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Will check out Advanced Installer thanks. I'll try to do most of them as applications as far as I can but I think some will need to remain scripts as Movie Maker has a reg file that needs activated for example, rather than just copied to somewhere. Just wish I knew why my packages aren't working as a task sequence. Some of them still haven't deployed to my test machine as I type this.

Thanks. Taken a look at that guide and have setup Chrome as an application as a test. One stumbling block I can see though is that I have some software that needs config files bundled with it when the software is installed. With scripts it was fairly straight forward but with the application method I can't find any option to do this unless I'm looking in the wrong places.

Happy to change the way I deploy software in SCCM if there is an easier way. Way I've always done it is create a new package which then points to the .bat file to install the software. This is the Task Sequence I'm working with: One thing I've noticed is that you're installing the software as applications rather than packages. Could this be an issue? If I go to "Install Software" section and go to Add -> Software -> Install Application it creates a new entry which I can then specify which applications I want. Problem being we don't have any applications. All the entries in the Install Software group are packages linked to .bat files.

When I first started learning SCCM, any guides I found recommended using PS or batch files to install software so I've stuck with it. Seemingly the person I replaced did it the same way too. I don't know what you mean by TS step during imaging. I PXE boot the computer, and go into SCCM. The only configuration I get asked before the imaging starts is to pick the image (Win 7 32 bit, Win 7 64bit etc) and what to name the computer after it has imaged. The computer than starts to image. Nothing else. I don't see anyway of installing applications at this step. When you say native deployment do you mean deploying the application to collections? I could do but ideally I'd like it done as part of the image process using task sequence.

I've recently started a new job and out of the team I am the most knowledgeable when it comes to SCCM. I used it in my previous job but I pretty much had to teach everything about it myself but I know how to create packages and how to deploy them etc. The problem I have is that the task sequence only seems to be doing half the jobs and then stopping. I've got a test machine I'm using to get the task sequence working and I imaged it around 3pm yesterday and I've just came in this morning to only see a handful of software installed on it. I know it won't do it all instantly based on my knowledge of SCCM but surely overnight should be long enough? The person I replaced was a big fan of Powershell scripts whereas my background is more batch files so I've replaced all his install scripts so that I can troubleshoot easier. If I run the batch files manually the software installs as expected so I know it's not a problem with my code. The only major difference to the network in my time here has been replacing PfSense with Smoothwall but that shouldn't stop packages installing should it? I've edited a previously working task sequence to get to this stage. The only changes I've made however are to add some new package deployments and get rid of any PfSense entries (certificate installs, define proxy settings etc). The task sequence is split into sections, based on what task sequences are needed. There's an "Install Software" where the packages are deployed and after that there is "Post Deployment Tasks" amongst others which is for things like activating Windows & Office afterwards. Activating Windows & Office is one of the task sequences that fails and it is quite an important task sequence. It's linked to a batch file I wrote that sets the proxy and installs the Windows and Office 2013 keys and then activates them both. Again if I run this batch file manually both activate fine. Other important task sequences that fail are Windows Movie Maker which is required for lessons and TightVNC which we use to remotely connect to computers for remote IT Support etc. It doesn't seem to stop at a particular point either as Google SketchUp has deployed where as Adobe Photoshop CS2 which appears in the list before SketchUp, hasn't installed. Java has installed but software like Audacity, and Techsoft 2D design hasn't. The batch files themselves create a log file when the software has installed and they are nowhere to be seen so it's as if the task sequence isn't even running. Is there a log file linked to SCCM that I can look at to see what's going on? Before we moved to Smoothwall we'd get an email when the task sequence had finished, this no longer happens either but this may be a separate issue. Any help will be greatly appreciated as this is causing big problems at the moment as we're wanting to image multiple ICT suites and at the moment we're going to need to install most of the software manually in one way or another.

@webman Just found this thread. I've installed IIS, SQL & Server Management Studio, setup a new database, and and I'm up to: How do I import the sql file? Do I just double click it? That opens it but not sure how to link it to the PrintMaster database I created in previous step. I've skipped ahead and created my own config.php as instructed (think settings are correct having basic knowledge of SQL) but if I open web browser and browse to upgrade.php as instructed I get a load of PHP code with: At the bottom. Any ideas?

