[ms office - 2010] Set up for exams?

[speckytecky]

Just had a request to set up some laptops for GCSE exam use. Windows 7 Pro machines with Office 2010 on them and they apparently need to be set up so spell check is disabled and they print directly in the classroom at the end of the exam. How are others meeting this requirement?

[Michael]

Use WordPad, much easier

[mattx]

Disable the spell check via GP and create a logon script or one that will sit on the desktop so it sets the printer as the default.

 

$defaultprinter = Get-WmiObject -Query "Select * from Win32_Printer Where Name = 'whateverprinteriscalled'"
$defaultprinter.SetDefaultPrinter()

Edited January 24, 2013 by mattx

[john]

Use WordPad, much easier

 

That is what we do we have a bank of machines with XP and Wordpad and a locally installed HP 1010 printer job done and amazing now how some kids have decided that writing on the paper is more fun as they thought they would get Win 7 with all the games and toys and a spellchcker.... hah

[rush_tech]

We use Wordpad here too, GP only allowing wordpad to run on the machine printer mapped on logon

[sonofsanta]

Aye, Wordpad all the way, the lack of headers/footers is the only downside but much simpler than faffing with Office's labyrinth of GPOs. We have special limited logins that only have Wordpad, VLC and Character Map* shortcuts available. No printing, we get them to save to the homedir and then we move the files over to the exam officer's homedir and she prints them out in her office.

 

*forgetting this leads to panic amongst your students. /learnt the hard way

[Tsonga]

Right from the blogs: Disable spell and grammar check for Office 2010 - Blogs - EduGeek.net

[speckytecky]

Thanks for all the very useful replies folks - very much appreciated.

 

It turns out that I need to set up just two laptops for this task and they would like them ASAP. The SMT want the two particular lads using the set up for all their GCSE lessons and of course the exams.

 

As this is all brand new to me if anyone has a complete muppet guide I could use to achieve this I'd really welcome reading it.

 

I'm currently thinking of pulling two laptops off the Domain but not sure where to go from there without creating a heap of work for myself!

[speckytecky]

Yep, I have decided to pull two laptops off the domain and set the two lads up with limited local accounts. I'm going to disable Office on the laptops and set them up so the boys have just Wordpad on their desktop and save to a DVD RW.

 

This seems to be the easiest way around the issue the laptops have Windows 7 Pro 32 bit OS on board - what would be my best bet for setting them up so they were screwed down for this task?

[Steve21]

Yep, I have decided to pull two laptops off the domain and set the two lads up with limited local accounts. I'm going to disable Office on the laptops and set them up so the boys have just Wordpad on their desktop and save to a DVD RW.

 

This seems to be the easiest way around the issue the laptops have Windows 7 Pro 32 bit OS on board - what would be my best bet for setting them up so they were screwed down for this task?

 

We've got ours setup so that Wordpad runs, and explorer is killed (as part of login). If wordpad is closed the script running will reopen it every minute. (Just incase someone feels like being stupid and closing it all )

 

Basically creates a blank screen, with wordpad and that's it. No shortcuts, no start menu etc.

 

Steve

[sonofsanta]

Or set up your local group policy, then deny Read permission to your administrators on the relevant system32 folder so the changes don't affect you logging in (otherwise you won't be able to get back into gpedit and undo the changes!)

[caffrey]

I went extreme and repurposed some old laptops and just replaced the shell with wordpad.exe ... It's not ideal but its worked for the last few years - currently looking for ideas for replacements (makes me cringe to think kids are doing exams on them!)

[chazzy2501]

I created exam logins with software restriction policies on the office directory and a shortcut to wordpad:) Examiners have to print the documents and handwrite the pupils details on the prints.

[caffrey]

all drive letters are hidden except for 1 which is the default save location, exams officers then use USB pendrives to retrieve and print, I like to try and keep it simple as possible.