simpsonj

I'm probably going to sound a bit negative, and I don't mean to be, but a few points surprise me. I should also point out that I'm looking at slates as being carried around by the students, and taken home, rather than being in a classroom with a laptop trolley, which colours my judgement somewhat! 1, The 3-4 hour battery life - The iPad can last at least 10 hours watching full video before the battery becomes an issue. For the RM slate to be viable, surely it needs to last a school day (ie 6 hours)? Maybe its Windows 7 being power hungry rather than the hardware itself? 2, Fans - Not sure I like the idea of movable parts in a slate, but that could just be me. There again, the iPad tends to overheat if left in sunlight, so if it prevents that problem... 3, Windows 7 as a touch screen OS - How viable is it as an alternative to a laptop? Could you invisage writing coursework on it, or using it to do basic graphic work, or spreadsheets? One of the main flaws with the iPad is that its close, but not quite comfortable enough, to be used in a serious "office" way. 4, And finally, could you envisage rolling these out onto a network? As I said, I don't want to be negative, I'm really looking for a viable slate that kids can use for everyday schooling, and if any company could pull that off, I think it could be RM. But thank you for writing up the review though! Really useful to me

Justified The Beast The Mentalist Judging from other peoples list, I must be one of a very few people who watch Five or FiveUSA!

The method I'm currently using, as I couldn't get Windows 7 to play ball copying files on a start up script, is to create a .msi that simply creates a folder called Backgrounds in C:\ and then pointed the GPO to use that background file path. If you're feeling particularly adventurous, you can also add a .jpg file called "backgroundDefault.jpg", and create a folder in %WINDIR%\system32\oobe called info, and another folder in that called backgrounds, so you end up with %WINDIR\system32\oobe\backgrounds\backgroundDefault.jpg. Once done, there is an option in Server 2008 R2 Group Policy under Computer Management - Administrative Templates - System/Logon - Always use custom background. Enable that, and the initial Windows 7 logon picture will change to the one you called backgroundDefault.jpg. I think there's registry hack as well, but i know not what that is. Then once the .msi is made, assign it via GP, and jobs done.

I think, and I might be very wrong on this, that its the KMS Server that counts, rather than the clients attached to it. But if anyone has a difinitive answer I'd be very interested too!

How many bytes are passing through your computers? If you double click on your LAN adapter, or wireless adapter, does it seem to be increasing at a rapid rate? I'm not sure whether you would have Resource Monitor on your PCs (It's windows 7 onwards I think), but that would certainly give you the information as to how busy your network is, and whether that's the cause. The only reason I doubt that its the switches is because, well, switches tend to constantly flash... But if I'm wrong, then its at least narrowed it down to a network fault, and I don't think I could help with that I'm afraid, I've not had much cause to reconfigure my switches. Is there anything obvious in Event viewer during the times that the keyboard issue occurs? Or any other piece of software that is universally installed across the school?

Never had an issue, the username and password box only reappears if I've got the username or password wrong...

Sounds very odd to me... Have you tried pulling the network cable when the problem arises and seeing if that cures the issue? You could also try using a knoppix or ubuntu boot disk and see if the problem replicates on the Linux OS. I always suspect Anti-Virus whenever computers experience slowdowns, so it might be worth checking when the anti-virus runs, often it updates, and how big the updates for the anti-virus are. A quick google search has indicated that it might be near to death batteries that cause the fault, so is the problem with Desktops as well? Mind you, if the problem is on new machines, you wouldn't expect that to be the case. However, it may be worth pulling the battery and running on AC to see if that fixes the problem. Another culprit is apparantly the ati hotkey poller service, so if that applies it would be worth checking the service list on an affected machine.

All I want is for them to release iOS 4.2 for the iPad. I doubt that would garner such excitement though.

Also, if you haven't seen the iGizmo App/e-magazine on the iPad, definately worth checking out!

