Windows 7 Starter & Student Home Drives

[mattpant]

Hi All,

 

We've just taken delivery of 2 x HP Mini 100e Netbooks for student use with a view of possibly buying 22 more.

 

Whilst I am fully aware of the limitations of Windows 7 Starter (I knew this before purchasing) does anybody know of any programs or scripts that they have used to easily allow a student to access their "Home" Drives or Network Share Drives.

 

I'm sure I heard a few years ago that somebody (like RM??) had made or was making a little app to allow such a thing for when they first started selling netbooks with Windows XP Home Edition installed.

 

These little devices are ideal, and are coming in a such a great price!

 

On another note... does anybody know of a simple way to HIDE the Wireless Security Key (WPA2-PSK) in Windows 7?? Windows XP always hid the passkey/code behind stars, but Windows 7 allows the user to "Show Characters" on the Network security key.. nice one Microsoft!!!

 

Thanks

 

Matt

[mattpant]

Hmmm a quick google search using some key words has brought back this:-

 

RM Connector

 

Does anybody know of a free alternative?

 

Thanks

[SYNACK]

They can only use the "show characters" button if they are local administrators or if UAC is off neither of which is a good idea.

[glennda]

I would just get a win7 upgrade license for 30 quid each machine

[mattpant]

@ glennda - Well that is 1 possible solution...

[hyb80]

We have had a similar issue at our school, we have RM cc4 but lots of standalone laptops for staff and students.

 

We couldnt afford the upgrade licenses or the RM connector licenses and at the time I started to make this it didnt support windows 7, so I have over time created a little installer which is a basic batch script at a command prompt which uses the users credentials to map the desired network drives and copy shortcuts to the desktop, run again it will disconnect the drives and delete the shortcuts.

 

I do not profess to be an expert in scripting and the final result of this installer is the end of a lot of trial and error.

 

Once installed you edit the connect.bat file to meet your requirements.

 

It is configured to disconnect mapped drives if they already exist (ie another user comes to use workstation) and provide a new logon window.

 

I like to use this alongside Comodo Time Machine to create a fresh setup at every logon.

 

Feel free to give it a go, edit it, improve it, delete it (just let me know what you think) the zip is attached.

HomeDrive32bit.zip

Edited October 31, 2011 by hyb80