EJWill

We run RemoteApps on Server 2012 and published Pulsar.exe directly, rather than using SIMSLoad.exe as @tmcd35 suggests. Nothing else needed to be changed, SOLUS 3 updates it without issue as well.

You may have been caught up in the .NET 4.5.1 issues. If you've fully update the windows 7 PC this could be the case. http://www.edugeek.net/forums/mis-systems/129997-microsoft-net-4-5-1-update-borking-sims-net-anyone-else.html#post1110381 I posted this in another thread, with regards to removing 4.5.1 and reinstalling 4.5. This may not be the issue, but it's something you can try

It's done automatically after they accept the print, we use advanced charging set on the printer tab, and set colour and mono to different values.

/* # Custom Papercut Script by William 'EJWill' Baldwin # Created for Manshead Upper School, Dunstable Rd, Caddington */ function printJobHook(inputs, actions) { /* ###################################################################### Defining Attributes and Variables ###################################################################### */ // Variables to easily disable rules if need too. // Set a variable to false if you need to disable it. // Some will be work in progress and not presently used. var DISCOURAGE_SIMPLEX_COLOUR_PRINTING = true; var DISCOURAGE_COLOUR_PRINTING = true; var DISCOURAGE_SIMPLEX_GREYSCALE_PRINTING = true; //Defined static variables. var MAX_COLOUR_PAGES = 0; //Defines maximum number of colour pages before being discouraged. //var MAX_PAGES = 30; //Defines maximum number of pages before being discouraged. //var MAX_COPIES = 2; //Defines maximum number of copies allowed before being discouraged. //Define variables for string use later. Such as showing a thank you message or recording //data in the print logs. var showThankYou = false; var showMessages = false; //var writeToLog = false; //If we're unable to get all the details of the job, then exit. if (!inputs.job.isAnalysisComplete) { return; } //Start of the pop up form. var strForm = "" + "" + "" + "Print Policy Alert http://%PC_SERVER%/images/icons/24x24/warning.png" + "" + "" + "Please help us save toner and paper!" + "" + "" + "Did you know that printing in colour and single paged (Simplex) costs much more than printing Black & White and double paged (Duplex). Help us reduce the environmental impact of printing." + "" + "Your job will produce " + inputs.utils.formatNumber(inputs.job.environmentGramsCO2, 0) + " grams of CO2? This is equivalent to leaving a 60W bulb on for " + inputs.utils.formatNumber(inputs.job.environmentBulbHours, 1) + " hours!" + "" + "What does that mean?" + "" + "Duplex - Printing on both sides of a page." + "Simplex - Printing on only one side of a page." + "" + "" + "Would you like to convert your job to a more environmentally friendly setting?" + "" + ""; /* ###################################################################### Capturing and Modifying Print Jobs ###################################################################### */ /* ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ If Job is more than the max colour pages before being discouraged and is not in duplex. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ */ if (DISCOURAGE_SIMPLEX_COLOUR_PRINTING && inputs.job.totalColorPages > MAX_COLOUR_PAGES && !inputs.job.isDuplex){ var strFormActions = strForm + "" + "Actions" + "" + "" + "" + "Convert to Greyscale" + "I understand, but this needs to be in colour" + "" + "" + "" + "" + "Convert to Duplex" + "I understand, but this needs to be single paged" + "" + "" + "" + "" + "" + ""; response = actions.client.promptForForm(strFormActions, { 'dialogTitle': 'Print Information', 'dialogDesc': inputs.job.documentName, 'hideJobDetails': true, 'fastResponse': true } ); if (response["action"] == "convert" && response["action2"] == "convert"){ // Convert to Greyscale and Duplex actions.job.convertToGrayscale(); actions.job.convertToDuplex(); } else if (response["action"] == "dont-convert" && response["action2"] == "convert"){ // Convert to Duplex actions.job.convertToDuplex(); if (showMessages){ actions.client.sendMessage("Please consider using Greyscale for your next job."); } } else if (response["action"] == "convert" && response["action2"] == "dont-convert"){ // Convert to Greyscale actions.job.convertToGrayscale(); if (showMessages){ actions.client.sendMessage("Please consider using Duplex for your next job."); } } else if (response["action"] == "dont-convert" && response["action2"] == "dont-convert"){ // Do not Convert if (showMessages){ actions.client.sendMessage("Please consider using Greyscale and Duplex for your next job."); } } else if (response == "CANCEL" || response == "TIMEOUT") { // Timeout or Cancel actions.job.cancel(); return; } } /* ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ If job is duplex but also colour. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ */ if (DISCOURAGE_COLOUR_PRINTING && inputs.job.totalColorPages > MAX_COLOUR_PAGES && inputs.job.isDuplex){ var strFormActions = strForm + "" + "Actions" + "" + "" + "" + "Convert to Greyscale" + "I understand, but this needs to be in colour" + "" + "" + "" + "" + "" + " "; response = actions.client.promptForForm(strFormActions, { 'dialogTitle': 'Print Information', 'dialogDesc': inputs.job.documentName, 'hideJobDetails': true, 'fastResponse': true } ); if (response["action"] == "convert") { // Convert to Duplex actions.job.convertToGrayscale(); } else if (response["action"] == "dont-convert"){ // Do not convert if (showMessages){ actions.client.sendMessage("Please consider using Greyscale for your next job."); } } else if (response == "CANCEL" || response == "TIMEOUT") { // Timeout or Cancel actions.job.cancel(); return; } } /* ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ If job is Greyscale but also simplex. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ */ if (DISCOURAGE_SIMPLEX_GREYSCALE_PRINTING && inputs.job.totalGrayscalePages > 1 && !inputs.job.isDuplex){ var strFormActions = strForm + "" + "Actions" + "" + "" + "" + "Convert to Duplex" + "I understand, but this needs to be single paged" + "" + "" + "" + " " + "" + " "; response = actions.client.promptForForm(strFormActions, { 'dialogTitle': 'Print Information', 'dialogDesc': inputs.job.documentName, 'hideJobDetails': true, 'fastResponse': true } ); if (response["action"] == "convert") { // Convert to Duplex actions.job.convertToDuplex(); } else if (response["action"] == "dont-convert"){ // Do not convert if (showMessages){ actions.client.sendMessage("Please consider using Duplex for your next job."); } } else if (response == "CANCEL" || response == "TIMEOUT") { // Timeout or Cancel actions.job.cancel(); return; } } //If showThankYou is true, display message. if (showThankYou) { actions.client.sendMessage("Thank you for considering the environment!"); } } function matchesAny(str, matchStrs, actions) { if (str == null || matchStrs == null) { return false; } for (var i in matchStrs) { if (str.match(matchStrs[i])) { return true; } } }