I can't help with any of your coding but have you not thought about just delegating control of the Students OU in AD to selected staff? Just link it to a security group and put a shortcut on their desktop. That's what I done here and works well.

Wasn't sure whether to put this in here or in the Server 2012 forum. Basically we have two new students who've started, one is Romanian and one is French. Their English is very very basic and staff are having to translate everything for them so I wondered if it would be possible to have the language in Windows changed to match their native language till they are comfortable with English. This would only effect that individual user whenever they logged onto a domain computer so possibly something like a user level gpo. It seems I need to download a Multilingual User Interface language pack but I'm not sure if I'd need one to match our DC (Server 2012) or Windows 7 which we use on the domain. I've found a setting under Computer Config -> Admin Templates -> Control Panel -> Regional and Language Options -> Restrict the UI language Windows uses for all users which would work but imagine I'd still need the language pack installed onto the computer for it to work. Has anyone done this before and can point me in the right direction?

Does that not mean users have to run it manually themselves or am I misunderstanding? (Which is quite possible) Even if I try to deploy the pc-client.exe via batch file it doesn't run on login. The batch file itself works if I run it as admin, I just can't get it to run. @newpersn do you mind explaining further how you done it? You way sounds like how I want it set up here. Off topic but how is the tag system supposed to work? I always have to get the URL of the user and then link to it and not even sure it notifies of the tag.

How does everyone deploy Papercut across their network? After Papercut was installed on the network but not configured I've got Papercut set up how I want but I want to deploy the client to all computers on the network so prints can be charged to departments and staff and students can check their remaining balance etc. However I'm having trouble getting the client installer to install. Following their instructions I've created a GPO with a user start up logon .bat file with the following in it: (server name removed) cmd /c "start \\server\PCClient\win\pc-client-local-cache.exe --silent --cache "C:\Program Files\PCClient"" However on the test machine the GPO is applied to, even if I log in as a domain admin neither the folder is created nor is the software installed. The only way I can get it to work is to run the .bat file myself as an administrator. Any ideas? I'd also like a way to have a backup solution for if the script fails to run. Like a desktop shortcut or an entry on start menu but my scripting skills are a bit limited. It's a Windows 7 domain if that matters. Thanks for any help.

Some manufacturers have their own like Seagate. There's HDTune and CrystalDiskMark too.

Vodafone Smart Ultra 6? I might be wrong but you could probably get it unlocked so you can use any sim card with it.

Delegate control via AD with shortcut on teacher desktop is how I set it up here. Only ICT teaching staff are AD delegates and seems to work well. Easy to add or remove staff on an ad-hoc basis if required as it is linked to a security group. They can't do anything except reset the password.

Thanks for this as been asked this week to do such a thing here but I have two questions: 1) How do I check what Office 365 licence we currently have? 2) Step 2 b doesn't appear for me. I only have Azure Rights Management Premium which isn't free. Any help will be much appreciated.

Has anyone successfully managed to get Outlook Anywhere configured so staff can access exchange email via Outlook when not using a domain computer? In my case I have a member of staff who uses remote desktop to connect to a computer that isn't on the domain but still requires Outlook access. I've set up MSSTD on their profile on the local computer and gone through the wizard to connect to an email account on the the remote computer but when it tries to connect to our server it asks for authentication and despite putting their email username and password it, it doesn't authenticate. Tried everything I can think of but just going round in circles. Outlook works fine on the local computer, and the remote desktop computer has an internet connection and can access our webmail address so not sure what problem is. Not really familiar with how this works to provide more info and seems simple enough to do just won't work for me. I've tried both basic and NTLM authentication for the proxy settings. Using Outlook 2013 on both if it matters. Any help will be much appreciated.

Had a look and all I could seem to do was re-image the device. Found a work around but it's long winded but it works. Just set an email address up on the device and then emailed the photos to myself so I could then forward onto the teacher. Was doing it in groups of 10 so 123 photos took awhile to do!

I don't sadly. My background is Android hence me struggling to get to grips with the iPad configuration here but I'll keep trying.

Will give that a go thanks. I noticed that they all share the same iCloud account, but each iPad has their own AppleID. Taken control of the mailbox for iPad I have in front of me be not sure how the two are linked as there's nothing in the inbox.

