555tech

Investigating blocking the Windows Store in W11 for pupils at a few schools due to safeguarding concerns with some of the content available on there. All schools use Windows in a local domain and AD to log in. Annoyingly some schools use W11 Edu and some W11 Pro. For Edu i'm looking at using the "Users > Policies > Admin Templates > Windows Components > Store > Turn off the Store application" GPO, aimed at the pupil OU, to disable access for pupils. However, I have a colleague who thinks that this completely nerfs the store removing the store system apps' ability to update. I wasn't aware this was the case. I can't seem to find any official MS advice about this specific scenario but this MS Community forum thread appears to suggest this GPO still allows apps to update while blocking user access. Is this correct? Has anyone here successfully dealt with this situation? For Pro it's via "User > Policies > Windows Settings > Security Settings > Software Restriction Policies > Additional Rules" and specifying the path of the Store package. Does targeting the users here also allow apps to update or will this stop this functionality, too? Also, Xbox apps. Have tested Applocker for Edu devices but blocking them this way had some unexpected consequences... The desktop taskbar notification tray stopped being responsive! How are others managing this?

Though I'd post an update to this as we've managed to get round the short stream duration issue. It appears that YouTube was at fault. Simply put, you need to "Schedule" a stream in YouTube Studio rather than just going live. YouTube has an itchy trigger finger for killing streams that aren't scheduled and since using the Schedule feature we've been able to reliably get streams to last for weeks at a time, and sometimes well over a month! This video explains the steps in greater detail and also offers a theory as to why it happens at all. Based on the theory in that video I also adjusted a couple of default settings in OBS to stabilise the stream upto YouTube: In OBS settings goto Advanced, then: Stream Delay > Enable > Duration “30s” Automatically Reconnect > Enable > Retry Delay “1s” > Maximum Retries “30” You can set these however you like, these settings seem to work well. Also worthwhile tweaking AV, Bitrate, and general quality settings too. Happy streaming.

Look after a school that run GA on their website - ostensibly for OFSTED "early warnings" (and I know YMMV on that one...) - but since the migration to new the GA4 the staff member that runs it is saying it's deprecated a bunch of their custom reports and is struggling to use it the same way. Does anyone use any other analytic packages or have any recommendations? Will need to be free. Any advice is really appreciated, thank you! p.s. I've seen this thread Website with OFSTEd early Warning - Page 7 (edugeek.net) which details a cool way of sending an email alert once a certain value is met but I don't think it's the replacement the staff member is looking for.

A few months old but realised I hadn't posted a follow up. Thanks to both responses. We purchased a kit from gardenature.co.uk plus a cheap, HDMI capable, capture card off Amazon and it all works very well. Very simple to set up and start streaming in conjunction with OBS and a YouTube/Workspace account. We've had a few issues with the stream not lasting longer than a week at most and currently investigating this. I'll post a further follow up when we find a solution so future searches by peeps in similar positions get a bit more value out of my travels.

A school I look after wants to update its bird house camera and streaming set up. They used to go through a company that did an all in one solution but have now gone bust. This is some way out of my comfort zone and wondering how others did it? I envisage a camera feeding OBS which will then provide the school's YouTube account with a stream for posting to the school's website. Will any kind of waterproof IP camera do the job, or any specific recommendations? I think the school would be happy to get some sort of capture card if it means less hassle long term but I know if it can just be done direct between camera and OBS via network that would be best. Thanks in advance

Incredible, thanks so much. Nice and simple!

Hey all, been tasked to prepare our org for W11 so got the iso and installing to start investigating but have come across an unexpected question…Windows 11 Education or Windows 11 Pro Education? Can’t find any meaningful explanation of what Pro Edu is or what the differences are between the two. Can anybody shed any light on this? Huge thanks in advance