Cleaning out the closet

[bondbill2k2]

That time of year I'm beginning to make the new images before moving job ready for the new tech to deploy over the 6 weeks. Looking at our software lists dam there is alot of rubbish, thankfully a large quantity is on our file server rather then clients but I'm trying to clean up older software such as Wsmile, DLK Maths and Starspell 2001 to name a few.

 

How do you guys sort out what software to deploy?

 

I'm currently writing up lists for each department regarding what software they use, if anything is missed off the list they must inform me in the next week otherwise it won't be on their computers come September. Not only would I like to bring image size down and decrease software but the inital image creation would be much better with some older software having odd setups and problems once deployed for some users.

Edit: Just to include we use Ghost for our images

[jamesfed]

Take a look at App-V - every item of software on every PC, everywhere in the school

 

The applications are 'streamed' down to the PCs at run time (and localy cached) - this way your image is little more than Windows, IE plugins and the App-V client.

[chazzy2501]

I found that APP-V has annoying infrastructure requirements, additional licensing and has an intimidating amount tech to understand.

 

If you can find it a free copy of WinstallLE is still doing the rounds, use a clean VM and it captures the install and MSIs it.

[zag]

We hardly use any applications any more. The only ones I can think of are photoshop, dreamweaver, office 2010.

 

If you hadn't noticed computing is moving into the cloud

[jamesfed]

I found that APP-V has annoying infrastructure requirements, additional licensing and has an intimidating amount tech to understand.

 

A 28Mb client on the PC and a Management Server that is little more than a file server is complicated?

 

Yes there are some things to think about when it comes to dependancies however its never been anything that a quick Google and well thought out planning hasn't been able to fix.

[bondbill2k2]

We hardly use any applications any more. The only ones I can think of are photoshop, dreamweaver, office 2010.

 

If you hadn't noticed computing is moving into the cloud

Oh I have noticed just a matter of dragging its users kicking and screaming! Its only really science and maths with alot of software but most the time its mymaths or internet usage I dont think half the software gets used more then a couple of times per year but then you have the argument "well we brought it so we must have it on the system"......yea 10years+ ago in some cases. My biggest complaint is how out of date some software is, departments here are responsible for purchasing software but must consult us first where we will advise them and look into licenses. We are still running macromedia studio 8 and trying to push the upgrade!

[gshaw]

App-V is something that on one hand I want but on the other seems a bit pointless as the apps I need to be portable (Photoshop, Lightroom etc) don't work well with it... haven't even got as far as checking whether it causes issues on a licensing front.

 

We put a lot of open-source software on the image these days, mainly for multimedia and accessibility then it's Office and exams software

[iom100]

I'm doing the same sort of task. It's taken weeks if not months to get any of our 'teachers' to even look at what software they need. Sadly some of the most awkward ones are still required.

[SYNACK]

If you hadn't noticed computing is moving into the cloud

 

Nope, hadn't noticed, our 1's and 0's are still handled locally, much of the 'cloud' stuff just runs in a different less efficient container on your local computers anyway, rendering, maths etc, etc.

[ChrisH]

We have gone mostly app-v. We converted nearly everything as most stuff doesn't take long but we have only published what

We know is in use. If anything is missing and is needed we just click enable and remotely refresh the machines and it's there instantly. Using app-v also allows me to control all the start menu shortcuts as well. I just have a script to clean up the all users menu.

Edited July 11, 2012 by ChrisH

[bondbill2k2]

Well App-V looks like a possible future investment but with only 2 weeks left working here and other IT staff been limited on their hours during the summer I plan to just setup some new ghost images they can deploy during the holidays. Awaiting reply of departments now gave them some lists of their software anything not on or anything I'm not informed about by next week will not be on, simples