Pulse - Very stylish RSS reader Wyse - Remote desktop app Adobe ideas - Free drawing app Popplet - Brilliant for brainstorms or note taking Flickr Calender - 500 top rated Flickr pictures per day BBC News VLC - Can play most movie types

Just a heads up that when I tried to use this, my DCHP server no longer gave out IP addresses. A strong possibility that I messed up somewhere along the line, but thought it worth a mention. Also worth mentioning is that this capablility is inbuilt into Windows Server 2008R2, so I might shift my DHCP server onto that...

It would depend on whether you can stream content to the iPad or not. At my school, the iPad can't stream from the interent, so it can't run YouTube, iPlayer, Google Earth, etc. However, if that could be sorted, then there might be some use for the iPad, apps like Inkling, PSE HD, Nations, History Maps, Nasa would provide different lessons, plus Google Earth on the iPad is a joy to use. But I would be lying if I said that an iPad would provide a better experience than a good netbook, as fafster says, if it solves a problem then great, otherwise you're just providing a solution to a problem that doesn't exist.

Very useful, been meaning to look into this problem before it gets out of hand!

The waiting for the realtek program to kick in is definately the issue. Is there anyway of uninstalling the realtek program, but keeping the driver? Or install the driver just using the .inf file instead of using the Realtek software?

The way I solved this issue is to give each student their own hidden share for their my docs, then in AD, change their home directory to be \\server\%USERNAME%$ (you will need to confirm each student one by one afterwards, a right pain...). Once this is done, make a GPO that redirects My Docs to be the Z: drive. So far, students not having their my documents mapped is a very small minority. I've also changed the mandatory profile so that the library doesn't have c:\users\public in anywhere. Make sure you keep c:\users\%username% as that is what windows 7 uses to redirect! Remove that and no one gets any documents. I'm going to try to store a local mandatory profile onto each laptop, and point all users logging onto the laptops to point to the local profile. Hopefully this should reduce log in times from 1-10 minutes to 10-20 seconds. Testing has gone well so far!

I tend to agree, you will rarely get constructive criticism, and I guarantee you that everyone will say that the computers are "slow", the internet is "slow" and they will complain about the things that are very minor to you, but massively important to them. If you are set on this path, then I would recommend asking about how they would improve the ICT, what they would like to see in the future, and generally look forward, rather than rate your current situation.

We've just turn our CC3 system into a Vanilla 2008R2 and Windows 7 network, and despite having many (many) issues, which I'll post up in another thread, I'm finally reasonable happy with the network, apart from this one issue. First some background, each student's My Documents is redirected to their home path, which is set to an individual hidden share on the network, so Joe Bloggs is redirected to \\server\bloggsj$, and this is mapped to the Z:\ drive as well. Students can't see the C: drive, and have access to an M: (Common) Y: (Homework) and Z: (Documents) drives. They all use a mandatory profile, and if there are using hard wired desktops, problems are kept to a minimum. However, we have one ICT room that is using an old switch, and a fair few laptop trolleys, and this is where the problems start. Problem #1 Students seem to be getting other students My Doc redirected to them. bloogsj get cobaink my Documents, but bloggsj mapped on the Z: drive. This is an obvious concern! Problem #2 Students create a file in an Office 2007 program, and try to save and, and get either "Z:\Doc1.docx is currently in use. Try again later." Or "Word cannot complete the save due to a file permission error." and then offers to create a Rescue.asd, which it does, on the Z: drive Students have complete access to the Z: drive, they can save the work onto a flash drive and copy it into their My Documents, they can create other types of file and save them just fine, it is purely that Office 2007, when connected on a slow network, will, occasionally, completely refuse to save onto a network drive. This is happening to 2-3 students every time laptops or the older ICT suite is used. Things I have tried: 1, I've made the Web Client service run at start up automatically 2, Turned off the Windows Search service, thusly disabling indexing of Network drives 3, Added My Documents to the Trusted Locations in Word and Excel 4, Turned off On Access scanning on the server (not too happy about that) None of the above has had an effect, as today we had the exact same issue. If anyone has any ideas on how to solve this problem, I would be really grateful!