Got an issue with the iPads here in that staff can't retrieve any photos taken on the iPads. If you plug it into a computer, internal storage on the device is blank and as such there's no DCIM folder. If I connect it via iTunes I get a message about the iPad being supervised by another computer. The previous team all left over the summer before I started so not too familiar with how they configured the iPads but they left an iMac which seems to have files associated with the iPads on it but even that doesn't have permission to view the internal storage. Any ideas? I'm getting asked on a daily basis about getting photos of these iPads but my iOS knowledge is very limited and not knowing how they are currently managed has left me in total darkness. Sorry I can't provide much info on the problem or the set up here but you probably know more about the setup here more than I do!

Aye tell me about it! Just ended up doing licences manually in the end. I'll give the Group Policy way a go to sort my other issue out thanks.

ICT teaching staff use a bit of software called Robomind here and I've been asked to renew the licence on each computer that uses it. Problem is each computer uses its own unique licence and there's 80 computers I need to renew. I have downloaded the licence keys so they are separate files (licence-1.txt, licence-2.txt etc) but I need a way of copying the contents of each file one by one and replacing the contents of the licence.txt that is in the Program Files\Robomind\Lic folder on each computer. At the moment I'm doing it all manually by browsing to the file on the computer and copying and pasting the new key but it is taking me ages. Any suggestions on a script to do the work for me? For some reason the default language is in Bengali and I've found the config file that stores this and can change it to English however the file is only created when the software is run and is saved in C:\Users\Username\Documents\My RoboMind\Misc\ (entire My Robomind folder is created when software is run otherwise doesn't exist) . I've got an edited config file stored on a server that I want to deploy to all users who use the software but unless the user opens the software the folder isn't there. Is there a script command I can use that will copy the file to this folder so that when the folder is created the file isn't over written by the default settings file? Or if file exists to be over written by the one on the server? Something like: MD C:\Users\%USERNAME%\Documents\My RoboMind\Misc COPY %LOGONSERVER%\Folder\File C:\Users\%USERNAME%\Documents\My RoboMind\Misc Any help will be greatly appreciated.

I use a modified version of this (not my code) Set WSHShell = WScript.CreateObject("WScript.Shell") Set oFS = CreateObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject") strWarning = "Due to network maintenance, this computer must be restarted. You have 5 minutes to save your work from the start of this countdown. Sorry for any inconvenience caused. " strDelay = 300 'Delay given in seconds; change this value to your preference, or set it to 0 to give no delay at all 'Open a text file of computer names 'with one computer name per line Set oTS = oFS.OpenTextFile("C:\computers.txt") 'go through the text file Do Until oTS.AtEndOfStream 'get the next computer name 'store it in variable strCompname strCompname = oTS.ReadLine WshShell.Run "C:\Windows\System32\shutdown.exe -m \\" & strCompname & " -r -c " & Chr(34) & strWarning & Chr(34) & " -t " & strDelay 'Replace the "-r" switch with "-s" to make the computers shutdown instead Loop 'close the text file oTS.Close It seems to be a bit hit and miss though as some computers shutdown and some don't from my testing so far despite them all being same make and model.

How do you all manage your school iPADS and what do you use to do it? Situation here is previous IT team all left over the summer (including Network Manager two days after I accepted my Technician job) and I've been slowly getting to grips with how everything is set up here. The school has two iPAD trolleys, one for junior site and one for secondary site that, as well as run entire network by myself, I have to manage too. Each iPAD has previously been given it's own unique cloud ID. Some of them won't accept the password and some are currently using a shared iCloud account. Some are on iOS 9 and some are on iOS 8. It's a right nightmare. How are yours configured with regards to iCloud accounts? I just want them set up all the same to make my job easier. What I was thinking was either create an admin account for myself, and then a guest account for the students to use or remove all iCloud accounts and install a management system to manage them all so I can control what apps are installed, and when they and the iOS update themselves. The junior site is Reception to year 4 so the less passwords they have to put in the better. At the moment they are constantly prompted for passwords relating to the App Store. The school is getting a brand new iMAC suite as well as a bunch of new iPAD's to add to my work load so really need to get a system in place so I can manage them all. Any help will appreciated as I've never managed Apple devices over a network before.

Will check it out thanks. @jjohnsoncartell still no luck with your script. It ran and it's last run result is 0x80070103 and last log entry is that the task exceeded the time allocation. It is currently set to stop after 2 hours. Surely it shouldn't take more than 2 hours to run through a shutdown script?!

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