itskdog

If you're a Microsoft school, you could get some free A1 licences and use Teams, presumably similar is available for G Suite, but I don't yet have any experience on that front.

What are your Autopilot settings? Does it meet all the requirements on the documentation: Windows Autopilot User-Driven Mode | Microsoft Learn Does the device have line-of-sight to the DC during Autopilot?

I've used QLC+ before - can be configured to have a custom UI to control the lights, and supports most USB-to-DMX dongles. Depending on the quality of the lights you're using, you may want to get one with voltage isolation, as otherwise a cheap no-name light could develop a fault and send 230V AC down the DMX pins, straight into the USB port of the PC. They're a bit more expensive, but could save bigger costs in the long run. Name-brand versions include these: DMX USB PRO - the industry standard for DMX to USB conversion | ENTTEC Eurolite USB-DMX512 PRO Interface MK2 – Thomann UK

You'll definitely want to jailbreak, for as soon as it's factory reset it becomes a brick.

I personally got put off of Ubiquiti gear by the lack of documentation (I like good documentation so I can learn how to use the product without needing to go on a training course), but this is just false, you just have to go for the right model, as with all brands. From their website: https://www.ui.com/switching

We're looking to replace our EOL Meraki APs this summer. The latest models from Cisco have two operating modes, Meraki mode or Catalyst mode - you can switch from being cloud-managed to locally-managed (with a Catalyst controller in your server rack) at any time, which might counteract this. Though a quick glance on their website suggests they haven't made this change on their switches yet. Hopefully they do by the time our current ones reach EOL.

Windows 11 is UEFI only, and therefore GPT only as Windows ties the two together. BIOS/CSM mode is not supported any more. If you're still using Windows 10, I hope you have ESUs activated and a plan to migrate your fleet by October 2028. Check the new laptop's firmware that it isn't booting in legacy mode, any device that was designed for Windows 8 or newer should be able to boot from a GPT disk when in UEFI mode. Windows only has MBR2GPT, there's no command to reverse that process.

Senso is the same - there's an updater module, but the MSI's GUID is different for each version released, so they advise not to use it if you're doing a mass deployment, and only to use that on any standalone machines.

Hopefully this is expanded to replace ASM as well as ABM. Will save schools a lot of money.

Ran into this ourselves - had to re-verify the domain to prove it was us to get back into the break-glass account to allow 2FA to be set up for our day-to-day accounts with lesser rights. Recovering administrator access to your account | User management | Google Workspace Help

Ah, hadn't looked into it before as we're using RM's baseline which doesn't enable that policy. Hadn't realised it wasn't in the Settings Catalog.

There is a CSP for "Shared PC Mode with OneDrive Sync" - perhaps you picked the regular shared PC mode? https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/client-management/mdm/sharedpc-csp#enablesharedpcmodewithonedrivesync

We don't deploy desktop shortcuts ever since we moved to Intune - just put all our links on our browser homepage (in our case that's RM Unify, but you could use a custom SharePoint page or a hidden page on your school website, for example). Makes updates instant rather than waiting for a policy sync, and avoids the trouble with user-based policies on Intune not applying before reaching the desktop unlike GPO/GPP. To be honest, I wasn't even sure that Intune supported distributing desktop shortcuts, only start menu links via the "Web link" app type.

Some of these that I've located: GetHelp - Wouldn't recommend removing this as the old troubleshooters have been removed and added to this app in W11 MicrosoftOfficeHub - That's in the policy as Microsoft 365 Copilot MixedReality - Don't think this is pre-installed now People - That's part of the old Mail & Calendar app, I think, which is no more Skype - Not pre-installed these days

Yes, it's a 25H2 policy, and only for Enterprise/Education - it has no effect on Pro/ProEdu.