On the original issue, did you wipe the registry setting under: HKLM - Software - Microsoft - Windows NT - CurrentVersion - ProfileList If you wipe those, and then get the student to login, it might fix the folder redirection issue... But we have the same issue here, and its certainly worse with laptops, especially if you're share is \\Server\2006\StudentMyDocs for example. One thing that I'm trying is changing all the student my Docs folders into hidden shares (There's a script that will do it automatically I found somewhere!) and then changing the student redirection to be their home directory, and then changing (on bulk) all the student AD properties so that their home directory points to \\server\%USERNAME%$ This has definately cured the laptop issue, but remains to be seen as to whether it will cure the random dropping of student my documents. Also, Winner, did you have that GPO setting enable or disabled, and did it cure, or cause the problem? I'm feeling a bit dense, so I might not have caught your meaning! As a final note, would anyone have a script that will check as soon as the student is logged on that the My Documents has redirected properly? The worst thing is that a student logs onto, does some work, but then can't save it because his My Documents hasn't redirected. I was thinking the script would try to write something to the Z: drive (or whatever drive their My Docs is stored on), and then scan to see if it can see the file, if it can see it, then do nothing, but if not, then raise an error message to the effect of "Your My Documents are not available, please reboot the machine and login again. If this is the second time you've seen this message, please inform your teacher/ICT support"

Do Staff have their own profile, but students a mandatory one? It might be that the staff have a Start menu already saved in their profile, and so Windows uses that Start menu rather than the redirect. Just a guess!

To answer my own question, this thread led to a potential solution http://www.edugeek.net/forums/scripts/49673-delete-profiles-script-windows-7-a.html Going to be a pretty slow network for awhile though...

Having migrated from RM CC3 to a Windows Server 2008 and Win7 environment, most things haev gone pretty well, but there are two issues I could really use some help with if anyone is feeling generous! Issue number 1 is that students are often getting a "The User Service has failed this logon" error message when attempting to log onto a computer. There's an easy fix, just jump into the registry and delete any entries under HKLM - Software - Microsoft - Windows NT - Current Version - Profile List that have 5-1-5-21 as a prefix. The trouble is I'm having to do this many times over. Either I need a log off script that will wipe the registry keys, or I need a way of fixing the problem at the source. Issue number 2 is that students log in faster than the mapped drives can be made, which means they often don't have their documents mapped in time. I've set a GPO so that the computer will always wait for the network, but I'm not 100% convinced this is working. Students are using mandatory profiles and 90% of the network is fine, but in a school, it really needs to be 99.9% So any help gratefully received!

We were toying with the idea of putting Rome: Total War on the network, before I decided to plan a major project instead...

That's interesting spw, keep us informed of any developments! The steaming and https issue has been covered in another thread, but I think the consensus was that the iPad uses different ports to stream video, and thusly won't work in a heavily firewalled enviornment (such as a school). I think as a reference machine (to replace textbooks, and access other digital content) the iPad is extremenly useful. As a tool for writing documents or presentations, I'm not convinced. If we roll out anything like the iPad we'll want students to handwrite their work, but use the iPad or similar as a reference tool, and an intereactive way of learning. Out of interest, how long did it take you to setup the 10 iPads?

Could always try these: RM.com Shop: Isis Newton Chair - Senior Had them put into our main ICT suites, and they seem to go down reasonable well. They're comfortable enough for an hours lesson, and not likely to fall apart at any point. We were advised by the H+S officer to install height adjustable chairs for our ICT suite, but whether that was written in stone or not I couldn't tell you.

But isn't all this furore over how many mistakes he's made in the list masking the bigger debate, which is about BSF itself and whether it was a good idea or not? Nothing I've heard in the media lately has advocated for or against it, or even really examined the issue in any great detail...