Disadvantaged children across England are set to receive laptops and tablets

[paulkerton]

It is definitely better than it was, but there are a few things I jump into "proper" Word/Excel to do because Online can't do them. Section breaks is one recent example; I have a document where I want the first two pages to be landscape and the rest of it portrait. Online is happy working with this document once set up, but it can't create it.

 

That was a huge criticsm of Google Docs back in the day. Took them a while to solve it. Perhaps Microsoft will do soon enough too!

[dcwhitworth]

does anybody know when this scheme will end?

 

Well their email said "If you do not order devices by 5pm on Tuesday 1 March, we will remove your allocation. This means you will no longer be able to order devices and we will offer them to other organisations that need them." So maybe March 1st unles you are an 'other organisation' (no idea how you determine that)

[Rob446]

What are the legalities around schools donating their allocation to another school?

 

We're a Secondary, they're a Primary in our trust who have been allocated 10-12, but don't need them. They've said we can have them. Is that OK to do?

[JATSO]

Had some of these dumped on my desk from the DFE issue preconfigured with localuser, anyone know the bios password, not had the HP one before.

 

HP 255 G7 - 15.6" - Athlon Silver 3050U - 4 GB RAM - 128 GB SSD

[Primus]

What are the legalities around schools donating their allocation to another school?

 

We're a Secondary, they're a Primary in our trust who have been allocated 10-12, but don't need them. They've said we can have them. Is that OK to do?

 

It is, within your trust you can reallocate as you see fit.

[Koldov]

What are the legalities around schools donating their allocation to another school?

 

We're a Secondary, they're a Primary in our trust who have been allocated 10-12, but don't need them. They've said we can have them. Is that OK to do?

 

IMHO as far as I'm concerned (at least with the current batch of devices), as soon as they are delivered to the school, they become the property of the school and therefore it can do what it likes with them!

 

It's possible there are a few schools that have not necessarily used them for the intended purpose, or have repurposed them now 'the pandemic is over' and school's aren't allowed to close (so less remote learning).

 

Interested to hear other opinions...

[Rob_D]

They're technically the property of the school, so I see no reason why they couldn't be donated as long as both schools follow their asset transfer guidelines.

[Koldov]

Had some of these dumped on my desk from the DFE issue preconfigured with localuser, anyone know the bios password, not had the HP one before.

 

HP 255 G7 - 15.6" - Athlon Silver 3050U - 4 GB RAM - 128 GB SSD

 

Very interested in this, expecting some of these to land soon... and not done laptops from the DfE before...

[TriggerHappyUK]

Had some of these dumped on my desk from the DFE issue preconfigured with localuser, anyone know the bios password, not had the HP one before.

 

HP 255 G7 - 15.6" - Athlon Silver 3050U - 4 GB RAM - 128 GB SSD

 

Will send you a PM with the one I have

[Steve21]

Had some of these dumped on my desk from the DFE issue preconfigured with localuser, anyone know the bios password, not had the HP one before.

 

HP 255 G7 - 15.6" - Athlon Silver 3050U - 4 GB RAM - 128 GB SSD

 

Sounds like those are from the old batch still as the new ones don’t have the lockdown option, so you can log back into the DFE portal to get all the old bios keys still as we had a few different ones depending when they got the devices

 

Steve

[kennysarmy]

They're technically the property of the school, so I see no reason why they couldn't be donated as long as both schools follow their asset transfer guidelines.

 

I know of a school where one parent donated it to cash converters!

 

When challenged said "you gave it to me, so I can do what I like with it"

 

!

[Garacesh]

I know of a school where one parent donated it to cash converters!

We made the parents sign a form that (amongst others) stipulates the device is still the property of the school blah blah blah.

It's not like we'll ever bother to enforce that should a parent decide to ignore it, but it's nice to have on paper, at least.

[enjay]

We made the parents sign a form that (amongst others) stipulates the device is still the property of the school blah blah blah.

 

We've done that too, and put our asset stickers on them.

[Koldov]

Just received our HP 255 G7 laptops... not locked down in any way shape or form that I can see.

 

Updated the bios and I'm now going to put our Windows version on them (comes with education Pro 20H2).

 

2 (probably silly) questions so far:

 

1. It has been a really (really) long time since we've had a brand new laptop... I'm just deleting all these partitions, right?

 

 

2. What's the deal with Windows serial keys being embedded in the bios (told you it had been a long time). If I try to install our preferred version of Windows is it going to automatically change it to Education or have some issues with activating with the key I put in or something...?

Edited February 8, 2022 by Koldov

[enjay]

Just received our HP 255 G7 laptops... not locked down in any way shape or form that I can see.