Redstor now have their "Total Education Bundle" that gives you unlimited storage for PCs/Servers, M365, Entra/Intune, and Google Workspace, priced based on the number of students. LGfL have branded it "Gridstore Unlimited" and offer it free with a 5 year broadband commitment (which also includes Sophos, Senso Safeguard, MalwareBytes, Netsweeper (branded as HomeProtect & SchoolProtect), among other discounted services and addons such as VoIP).

The sync client has a limit of 300k files, but you'd not be wanting to get to that point anyway due to how long it would take to create all the placeholder files. Microsoft's recommendation is to use "Add shortcut" to only sync the folders you need and use the web version for everything else. If you're looking to use CDM anyway, I'd recommend it. Mappings are configured by you as the admin, you can just map all the document libraries you want and they will only show up if the user has access to the site, otherwise they will just be skipped. There's also what they call "Dynamic" drives, where you can have all SharePoint sites and/or Teams the user is a member of in one virtual drive as subfolders. See this KB page for info on the different types of drives that can be mapped. https://cdm.iamcloud.info/docs/Content/Configuration/DriveMapping_SupportedDTs_Intro.htm

When we last did an SAR (we get them very rarely here, so it's not worth it to us to invest in specialist redaction software - printing single-sided, using black marker to redact, and scanning back in provides appropriate redactions that can't be reversed), we exported emails as individual MSG files rather than as a PST for this reason. It's still sorted into folders, but native File Explorer tools can easily move things around - I usually just went through folder-by-folder and printed each item ready for redaction.

Saw that in the admin message centre, I think the only change is that the Copilot Chat button is being removed from the Office apps if you don't have an M365 Copilot licence, and only the full version of Copilot will be available in the Office apps. Copilot Chat will still work through the webpage, Edge, and dedicated apps.

I've seen OS corruption do that before - have you tried an in-place upgrade in the Settings app -> System -> Recovery -> "Fix problems using Windows Update"? Also probably worth checking if drivers, BIOS, etc. are up-to-date in case that they could be causing it.

We're an M365 school, but I can see in my Redstor dashboard that it does have a Google Classroom backup option, no experience to tell you what that contains, though.

Microsoft themselves suggest that it will uninstall itself if you're on M365 Apps, only if you're using LTSC 2021 or older will you still have access to it. Microsoft Publisher will no longer be supported after October 2026 - Microsoft Support

It's not in LTSC 2024, but it's still in 365 until LTSC 2021 is retired in October. Maybe you've already removed it manually in your deployment - there was a button in the new "Security Baselines" section of the M365 Admin Centre that would block Publisher with one click. It's still there for us on A3.

We've moved to Canva - their full plan is completely free for schools (like Microsoft & Google, trying to get the kids hooked). They require schools to use SSO to log in, but they have step-by-step guides on how to configure that and how to get Canva to identify between staff and student accounts. Staff were hesitant at first, but once they gave it a go (especially when I mentioned the AI features to the people who love getting ChatGPT to write their emails for them) they loved it. It can import PDFs, so Publisher documents can be converted by exporting as a PDF from Publisher (maybe keep one PC with Office LTSC 2021 on to let you export the PDF for anyone who hasn't done so by October) then importing that PDF to Canva.

In my experience of a primary classroom, you just have the teacher's PC at the IWB with ActivInspire or SMART Notebook, and maybe a second PC for the children to use during wet play. The free 100TB storage on SharePoint provides a great way to move existing local file shares for storing your flipcharts/notebooks. Cloud Drive Mapper is your friend (£500pa for primary schools, hasn't had a price increase in many years) to make the SharePoint sites appear in File Explorer without the faff of the OneDrive sync app when syncing a large number of files. Even automatically logs in if devices are Entra-joined (e.g. managed by Intune). We still use shared logins in the ICT Suite to keep things easy for the teachers (I know it's not quite KCSiE compliant, but I'm not the IT curriculum lead or DSL, so...). Shared Computer Activation on the PCs gives you the ability to have the same account using Office on >5 machines at once.