I designed an all encompassing one for our school, which detects if it's a colour print job and if it's more than 1 page so it then asks to make the job mono and duplex. if you're interested?

You're welcome

Have you got 'Validate page counts after printing (hardware check)' set on the printer? We had issues with incorrect values being printed due to cancellations and errors until we started using hardware validation.

Any reason you're opening up the function twice? function printJobHook(inputs, actions) {

We had this problem here, and it turned out that the Audio drivers were corrupt on the computers that were erroring. We updated the drivers and all went swimmingly.

It gets even stranger when you know some computers running 4.5.1 still allow SIMS to run. The error logs indicate it a .NET Framework error too on those that fail. We have around 500 computers and we seem to have this error on 8 of them. Maybe a hardware combination, or something more obscene, like a Microsoft issue. Reinstalling SIMS does not seem to resolve the issue for the ones erroring.

Yep, Apparently it's a known a problem when we rang Captia up. They're looking at solutions with no time frame. Right now the only way we've fixed it, is to run the .NET Framework clean up tool and remove 4.5.1 and then reinstalling 4.5. If you get your windows updates via WSUS or automatically, you will need to disable it trying to update itself again. We share your frustrations. Edit: Here is the link to the cleanup tool. .NET Framework Cleanup Tool User's Guide - Aaron Stebner's WebLog - Site Home - MSDN Blogs I hope this helps.

This seems absolutely brilliant for a school learning environment. With an option for an in-house intranet server in the works, and the talk of Education licensing (Education License). We'll be seriously looking into this for our school.

Just tried giving 2 FQDN's and 2 direct IP's. Our ISA logs tell us that a connection is being initiated, but no response from any of the servers. Doesn't look like a DNS problem. We go through the E2BN filters if that makes a difference, does anyone else use E2BN and able to connect to an external NTP?

Just a quick update. It would appear that the settings were being modified correctly, and was attempting to sync with the chosen peer. We noticed this when going through our ISA logs. However, even though a connection is made and data is sent too the NTP (probably a request), we get no response back. We have tried Windows, BBC and Pool NTP's with the same results each time. We're not blocking any responses from these servers. They all just seem reluctant to service our request.

Good morrow to you two fine gentlemen, Unfortunatly yes, I had already restarted the VM's. I also tried permenantly disabling the Hyper-V Time Sync Service on the server to no avail. Also came across the guide you mentioned in my travels, and followed it closely, among many others that were all very similar. Still no go. Edit: It does appear that I have managed to at least get the peers to properly show up with w32tm /query /peers now, but the status still shows the time source and Local CMOS. At least one of the hurdles is out of the way. It ended up being group policy overiding the peers list. Just got to find out how to modify the source to NTP (or why it is ignoring the w32tm config).

