Switching to Laptops - SIMS Drive Maps

[AlphamaleZed]

Hi Guys,

 

We are currently having discussions about switching over teachers to Laptops and be all cloud based.

Thinking about SIMS and its half baked Next Gen a majority will still go classic SIMS, what do you do for drive mapping if they are using work and home?

 

Ideally need to have the drive to never lose the mapping or auto when in school. VPNs, ZTNAs etc.. I don't really want to setup.

 

We may also go Chromebooks for staff so may be a change as a MIS in whole.

 

What have you guys done for SIMS and Laptops?

Has anyone done an all chromebook route?

[3s-gtech]

IIRC SIMS doesn't need the mapped drive, it's just wherever you happen to have SIMS.ini and certain paramters set.

 

You should be able to do without it, unless you users regularly need access to the files in the SIMS directory. To use localy hosted SIMS itself you'd still need a VPN offsite anyway.

[Boredguy]

Only users we've had a drive mapped in SIMS for the better part of a decade is exams and admissions officers.

 

Rest of the staff don't need it as that was a legacy requirement before solus.

Our Connect.ini file we also use IP address of the server

[Davit2005]

Yep don't go mapped drives for SIMs. It is one extra drive for curious fingers and unsupervised/unlocked PCs, been there, seen that.

[Chris_Cook]

You could maybe look at Edulink as a part way option.

 

Really I'd suggest a move to a more modern MIS though. Its worth the pain.

[DWilson1997]

When we moved all our devices into Intune, we looked at deploying SIMS to devices but decided against it. Mainly due to upgrades of the SIMS client every term, logistics of off site access with that etc. We moved SIMS into a remote desktop cluster which has been working really well.

Edited March 19 by DWilson1997

[ITGuyNW]

I inherited a system which mapped the SIMS drive for all users and having looked at this thread I've now realised it's not necessary for 98% of staff..

 

Thanks all!

[chazzy2501]

I map the drive but hide it. Didn't realize it was no longer required though. 

[Davit2005]

11 minutes ago, chazzy2501 said:

I map the drive but hide it. Didn't realize it was no longer required though. 

That is a good point. I jus done like the idea of a core system been able to be navigated by curious fingers. First school worked in we had all sorts of issues as a few teachers would leave students use their computer under their login. Multiple issues of folder name changes and even broke our messaging system too once as the config was on that drive and someone deleted it, thankfully by that point we had backups in place after years of under investment.

Edited March 20 by Davit2005

[AlphamaleZed]

On 19/03/2026 at 11:24, Davit2005 said:

Yep don't go mapped drives for SIMs. It is one extra drive for curious fingers and unsupervised/unlocked PCs, been there, seen that.

Have you got any guides on what to set?

 

I would like to move away if possilbe.

[Davit2005]

You can use the fqdn for the share i.e. \\fileserver.somedomain\fileshare. It is 16 years since I worked with SIMS but I should imagine this been in the sims.ini file??

 

Additionally you could map then hide the drive for those people that need it.

[AlphamaleZed]

48 minutes ago, Davit2005 said:

You can use the fqdn for the share i.e. \\fileserver.somedomain\fileshare. It is 16 years since I worked with SIMS but I should imagine this been in the sims.ini file??

 

Additionally you could map then hide the drive for those people that need it.

Legend thanks!