Tom_P

Did you have a chance to check the GPO? I cant for the life of me figure this out. I've currently settled for the icons on the desktop for the moment.

The shortcuts are copied to C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs What's strange is I can manually pin the shortcuts from this folder and run them with no issues. Is this the same folder you use?

Anyone successfully pinned the log off shortcut to the start menu through GPO? I'm having the same issues as others, where the some shortcuts are not being pinned but other apps are. Namely - logoff, restart and gpupdate shortcuts don't pin, but office/windows apps do pin. I have no issues with running shutdown /l as the logged in user either. I tried copying a folder via gpo which contains all the shortcuts to the local PC, then copying the start2.bin file which all works fine. Running the shortcuts from the folder works, I can also manually pin them from that folder. Just doesn't automatically pin them when the .bin file is copied. Anyone have any ideas?

Hi all, We need to setup class email groups with all the parents emails in which allows teachers to easily contact the parents of the pupils in their class. Historically we have manually set this up as we were a small school. The school has now developed into a trust, built an additional school and the last two years have added 5 new classes. Last year we asked the teachers to create their own private outlook group and manually add the parent emails. Which worked surprisingly well. This year however has failed miserably. We have the parent emails in Sims and use Office 365. How do you guys set this kind of thing up? Thank you! Tom.

For anyone having similar issues, I was missing the 'PE' after 'KeyboardLocale'. This is my working locale settings: KeyboardLocale=0809:00000809 KeyboardLocalePE=0809:00000809 UserLocale=en-GB InputLocale=0809:00000809 SystemLocale=en-GB UILanguage=en-GB I think its just required in bootstrap, but i applied it to customsettings too, as i didnt want to regenerate the image twice if it was required in both.

I've just checked my OS files in the deployment workbench, and both win 10 & 11 are set as en-GB in properties. Am i looking in the right place? I thought these OS's were only applied after a task sequence was selected, and the wim files that the deployment workbench generates is what loads your MDT setup.

Im not following you here.. how do i use international media when MDT creates the WIM file?

Its not a problem on the image, just the MDT setup screen. Becomes a problem when typing passwords as symbols are different.

Thank you, unfortunately still US. I just noticed you said thats your bootstrap - Whats in your customsettings?

Hey! So i know there are a few post already on this, but i cannot get MDT to set the keyboard layout to GB. Keeps setting US layout. This is only on the MDT setup screen, once the image is deployed the OS is set to GB. I have mounted the WIM file to check and the bootstrap.ini is correct. Cannot find the customsettings.ini file to check whats applied. But it must be set somewhere, as the settings inside the file are applying to the rest of the setup. Below are my bootstrap and custom settings file. Hopefully somebody can see where I've gone wrong. Bootstrap.ini [settings]Priority=Default [Default] DeployRoot=[DeploymentSharePath] SkipBDDWelcome=YES KeyboardLocale=0809:00000809 KeyboardLocale=en-GB UserLocale=en-GB InputLocale=0809:00000809 SystemLocale=en-GB UILanguage=en-GB UserID=[username] UserPassword=[Password] UserDomain=[Domain] CustomSettings.ini [settings]Priority=Default Properties=MyCustomProperty [Default] OSInstall=Y SkipCapture=YES SkipProductKey=YES SkipComputerBackup=YES SkipBitLocker=YES SkipUserData=YES SkipAdminPassword=YES AdminPassword=[Password] SkipDomainMembership=NO JoinDomain=[Domain] DomainAdminDomain=[Domain] KeyboardLocale=en-GB KeyboardLocale=0809:00000809 UserLocale=en-GB UILanguage=en-GB SkipTimeZone=YES TimeZoneName=GMT Standard TimeTimeZone=085 SkipLocaleSelection=YES true Work 1 true true true true true true SkipSummary=NO SkipFinalSummary=NO SLShareDynamicLogging=[Log] EventService=[Log]

Not far of it. 357 to be exact, which is expected to grow next September. But from reading some posts it seems ive been over quoted. I've contacted a few more suppliers who can hopefully bring the cost down.

Thank you. The supplier we've been using has been very good on price for other services, but i will give these a shout.

I completely agree with you with other schools I've worked in. But that isnt the case where i am currently. I work at a SEN school so we have a lot more staff so more licences, and a lot of the budget is spent on specialist equipment. I also wish it was £5000 a year. For us its coming in at just under £20000 for all staff. If i just include critical staff then ive got it down to £14000. Still a lot of money to spend. I'll just have to approach it at a different angle - 'its not just MSOffice'.

Thats much cheaper than what ive been quoted! £56 per user per year is what I've been quoted. Who supplied your licences?

Yeah, true. I guess they just see it as an Office subscription. Maybe I can look to make use of InTune to claw back some budget on the current MDM.

