

Having different software will invariably lead to someone using the wrong set and not having the software they need.

 

Ben

[soveryapt]

WMI filtering based on timetable xml exported from the MIS What could possibly go wrong?

 

EVERYTHING .. everything could .. *shudders at the very thought of even trying to make that work*

 

Our laptops have a slightly slimmer image than desktop suites, but essentially they're setup to meet the needs to all users, not just those using them at the time. To be honest, it's not like it slows them down, unless the disk is over-full or loads of processes are running constantly

 

Yeah, that was my thinking behind it, I slimmed all the images right back last time to the bits I knew people used and waited for the onslaught of "oi, where's x y z" but that never came, so the fact it just had to be installed for the previous 4 years I've been here says a lot! lol! The laptops are more than capable of running all the software (in fact some probably more so than a few of the desktops knocking about) and it's that meeting the needs. There are a lot of staff that use them, but only one or two who have complained they think they should have nothing more than office and the internet on them.

[plexer]

We don't have laptops available to go out now as they all got killed.

 

Ben

[soveryapt]

I wouldn't let a few individuals dictate what you do when they have to be available to multiple groups of people.

 

Having different software will invariably lead to someone using the wrong set and not having the software they need.

 

Ben

 

Yeah, if they were to be slimmed down, then all sets would be slimmed down the same amount so that all laptops were the same to avoid that.