Spaces in Username field

[simonhayes]

Hi all,

 

This is a very very common issue here, we get it least twice a day, already had it happen twice this morning! For some reason when students go to log on, there is a space in the username field, sometimes before the username, sometimes after. The students consequently think they've forgot their passwords, so I reset their passwords and they come back to me a couple of minutes later to say it still won't work, at which point I remote on and discover the rogue space. In fact, it happens so much, that now I always assume that this is the issue before resetting any student passwords.

 

I've always assumed that this is a fairly common problem, but I have a colleague who also works at an upper school on the same campus, and he says they never have this problem there. Whether it's because the students are older and more savvy, I'm not sure. I've also done a google and searched this forum and can't find anyone else who has this problem. More to the point, I can't figure out what causes it, especially not for it to be so common. I thought maybe the students were pressing the space bar to wake the computers up, but this wouldn't explain why there is sometimes a space on the end of their username.

 

So does anybody else have this issue, know what causes it, or have a solution to manage it?

 

We're using RM CC4 if that makes any difference.

Edited February 12, 2015 by simonhayes

[elsiegee40]

In my school, the problem is Year 6... or a subset of them. It doesn't matter which year 6, it will always be that class who like to type spaces as a wheeze before they leave ICT Suite. It's happened for years.

 

All you can do is educate the teachers... and keep reminding them... to try deleting any invisible spaces before calling you.

[Steve21]

Always is the users doing it here, had it at every school.

 

In terms of it being at end sometimes, find it's stuff like people hitting keys to wake up screen, then pressing left etc to go to start of username box etc.

 

In terms of sorting it nope, just tell them to delete whole box before typing it in

 

Steve

[fairm010]

This going to sound obvious, dodgy keyboard? Our kids do this for a laugh to stop their mates logging on by pressing space before they type their details.

 

I'd look for the obvious before you start blaming your systems.

[localzuk]

Yup, we get this here too, through all years 5-8.

[synaesthesia]

We get it often, from Year 7 right up to staff. Education. Maybe even something on the logon background to say please check for spaces in your username before coming to ICT Support for help.

[tekins]

Happens here too, seem to remember on our old CC3 network the login screen refreshed to clear the username and password boxes, could be wrong on that though.

[simonhayes]

OK maybe isn't just me then.

 

Is there any way you can set Windows to clear the username field after a failed login?

[elsiegee40]

OK maybe isn't just me then.

 

Is there any way you can set Windows to clear the username field after a failed login?

 

Don't you think we'd all be doing it if there was?

[SovietRussia]

When I was in school we used to do it to people, it was funny to see your best mate tearing their hair out, so we immediately used to press ESC to clear it, so we could re-type it!

[simonhayes]

I don't remember this being a massive issue up until recent years.

[jamesfed]

Get it now and again here, it's just kids messing with each other and sometimes the staff as well. Best course of action is to train users to spot it.

[Michael]

In a vanilla environment, if you enter a username/password and just leave it, it does reset after 5 minutes (something like that). RM of course customise the logon screen, so whether this has anything to do with it, who knows?

[strawberry]

happens here all the time, teachers now have to reset student passwords so its worth their effort learning how to support the student before sending them around school

[sted]

In a vanilla environment, if you enter a username/password and just leave it, it does reset after 5 minutes (something like that). RM of course customise the logon screen, so whether this has anything to do with it, who knows?

if you have it set to require ctrl alt del it will also do this as after a while it will go back to the press ctrl alt del screen rather than the enter your username screen

[Michael]

if you have it set to require ctrl alt del it will also do this as after a while it will go back to the press ctrl alt del screen rather than the enter your username screen

 

Indeed that's correct, but it's unclear whether the behaviour is the same in RM CC4. You'd think it would be (well you'd hope) and it's just the GUI they've modified.

[sted]

Indeed that's correct, but it's unclear whether the behaviour is the same in RM CC4. You'd think it would be (well you'd hope) and it's just the GUI they've modified.

 

I didn't think you could modify that bit with win7 I know you could do all sorts with gina.dll with winxp and earlier hence winsuite

[simonhayes]

How do you turn Ctrl+Alt+Del on? Do RM let you do it?

 

Having said that I'm not 100% sure some of our students are bright enough to be able to press 3 keys all at the same time...

[Michael]

I didn't think you could modify that bit with win7 I know you could do all sorts with gina.dll with winxp and earlier hence winsuite

 

RM have always done it - I guess they have an agreement/license in place to be able to do so. From an educational perspective it's pointless - the pupils learn nothing from it.

 

I suppose it was more of an issue say with Windows XP, where you could change the domain using a drop down menu, but Microsoft have changed this with Windows Vista and later, requiring the end user to specify domain/username if different.

[Michael]

How do you turn Ctrl+Alt+Del on? Do RM let you do it?

 

Having said that I'm not 100% sure some of our students are bright enough to be able to press 3 keys all at the same time...

 

It's done at the Default Domain Level - Computer Config > Policies > Windows Settings > Security Settings > Local Policies > Security Options - Interactive logon: Do not require CTRL+ALT+DEL

 

I'd definitely seek RM advice before disabling though!!!

[Techykev]

We run RM CC4 here and have this issue occasionally - maybe twice a week. Its caused when our monitors go to sleep and the user taps the spacebar to wake it up. Teachers used to be the main culprits though we have educated most of them to ensure that "USER NAME" is in the log-in field in greyed out characters before attempting to log on. Some students (and Staff) still forget though.

[Michael]

We run RM CC4 here and have this issue occasionally - maybe twice a week. Its caused when our monitors go to sleep and the user taps the spacebar to wake it up. Teachers used to be the main culprits though we have educated most of them to ensure that "USER NAME" is in the log-in field in greyed out characters before attempting to log on. Some students (and Staff) still forget though.

 

If that's the case, why not tweak the Power Settings? The options available to tweak Win 7 clients is huge via GPP in a vanilla environment, unless you're locked out all these options?

[fairm010]

Our computers do not go to sleep at all during the day (I'm aware of the huge power usage but hey) so no wake up is required. All set via GPP.

[Techykev]

If that's the case, why not tweak the Power Settings? The options available to tweak Win 7 clients is huge via GPP in a vanilla environment, unless you're locked out all these options?

 

We are constantly under pressure to reduce power consumption, so it is better to educate users in how best to use the power saving features rather than turn off the features.

[rad]

Yes we get it, and sometimes all too often if students have logged off and sat bored next to a computer.

 

Also had a kid type the same thing on every computer username field on a class set of computers...