Winsuite2000 - MSI's

[DAckroyd]

Just a quicky...

 

With WinSuite2000 will MSI files install or will I have problems? I did try SP3 on an msi onto one computer a while back and then gave up but I don't know if that was because it was still on SP1 and not SP2.

 

I have a LOT of software to get onto our new computers and also got HoIT wanting more software installed also (what ever happened to the relaxed holiday time that we had when I started into this game? I'm in on my day off... well in for a few hours at least!)

 

As always thankyou for your responces... your answers are all useful (except the ones that aren't:)),

Dave

 

EDIT: I have just tried Scratch1.3.1 msi from their website assigned to room15 (one that isn't being changed and where HoIT want's it installed) and it doesn't seem to be working after about 10 restarts... I HATE WINSUITE!!!!

Edited April 9, 2009 by DAckroyd

[tmcd35]

I don't recall any problems with MSI's and WinSuite2000. In fact I'm pretty sure I've installed Office 2003 via MSI to WinSuite2000 machines. The software installs should be happening as part of the computer startup long before WinSuite kicks in a displays the user logon screen.

 

The only problem with WinSuite - if you're using WinSuite managed desktops rather than the standard Windows desktop - is you need to log on to a WinSuite machine as administrator and use the WinSuite Admin tool (should automatically run when you logon as administrator) to add an icon for the new program(s) to the WinSuite desktop.

 

WinSuite countdown: T minus 13 school weeks till deletion

 

EDIT: I have a Scratch msi that I created myself and installs fine on WinSuiteAD desktops if you want to give it a try.

[sted]

msi files do usually deploy with winsuite but if you have 3.5< it just shows a blue screen while deploying (blue as in windows blue with mouse not a bsd) dosent show its doing anything. 3.51 works as standard xp shows it deploying stuff. Ive had issues with winsuited pcs getting odd locations for my docs in the .default user registry causing packages to fail as they cant find u: rather than going to c:\doc.... Id check the registry on them and if altered just copy the affected parts from a clean pc.

 

the sooner i can persuade all my schools to ditch winsuite the happier i will be it sux

[DAckroyd]

the MSI you have would be good to try thanks tmcd35

 

sted... why do you have to try and pursuade your school? If your the Netman and you feel Winsuite is a problem on the network then you should be able to ditch it - done over the summer nobody would notice

 

surely not 13 already til summer?!?! I need more hours in the day to work on new domain or I need BT to kick into gear so I can have an internet connection at home via somthing that isn't a mix of 3G and GPRS (just a thought... does anyone use MSTSC over G3 or GPRS and if so how much data do it use?)

[sted]

the MSI you have would be good to try thanks tmcd35

 

sted... why do you have to try and pursuade your school? If your the Netman and you feel Winsuite is a problem on the network then you should be able to ditch it - done over the summer nobody would notice

 

i do generally 2.5 hours a week / fortnight in schoolx (so to remove it thats about a week to create a new profile gpos and another to sack it off the pcs assuming teachers will let you use them) and it dosent cause network issues as such it works and teachers like being able to get the kids to select their name from a list (bearing in mind primary school kids) and whilever it works they dont want to change thank f it dosent work on 08 server. it just makes it harder/more time consuming to manage and imo kids are used to xp at home why have a mickey mouse interface thats different to what they are used to and i do find the odd program that it cant load right textease ct sometimes needs launching from a batch file to work right netop ignores settings if not loaded from a batch file

[DAckroyd]

If you are managing lots of primary schools why not setup a big network which will cover all schools? might get it so you can manage lots of the schools at once...

[tmcd35]

A lot depends on what the primary schools ISP will allow. We offer support to our feeder schools all of which, like us, ICT Solutions as their ISP. I had to jump through some hoops in order to get RDP/VNC access to the supported schools servers accross county's network.

[sted]

If you are managing lots of primary schools why not setup a big network which will cover all schools? might get it so you can manage lots of the schools at once...

 

the isp did do this to one school we used to support but basically they ripped off our existing system put in 2 servers (one that did nothing but login) and redid all users to random user names (well hard to remember ones with secure passwords which arnt really needed for under 10s as they cant remember them so spend 1/2 the lesson logging in) and from last look at it it just diddnt function properly teachers diddnt like it kids diddnt like it but they were stuck with a system only that one company could manage their site admin couldnt even create users and i couldnt even get a user with enough privileges to clear the print queue

 

the leas preferred (read 99% of schools and all the ones our company supports in that city) is very restrictive (it took us a long time to just get remote to the servers and thats still technically just to one pc in our office) there is no real way we could say make them into one huge forest im not sure id even want to. They are all set up pretty much the same so most things done in school a can be done in school b except where server os (i have schools from 2000 server to 2008 server) are a barrier. Theres also the disaster recovery problem with one huge organisation it would be a total nightmare I recently had to totally rebuild one school as it decided to junk the gc and sysvol spent we spent ages trying to repaiur seemed ok then something else cropped up on the end i rebuilt both the 03 box (for stuff that wont run on 08 or x64 so abacus crap mainly) and the 08 box and 100 workstations. if that happened in a whole forest of say 50 schools we just couldnt cope

Edited April 9, 2009 by sted

[DAckroyd]

Thanks for you help on this - I'll be checking back on Tuseday as I'm off home now.. well to town then home

[tmcd35]

It's alright for some! I'm making a couple of hour job (fitting extra RAM to 26 desktops) last all day...

[DAckroyd]

It's alright for some! I'm making a couple of hour job (fitting extra RAM to 26 desktops) last all day...

 

I wasn't sciving off early or anything... I wasn't even meant to be in!