CommodoreS

Please could someone suggest some suitable all in one PCs for schools? I am currently looking at computers like the Lenovo c320. Please do not suggest RM AIO PC's as they are too expensive!

I sorta asked for this info in another thread, but got no replies. I wondered if anyone has the time if they would be able to send me a copy of their Windows Server (2008) GPO configuration for Win 7 Clients. If so I would be very grateful as I would be able to try this on my Test Network next week. I understand things are different from network to network, but having some kind of basic template would help me to understand the configuration better and develop it.

Looking into this more, do branded laptops automatically activate windows when using an OEM licence key (something to do with reading a BIOS code on the machine?)

I am trying to compile a complete list of all VLE's suitable for primary schools. I saw at BETT there appears to be a couple of new ones, but can't remember what they are. The ones I know of so far are: DB Primary : DB Primary Learning Platform - The Learning Platform Designed For Primary Schools Frog : Frog Learning Platform - Frog Primary My Learning Junior : Primary and Secondary learning software and content for education Its Learning : Primary Template Fronter : Product - Fronter UK Moodle-based resources : Moodle.org: open-source community-based tools for learning e-Folio (managed by Editure) : Essex Grid for Learning Google Apps for Education : Google Apps for Education | Official Website Live@Edu : Live@edu Does anyone know of any others, or have any opinions of the ones I have listed above?

If you know anything free like XIALinks mentioned above that would be useful. Apart from that any recommendations of software or scripts that are being used in a working environment would be helpful. If you have any working AD configuration for Win 7 Clients and users that you could export, that would also be helpful. Probably separate but I am still fighting against getting Offline Files working how I want it to for Staff Laptops, and need to do more research on mixed Win XP and Win 7 system integration - especially getting user profiles to work seamlessly across both systems and figuring out sysprep and WDS for Win 7 Clients.

Free is very good, and the other free software on that site also looks fantastic. Some of the scripts there look pretty useful too! Thanks for posting it.

I am at a school which are shortly going to purchase some new laptops which come with Windows 7 Pro licences. These are going on a network and in the past I have only used Win XP with a Volume Licence Key, but believe Windows 7 works a bit differently with its licence and activation. I don't really want to have to input the OEM licence for each machine and activate it manually each time a station is rebuilt, and would rather use a volume licence key as watched at: Volume Activation Process - Windows, Server, Office | TechNet The thing is, as part of the cost of the Laptops is Windows 7 Pro, wouldn't purchasing a volume licence key for them be purchasing the same thing twice? Or am I missing something? I'd also be interested to know where it would be best to go to buy MS CAL licences and Volume Licences.

Searching the threads I found an excellent post at: http://www.edugeek.net/forums/network-classroom-management/5987-network-management-software-go-4.html#post73364 Where the user has detailed what other 3rd party software people are using to assist with system management. The problem is this post is from 2007. Winsuite is discontinued. Learning Network Manager (also mentioned in that thread) also seems to be discontinued. Fortresgrand central contol and cleanslate still exists, but I wonder if it is really needed on a system that is networked and has been securely locked down. I have recently found this software as a replacement for RM Explorer 2: XIA Links - Desktop Application Launcher although expensive, I have not found an equivalent. The main thing I am now looking for is a piece of software which will automate the import of use accounts from CSV files, having only done it manually or using RM Network systems in the past. What are other people using? I have also found this: XIA Automation - Active Directory User Account Management which seems to do help create users, but requires scripting knowledge to create the scripts and seems expensive for something which is only done once a year. I have also read a lot about Impero on here recently: Impero Classroom and Computer Lab Management Software for the Entire Network and hope to try it on the test network over half term, but that also does not seem to have the feature to import users from a CSV file or help simplify the user creation process. I have also recently been looking into CentraStage: Centrastage - Remote Management & Software Deployment For Every Device and can see it has uses, although worrying to read a post relating to the lack of WOL on here from 2009 and it still has not been added. I'd also be interested to hear what other 3rd party software people are using to help set up, manage and maintain their networks.

Update: I just solved the problem with printers working using: PeteNetLive - KB0000492 - Deploying Printers with Group Policy Preferences as the XP Client needed KB943729 installed. I am familiar with using WDS for Win XP. I have just not yet used it with Windows 7. That should change during half term when I get a chance to play and find all the problems. Its a shame there are no step by step how to guides here, or a post which links to other important posts of things to know about and things to consider.

Thanks for all the replies. Regarding the "Windows 7 Resource Kit." to be honest I struggle to learn reading books (I struggle with theory but excel in practical), and learn stuff much quicker watching videos, or even better seeing a real life working configuration/example and making notes of what has been set/changed and configured to fully understand how things are working. I also prefer to use guides with pictures. I wondered if anyone has the time if they would be able to send me a copy of their AD configuration for Win 7 Clients. If so I would be very grateful as I would be able to try this on my Test Network and have time to understand things better. With printers I found a guide at: http://www.petenetlive.com/KB/Article/0000492.htm which I followed through, but no printers appear on my Win XP SP3 Test Client, so I am wondering if this works for Vista and 7 Only. I really need a solution that would work on both Win XP and Win 7 clients, and will pull the printer driver down so no manual intervention is required to install printers onto the clients. So with Roaming and Mandatory Profiles does anyone know a guide which would help explain the options better, or again would be able to post a link to another Edugeek post or provide a working example. One other thing I am unsure of is Win 7 Licence Keys and Activation. For Win XP I have been using a volume licence key, and wonder if I need to get something similar for Win 7, as all new machines have been supplied with their own unique Win 7 Product Key. I am also wondering how activation will work with Sysprep and Network Win 7 Machines. It would be a pain having to activate each one manually.