Hi guys! I use to work as an IT contractor, and over the years worked at many schools. Majority of them having A3 or A5 microsoft licencing.. Now I work at a trust on a perminant basis. They currently have A1 and office 2021 licences but they want the full features available in M365 A3.. but at £4.67 per staff member per month they cannot afford it. I assumed it wasn't that costly as so many schools I worked at had it. Am i just naive - is it not that much, and the school will have to budget for it? Or am I missing a trick? Would be really interested to know what your guys views on this are. Tom.

Thank you! I'll test and report back regarding the versions.

Hi, We currently have Office 2021/2019 installed across our devices. We now want to upgrade these to Microsoft 365. Using the ODT we can run the install which removes any previous versions first, and then installs microsoft 365. I'd like to automate this by running the script at start up. However, Office 2021/2019 use the same directory as Microsoft 365 'Program Files\Microsoft Office\root\Office16'. Does anyone know the best way of scripting this, so that it will run the installer if Office 2021/2019 is installed, but not to run if M365 is already installed? Many thanks, Tom.

Thank you - I have just sent them an email. Thank you - I will get in contact with them. As many or as little as i can get. This is something that will be in consistent use. Thank you, i appreciate the offer. We tried SFF PC's and monitors but found they're easier to throw across a room.. Perfect, thank you!

Hi all, Does anyone know where i can get really cheap (Under £100) all in one PC's? We have been using an old batch of PC's (Intel pentium dual core) as kiosk stations running chrome. These get used by students with severe SEN and get broken quite frequently. Which is why I'm looking for something as cheap as possible. All our suppliers, and places ive looked online only have newer/refurbished stock. The cheapest ive found is around £250 which wont be agreed by SLT, and rightly so. They are also over spec for our needs. We reached out to local PC repair shops for any old stock but they wanted crazy prices.. £950 for 4 Acer, Intel pentium dual core, 4gb, 320gb HDD (Orignally £1000 but they knocked off £50 as one didnt have a HDD).. We are also unable to use ebay. Thanks, Tom.

It crashes as soon as the 'Print' button is clicked. So before you get the option to search for a printer. I havent been able to check settings before the crash as it isnt clear when that is going to happen.

Hi, Recently we've started getting reports of programs crashing when trying to print. This is an intermittent issue, doesnt always effect the same user or PC. When a user clicks 'print' the program crashes. This happens before a printer is selected and ive experianced it on all Office programs, Chrome, Acrobat and Edge. Im sure it happens on others too. I am then unable to load control panel, settings, services etc. Just nothing happens. Restarting the PC resolves the issue and the user can print, but then the next morning or a few days later we get the same problem. Today i found that switching user, loading services and restarting the print spooler also resolves the issue. However, while switching the user it did take around 10 - 15minutes to load the profile, so may have been able to load services on the original user if i waited that amount of time. I'm yet to be able to check the status of the print spooler before a user clicks print as there is no indication there is an issue untill 'print' is clicked. Event viwer also doesnt log anything other than when the program crashes. The PC's are set to automatically shutdown of an evening, and are then automatically powered on early morning, and then a 10 minute delay before a restart. This has been in place for years and applied to all PCs. So a bit confused why a second restart is required. We've not had any changes to the printers/server, other than a papercut upgrade last week. Its difficult to say when this started happening as when it was first reported I was told "its been happening to 'user a' for ages". When speaking with 'user a' they claimed its been doing it since January. I dont know if this is an exageration or not.. i do tend to believe this user as they do just get on with things and never complain :'). I suspect the print spooler service is related, but not sure where to go next.. Anyone experiance the same issues? or know where i can troubleshoot next? Thank you! Tom.

Having trouble with applying for the 'Validation token'. its been rejected twice because its catered for the US. When i contacted sales, they told me what to input and it still got rejected.

Hi, I've been asked to look for a site that offers a library of courses so that myself and my coleagues can 'up skill'. I got the green light for Pluralsight, but they've made it so difficult to get an education subscription I've decided to look elsewhere. Does anyone know of anything similar to Pluralsight I could look into please? Thanks, Tom.

Other than those local 'repair shops' like 'iSmash', I dont know of any companies that'll do this. I upgraded 30 iMacs a couple years ago. After I broke the first two, I went and bought a heat gun to loosen the glue, and a proper suction lifter from screwfix to lift the glass away (the ones desiged for glass windows). Only cost around £25 total and i still use them today. They then made light work on removing the glass on the rest. Just remember to glue or use double sided tape to secure the glass back on. The tip i always give to anyone doing this job is do not pry the edges of the glass - You'll guarentee it to crack. Just heat the glue with a heatgun or hairdryer, run a thin knife around the edges, and using the suction lifter, pull the glass away from the frame. If its not budging, use more heat around the edges. They usually lift out from the top first. Be patient with it, and youll be fine.