 

Previous rounds of devices were enrolled in DfE's InTune MDM, which included installation restrictions, filtering, etc. When ordering the latest batch you would have ticked a box saying you accepted responsibility for setting up filtering before giving them to students. We'll be enrolling them in our own InTune.

[newpersn]

Just received our HP 255 G7 laptops... not locked down in any way shape or form that I can see.

 

Updated the bios and I'm now going to put our Windows version on them (comes with education Pro 20H2).

 

2 (probably silly) questions so far:

 

1. It has been a really (really) long time since we've had a brand new laptop... I'm just deleting all these partitions, right?

 

[ATTACH=CONFIG]64562[/ATTACH]

 

2. What's the deal with Windows serial keys being embedded in the bios (told you it had been a long time). If I try to install our preferred version of Windows is it going to automatically change it to Education or have some issues with activating with the key I put in or something...?

 

Yep. Delete all partitions and the installer will recreate them.

 

I install same Windows version and force install the key from the Bios.

[Koldov]

Yep. Delete all partitions and the installer will recreate them.

 

Sure thanks, that's OK I'm alright with that, but there's nothing in them that will affect the laptop? I doubt I will ever need to restore to factory, but I'm just a bit wary of deleting something that will come back to bite me...

 

I install same Windows version and force install the key from the Bios.

 

Can you elaborate on that? Is there any specific way I have to change it to a new version key?

 

I've read about PID.TXT... so it's read during install.

[newpersn]

Sure thanks, that's OK I'm alright with that, but there's nothing in them that will affect the laptop? I doubt I will ever need to restore to factory, but I'm just a bit wary of deleting something that will come back to bite me...

 

 

 

Can you elaborate on that? Is there any specific way I have to change it to a new version key?

 

I've read about PID.TXT... so it's read during install.

 

 

All our DFE laptops. We have wiped and added to our Intune. (Office, Filtering and safeguarding software install though this)

 

I run this at OOBE and install the key. Might be long winded but i know the laptop is licenced.

 

wmic path softwarelicensingservice get oa3xoriginalproductkey

[mavhc]

It should activate any version lower than what's in the bios fine. And if your version is higher, get that from KMS I suppose.

 

For HP 255s: change in bios Configuration tab: virtualization on, fan off, action keys off (also known as I tried to press f12 and turned off the wifi mode), battery time on

 

And in boot options disable usb boot

[Koldov]

We don't have KMS, everything is MAK.

 

Any reason for virtualisation on? I always turn that off on anything that won't be a virtual host... are there some necessary CPU extensions it enables or something?

 

The action keys part, is this the setting that changes the need to use the Fn button?

 

Everything here is manual, no MDT or PXE booting needed, so I'll try to remember to disable USB booting after I've finished... USB booting.

[jmak]

Sure thanks, that's OK I'm alright with that, but there's nothing in them that will affect the laptop? I doubt I will ever need to restore to factory, but I'm just a bit wary of deleting something that will come back to bite me...

 

 

 

Can you elaborate on that? Is there any specific way I have to change it to a new version key?

 

I've read about PID.TXT... so it's read during install.

Could be worth grabbing the drivers from one of them. I don't have experience of this specific model, but I've seen a lot of posts asking for copies of the drivers.

[Koldov]

Yeah thanks, I have seen that mentioned a few times now and did exactly that!

 

The Windows 10 install had most of the basic ones, but I went through and directed it to update the driver for anything that showed no driver and on each individual device afterwards that had a generic one from the copy.

 

Bit of a pain as manually installing via USB, is there an easier way to get all the drivers updated at once (without SCCM/MDT)?

Edited February 9, 2022 by Koldov

[mavhc]

We don't have KMS, everything is MAK.

 

Any reason for virtualisation on? I always turn that off on anything that won't be a virtual host... are there some necessary CPU extensions it enables or something?

 

The action keys part, is this the setting that changes the need to use the Fn button?

 

Everything here is manual, no MDT or PXE booting needed, so I'll try to remember to disable USB booting after I've finished... USB booting.

 

New Windows security features use virtualisation for their sandboxing.

 

Action keys yes

 

PXE booting is the best, no windows server? just enable wds if you have windows server.

[Koldov]

Got another email yesterday for a few more devices (only Windows laptops and Chromebooks available).

 

Went for the Windows laptops, so HP 245 G8 - 14" - Athlon Silver 3050U - 4 GB RAM - 128 GB SSD

 

Looks like that might be the last of the scheme...?

[Primus]

Booooo we got an email but ours said only Windows laptops (booooooo) and only Dells with eMMC storage

 

I know beggers can't be choosers!