BrennanNCS

Well I'm glad this popped up when searching for their support page, genuinely thought it was only me!

Hiya thank you for your response. Just to clarify does that mean you’ve got multiple machines running third-party connectors, or is it just one TPC machine with everything (including TimeTabler potentially) installed on that single device?

Hello, I've recently moved my school over to SIMS Connected, and things are running smoothly now that the initial issues from earlier this week have been resolved. However, I'm hitting a wall trying to get some of our third-party applications integrated properly - specifically TimeTabler, which has been surprisingly difficult to get support for now that I have moved. I’ve spoken to SIMS support and was told to contact TimeTabler. Then, after reaching out to TimeTabler, I was told to go back to SIMS. So I’m stuck in a bit of a loop and feeling pretty confused. Eventually, I was told by a contact of mine that TimeTabler needs to be installed on the third-party connector machine we use for SIMS Connected. That seems like a bit of a workaround given that it's a VM nobody should really have access to, and I’m wondering if other schools are really doing it that way. Does anyone here use TimeTabler with SIMS Connected and have any insight into how you got it working? Any help or advice would be massively appreciated. Cheers, Brennan.

Hello, I just wanted to follow up after my first post, where I shared only a small portion of the chaos I inherited when stepping into my first IT Manager role at my current school. Apparently it made for a great trending topic! In the three weeks since, I’ve had some interesting discussions and ultimatums with the higher up and uncovered a few more things I honestly wish I didn't know. After a lot of back-and-forth, however, I’ve managed to get approval and have now ordered 260 refurbished Windows 11 compatible PCs with 5 year warranty! WooHoo! These refurb units will be with me in two weeks, and, truthfully, out of the many quotes I received, I believe I got the best lead time and the best price I could get which was a major issue I was facing so late in the game - an all around win! Thank you to all of you that viewed and replied to this thread, I know I haven't replied to many but I have read everything and really appreciate the help and encouragement! I have a Windows 11 24H2 MDT build ready and waiting, still waiting on my OVS agreement though I am now not too worried as I now have options in that regard. Feeling a little less stressed now. Happy Friday everyone!

KMS is something I will get sorted as soon as I have licensing definitely! I'm honestly struggling to figure out why KMS was ever depreciated before I came in as it had clearly licensed my current servers effectively at some point, and it probably worked for some desktops too as not all have keys printed on the side. DNS records still all point to the old KMS server but I don't dare do any further digging in case they start saying not activated. Yes, thankfully MDT was already set up when I stepped into the role. However, the MSP hadn’t touched it in terms of maintaining or updating the deployment images. Honestly, I hadn’t had the time to properly update those images myself until recently. I finally got a Windows 11 image on there, but then realised that nothing was licensing properly beyond Windows 10.

Is it a case of using only one or the other or do they coincide? If it's an EES agreement that I need to get sorted instead of OVS that does sound like a much better solution, it's not something that has come up in any of the conversations I have had with Microsoft resellers/partners unfortunately. Thank you for the response. Edit: Do I need to reimage any machines in order to make sure that the Win10 machines are supported or are they okay as they are?

Hello, First-time poster, long-time lurker (before I created this account to post). I'm hoping some of you might be able to shed light on a few issues I’m dealing with - things I might not have considered yet. I’m 24 and recently stepped into my first role as an IT Manager, though I’ve been working in IT for the past six years. Long story short, I’ve inherited a school network that desperately needs a complete overhaul and is an absolute mess. When I took the job, I assumed the school would be up and together with things as they had a competent MSP supporting them. I was very wrong. I’ve since cut ties with the MSP, and I have no intention of working with them again. Here are some of the key issues I’m facing: - The majority of machines (about 260 PCs with 3rd/4th gen i5s) are not Windows 11 compatible. - Around 100 machines that do support Windows 11 were reimaged with Win10 and are still running Windows 10. - There’s no KMS service running - looks like the MSP deleted the VM and any trace of it (no idea why). - There’s no current OVS agreement, so all devices are using individual activation keys, which is a nightmare for rebuilds. - I’m the only person in the IT team. - Thankfully, we have A3 licenses for staff and students, so I could potentially use those for activation but I understand that’s user-based, not device-based, and I’m not entirely sure how that works without spending the time setting up Intune. I have spoken to a few former IT managers I’ve worked with, and they’ve suggested I just install Windows 11 where possible and deal with issues as they arise. I get where they’re coming from, but everything I’ve read online and speaking to other externals says not to do this and I understand why. I’ve looked into Windows 10 LTSC since it’s supported until 2027, but there’s no way I can reimage 260 PCs before October 14th, especially while also managing the 100 Windows 11-capable machines. Plus, LTSC seems to come with licensing costs per machine and isn’t really intended for high-use environments like schools. I’m in the process of sorting out a new OVS agreement, which would help massively, but Microsoft support is moving slowly since I don’t currently have a valid agreement in place. This whole situation is incredibly stressful, and that’s without everything else going on. I think I've actually made myself feel more stressed by writing this out! I’m really stuck, what am I supposed to do? Cheers, Brennan.