PC's turned off when in use take longer to boot up....

[kennysarmy]

We are finding that students lock their workstations and then wander off.

 

The next student comes aloneg and has to power the PC off in order to logon.

 

PC's when this occurs are taking well over 5 minutes to get to the CTRL+ALT+DEL screen

rather then usual 1 minute.

 

Is there any group policy setting that can be adjusted to prevent powered off PC's taking longer to boot up?

 

Thanks.

[MYK-IT]

Disable the Lock Workstation option(?) - That's how we have it set up.

[mrbios]

Disable the Lock Workstation option(?) - That's how we have it set up.

 

^ This

 

For us students either need to be logged on, or logged off...if for any reason they have to leave their PC unattended during a lesson a teacher can lock the PC screen using impero for them, though they rarely bother to do this.

[enjay]

Disable pupils being able to lock computers, and/or enable "Switch User". We've done both :-)

[rich_tech]

Aye, we have done both of them here, disabled fast user switching and students are not allowed to lock a workstation.

 

Microsoft made a stupid decision to stop allowing administrators to log people off as well forcing this.

[enjay]

We have user switching enabled, obviously only applicable to staff though, as pupils can't lock PCs. It is an absolute godsend in the Staff Room, and those locations where several teachers share a classroom. The only drawback is that you cannot tell if someone else is logged in to a PC or not, as when you switch user then log out, it goes back to the logon screen - not a huge problem, but it does sometimes surprise people when they "log in" and find their MyDocs and email are open ready for them (one person actually commented that they liked how email opens automatically, but was I aware that it didn't always work!)

[jinnantonnixx]

Aye, we have done both of them here, disabled fast user switching and students are not allowed to lock a workstation.

 

Microsoft made a stupid decision to stop allowing administrators to log people off as well forcing this.

 

Yes, it's a serious design flaw.

 

FUS was not an option, the machines would soon choke up.

 

Some Microsoft guy called OliverF has posted a solution; he's written a DLL to do the trick. We use it, and it works well.

How to Unlock Windows 7 Enterprise when another user has locked the screen?

 

I've made an MSI, PM me if you want it.

[Dagaz]

we are the same. Staff can lock but students can't. Also disabled fast switching. All students are taught by tutorial never to leave a pc unattended and if they have to they have to log off.

 

thanks

robs

[Michael]

I agree, it is a problem but like others I disable pupils from locking and switching users:

 

Computer Config > Policies > Admin Templates > System > Logon - Hide entry points for Fast User Switching - Enabled

 

User Config > Policies > Admin Templates > System > Ctrl+Alt+Del Options - Remove Lock Computer - Enabled

[FN-GM]

For all those who suggested preventing students from locking the computers, that isnt a solution but a workaround.

 

As others have said you can set it so local admins can unlock machines like XP by installing an additional DDL. I use this, works a treat.

 

@kennysarmy is there anything in the eventlog?

 

If you enable Verbose we can see exactly what is going on startup. It will show what process is taking all the time during startup. - Computer Configuration -> Administrative Templates -> System and change the option "Verbose vs normal status messages"

Edited March 5, 2012 by FN-GM

[Michael]

@FN-GM - I suspect the reason it's taking longer is because pupils are forcefully switching the PCs off. There's no way to unlock the machine unless you're that user. It would resolve the issue, as pupils wouldn't forcefully shutdown PCs.

[FN-GM]

@Michael - Disabling the feature isnt a resolution. Getting the point across to students is. The odd thing is the computers in my last school environment didnt take longer to boot if they where forced off. Also there is way for local admins to unlock the machine as mentioned on this thread.

 

Something you could do is enable the logoff screensaver. So if i student leaves the computer unlocked and inactive for x amount of time the machine will be logged off.

 

The last school i worked at hardly had this issue, we encouraged students to lock computers whilst your away and to log off when you have finished.

[kennysarmy]

Thanks guys.

I think we need to do a bit more investigation by turning on verbose logging and checking event logs.