Hi Folks, Spent far too long getting no where, tralling through sites to find an answer, but I think i've come to my wits end. We're trying to get our PDC to sync time with an external NTP server. The PDC is a VM hosted on a server running Hyper-V. By default Hyper-V will try to sync all guests with the hosts time. This has been disabled to allow us to setup the external NTP connection. This is what I used to configure our PDC: net stop w32time w32tm /config /update /manualpeerlist:"pool.ntp.org time.windows.com",0x1 /syncfromflags:manual /reliable:yes net start w32time This was deemed to be the correct way in configuring Windows Time Sync to use an external NTP server. However, when querying the peers used using w32tm /query /peers it appears to have ignored my configuration entirely and stuck with the old time.windows.com and worse still if I then try w32tm /query /status it says it's still trying to sync with the LOCAL CMOS! In the registry all entires are correct, it's taken my changes from earlier, but the Windows Time Service is running some kind of stubborn default that I can't work out why. Any help on the matter would be greatly appreciated.

Group Policy change Windows Explorer default opening location on Pinned/Start Menu (From Libraries to My Computer) Currently the only way to change the default opening location is to manaully modify each user's shortcuts to point to my computer et al. If a new user logged on, the shortcuts for them would still default to Libraries. The way i've worked around this is to store a copy of a modified Windows Explorer shortcut (%SystemRoot%\explorer.exe ::{20D04FE0-3AEA-1069-A2D8-08002B30309D}, which opens up my computer) in the netlogon location of my domain share. Then I create a batch file called explorer-shortcut.bat (can be anything ofcourse). @echo off xcopy "\\school.local\NETLOGON\system\Windows Explorer.lnk" "C:\users\default\appdata\roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Accessories" /y (replace school.local with your domain name) Next I set up a group policy and set the script to run as the computer is starting up, by going too Computer Configuration -> Policies (If you're using server 2008) -> Windows Settings -> Scripts -> Startup. Then add the batch file to the startup list. What this does is copy the modified shortcut to the deault user on the Windows 7 pc, which is then used a basis for all new users that log on. Which also creates a copy in the Pinned Start Bar.

Hi Stephen, The control panel icon we found to be caused by our group policy which forced the classic start menu. When we disabled this to adopt the standard default start menu, it was gone again. There's no way I have found to actually disable libraries, only done my best to hide them. Near the Bottom of this post is how to hide the libraries and other assorted options from Windows Explorer http://www.edugeek.net/forums/windows-7/47835-windows-7-gotchas-tips-fyi.html#post438279 This was the only way I found to change the default windows explorer starting location for new users. http://www.edugeek.net/forums/windows-7/53626-solution-group-policy-change-windows-explorer-opening-location-pinned-start-menu.html#post490317 I hope some of these help.

You can still open up the GPO and read the SRP list from within that. Sorry you already mentioned you could do that, misread your first post

Think I might have finally cracked a solution for the default opening location of Windows Explorer shortcut purely by chance. Currently the only way to change the default opening location is to manaully modify each user's shortcuts to point to my computer et al. If a new user logged on, the shortcuts for them would still default to Libraries. The way i've worked around this is to store a copy of a modified Windows Explorer shortcut (%SystemRoot%\explorer.exe ::{20D04FE0-3AEA-1069-A2D8-08002B30309D}, which opens up my computer) in the netlogon location of my domain share. Then I create a batch file called explorer-shortcut.bat (can be anything ofcourse). @echo off xcopy "\\school.local\NETLOGON\system\Windows Explorer.lnk" "C:\users\default\appdata\roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Accessories" /y (replace shool.local with your domain name) Next I set up a group policy and set the script to run as the computer is starting up, by going too Computer Configuration -> Policies (If you're using server 2008) -> Windows Settings -> Scripts -> Startup. Then add the batch file to the startup list. What this does is copy the modified shortcut to the deault user on the Windows 7 pc, which is then used a basis for all new users that log on. Which also creates a copy in the Pinned Start Bar. Huzzah \o/

Luckily it just seems to be a cosmetic error, as all the settings are still shown under 'Extra Registry Settings'.

Very much an ask and you shall recieve double take there It's just a shame that they haven't fixed it for standard 2008 Server.

I'm currently experimenting with merging ADMX files between 2008 R1 and Windows 7, however I need a little help from the 2008R2 bods. Can someone post a picture of what the 'Items displayed in Places Bar' GPO is supposed to look like?

Remote Assisstance lacks the ability to monitor entire classrooms. Most cases of using VNC for us is to make sure nothing unscrupulous is being done on them (Teacher classroom discipline - that's never done). I'd love to find an alternative to VNC as performance is just shocking, but it looks like UltraVNC might be the only option currently.

The ADM file needs to go on your Domain Controller, then when you're within a GPO you should be able to import it from there. This works on 2003, and I don't see why it won't work when using XP and Group Policy Management to modify your Group Policy.