RichFix

We buy our Chromebooks from our MSP.

Yes, make sure they are connected to the Wi-Fi then they will be forced to go through the firewall and or web filter system. Also as said previous, definitely add them to the MDM for managed control.

I completely agree!

If you don’t use Smoothwall Cloud Filter on Chromebooks as Timbo343 said, you can push out some Adblock extensions through Google Admin to all users. I would recommend Adblock plus: https://chromewebstore.google.com/detail/adblock-plus-free-ad-bloc/cfhdojbkjhnklbpkdaibdccddilifddb

Inventry are not the best and I have struggled with such changes too. Normally have had to do it myself as they can be unreliable and do not take security into account.

Hi, We have recently bought Microsoft Surface Pro (I think either 7 or 9s without checking) and noticed that after about a year they suddenly stop loading into Windows where the device is stuck on the windows/surface logo and then just turns off. You can’t even get into the bios to do a recovery using the power and volume button trick. Has anyone come across this? Has anyone managed to fix this?

Our projector which has been used over 10 years has suddenly died on us. It is a Christie one. We used to pair up a windows laptop using a HDMI cable which is connected to two speakers. I would like to get some advice/ your thoughts on whether it is worth buying a new projector or investing in a touchscreen whiteboard instead such as a Prowise board?

It is better to have all paper cut software on the same server especially from a troubleshooting perspective. Not sure how your printing solution is set up. If the laptops are local ad domain joined, then you could set up follow me printing and deploy the virtual printers using group policy but again does depend on network infrastructure.

I would say InTune and Entra/Azure device and user management is the way forward for cloud based solutions which is more cost effective than replacing on-premise hardware and the costs associated with that. If you can utilise everything that the a3 license comes with and have a good business case, I would definitely say to invest in that.

Hello, My name is Richard and I am currently an IT Support Engineer who works for a school working towards to increasing his knowledge, skills and experience to support technology and services in eduction. I look forward to interacting with this community to gain valuable insights and knowledge from others and also provide some useful support, feedback and my own ideas/insight to help others. I have good experience and skills in software, hardware, networking and some business and eduction software.

I guess it depends whether your utilising all the features with that license which justifies the cost. For example, it can be used to license all client windows machines and to be used for Azure/Entra authentication where users have to login with a 365 account and the devices are managed using InTune. Also it can take away existing costs - for example if you have iPads/ Android tablets, these can be enrolled in InTune without having to pay for a separate MDM.