I will be using a mixture of Win XP SP3 and Win 7 Pro, so BitLocker is not really an option. Do you have a link to the MSI installer you mentioned please?

Thanks for the info. They are nice printers and cheap to run, but sounds like they have problems with the drivers on Networks. I tried removing bidirectional support but it did not help. If I get a chance I might try using it on a USB cable to see if it might be something to do with the built in network card. I am also using latest 1022N drivers, but does not seem to have helped. Also could not find a Win Server 2008 R2 64 Bit driver to download.

I have not edited the config at all. Just sent the standard MSI out to workstations. Does Saved Games/Boku/Player 1 get redirected to AppData automatically or is this a manual config? I wonder if there is also another AD setting (2003 Server) that could be set which is causing the problem.

I am looking into Encryption Software for Office PCs, Staff Laptops and USB Memory Pens. And perhaps the Server and Backups. I have two pieces of software: TrueCrypt - Free Open-Source On-The-Fly Disk Encryption Software for Windows 7/Vista/XP, Mac OS X and Linux and CE-Infosys : FREE CompuSec PC Security Suite I am very vaguely familiar with TrueCrypt and have never used Free CompuSec ®. My question is for Office PCs and Staff Laptops what are others using and what is the best solution? It would also be useful to know if there are any step-by-step guides for both pieces of software, and if it is possible to encrypt a drive without loosing all data. For USB Memory Pens reading that with TrueCrypt you need to install the software on every machine you are going to use it on, or need administrator rights when running it in Portable Mode scares me slightly. I am not sure if Free CompuSec would also need software installed before the drives can be accessed. The other possibility I am looking into is purchasing Hardware Encrypted USB Pens, but am unsure if I will run into the same problems as software encryption, with administrator rights being needed or software needing to be installed beforehand. Of course being a network the staff and students are pretty locked down, although I have also found this software which I think might get around the administrator rights problem somehow: Runas Password I'd also appreciate peoples views on Encryption for Win 2008 R2 and options. For backups I noticed that the latest version of BackupAssist now has TrueCrypt integration, which I tried as a test but it errored out. The documentation seems a big vague (to me) and I am wondering if backup devices need to be encrypted before the truecrypt feature in BackupAssist can be used. Of course someone might know a better method I am not aware of, and I appreciate any help or advice.

I will shortly be introducing Windows 7 clients to a new Win2008 R2 64 Bit network which AD has only been configured to be used by windows XP clients. Is there any changes I will need to make for the Win 7 Clients to work in the same way as the Windows XP clients? I am also wondering if it would be best to get Win 7 64 bit or 32 bit version, as I heard there can be problems connecting printer drivers and I am guessing I may also get software compatibility issues. Thinking of Printers I am also wondering what the best way to automatically deploy the shared printers and drivers to the machines is. Whether there is a fantastic (and cheap or free) software tool out there which would help with this or an easy way to do it via AD which will work reliably. It will be a mixed Win XP/Win 7 network so it would be good to know how other people have configured their printers. I am also wondering if Windows 7 will work in the same way as Windows XP with sysprep and WDS or if I will run into any problems, as the sysprep ini seems to have Win XP specific settings in it.

I have manually browsed and connected to a printer shared on a 2008 X64 server on an XP SP3 x86 client, and installed the x86 driver manually on the client. When I go to make a a test print the attached error message appears and nothing prints.

I have installed Kodu which is working fine for administrator users. However when Students use it they are shown the error shown in the first picture, which repeats until eventually the error in the second picture is shown. The software then seems to load OK, but I am still concerned about these error messages.

Unfortunately CC also features an awful lot that primary schools do not want or use, along with being locked into having to pay £2000 a year (the equivalent amounts to 100 hours of 3rd party technical support) for poor RM support (which seems to go up £100 every year!). All that is needed is a well set up vanilla system with a handful of 3rd party tools to make usage easier for younger children. SW Deployment is quite easily handled by deploying MSI software through the AD, although more and more software is starting to become web based. Its also not too hard to create MSI files using MSI Creation Software (Which I already have).

Its trying to make things easier for younger children in primary schools and staff. Pressing Ctrl+Alt+Delete at the same time is not very easy for them. This is why other companies have integrated password changing into their software. I was hoping there would be something similar for vanilla systems available.

If you prevent students from using CTRL+ALT+DELETE is there another way you can allow them to change their network password? I am wondering if there is a way to shortcut a link to the windows change password, or a piece of 3rd party software to allow users to easily change their passwords.

That does look like what I am after, although it seems to be missing the file explorer section that was in Explorer 2. Thank you for the info. I was expecting it to be a bit cheaper than £500 though.

WMP 11 is available for free from here: Media Plug-in Curriculum Choice Titles for Community Connect 3 and as far as I am aware the CC3 version is the same as the CC4 version. If you have not already done so, you will need to follow TEC459247 to allow staff (and students if required) to have access to the Full version of windows media player, as by default its locked down.

As PiqueABoo said, apparently young children (and some staff!) do not know how to use the Start Menu. Its about making things as easy as possible for them. If nothing exists than I am considering getting a custom program developed, so am not sure if there would also be a market for that as it seems to be an issue.

Does anyone know if there is a similar program to RM Explorer 2 for use on Vanilla Networks?

Perhaps that's why support has gotten so bad. I expect they got rid of all the useful people and kept the useless ones and all the ones aboard. RM Support has been rapidly going downhill and getting worse. I am really looking forward to starting ripping out the CC4 networks next year and replacing with reliable Windows 2008 Vanilla Networks, which will save the schools money and result in more reliable "Standard" systems they don't have to rely on RM on for its specific system support.