Netman

You should be able to get away with it... If it BSOD's on you on first boot, then boot from the WinXP CD, when it asks if you want to install or repair (recovery console), choose install. F8 for the licence agrrement and it should find your windows installation. This is where you are offered another 'repair' option - this is the one you want.. select this and let it go through Windows setup - part of which will be a full pnp enumeration which should do the trick... Have used this many times to copy an XP install to different hardware and it's always worked so far. If you don't even get as far as BSOD (eg. it hangs at BIOS) then you need to enter the recovery console and run fixboot and/or fixmbr before following the instructions above... I have also found that sysprep does the trick nearly all the time too... just add this: [sysprep] BuildMassStorageSection = Yes [sysprepMassStorage] to the sysprep.inf file and make sure you tick the mini-setup option when you run sysprep...

Dell axim also - x30 comes with bluetooth and wifi and Navtec GPS. I like it alot, which surprised me as I'd always been an IPaq blokey before.

Scratch my earlier thought - all you do is run it as a scheduled task, telling it to run at startup and use the switch /all with the executable. Specify a user account to run it under (I used local administrator to test which works fine). Then under bhinfo configuration click desktops and set logon desktop for console clients and logon desktop for terminal servs (if needed) to "update this wallpaper" and bobs yer uncle.... it's all in the BHInfo help file. Thanks Ric_ good tool with plenty of useful options too...

From memory there is a resource kit tool called srvany.exe which allows you to run applications as a windows service. Presumably this is what you need to do to get it run at boot without anyone logging in... Will try and have a play later if I get time...

:mrgreen: Rotfl Anyone gonna admit to ever owning one??

Hi all, Have been looking at whiteboards for our junior school and was expecting to go for Smart. However, have seen the Polyvision jobs which seem to be very well priced and are now coming with RM (spits) EasyTeach software bundled. Anyone used these boards and if so are they any good... Same question for the software really.... Ta...

@ dos_box Spooky is right - almost exactly the same story here! But I was RAF for 13 years, worked in computers before joining up and returned on leaving via NT MCSE resettlement course - Yep you guessed it - just over 5 years ago...) Parallel universe theories anyone?!! For anyone without quals but with experience, I would recommend MCP quals which you can gain one by one and stack up towards an MCSA or MCSE (I agree with dos_box that it's a pain when they expire, but MS are settling down to a better product life and you can bet XP/2003 combo will be around for a fair while yet). Even if you have no training budget get the librarian to buy the books (or borrow them from your local library) and just get the School to pay for the exams... if you have experience then you shouldn't need to do a course to gain these sort of certs. When shopping for staff, I'd always look for experience first then certs MCP, CCNA, A+ etc..

38. And everyone knows cows can't fix computers..... but we know they can - don't we?

Agree totally about Acer - not bad machines when working but the warranty side is poor... personally always stick with IBM Thinkpad or Toshiba where possible - some very good deals around at the moment on both these...

@ninjabeaver... you have my sympathy mate. I've been there too in a previous job. All I can say is keep looking around as there is another world - it's called Independant Schools! My budget this year is over 6 figures and although I had to fight to get it and it's gonna mean a bloody load of work it does prove that some Schools can be persuaded of the importance of IT. Not to be condescending, but if you need any spare kit and fancy a roadtrip down here to collect I'm sure I can find some bits that might well still be useful... just PM me. Cheers, Al.

Xerox 8400n - Ameiva were recently giving them away (almost) as I presume they're going end of life. Running costs are amonst the lowest for colour laser and no messy toner either. There were working out at £250 all inc. so I jumped in. Have used Epson C900n for the last 2 years but wouldn't go there again personally - unreliable and very very expensive to run... PC Pro recently did an in depth test with the quoted running costs varying from about £1500 a year to over £5000. A Kyocera Mita and Xerox 8400 were the cheapest to run although not to buy.... so I'd advise looking at the TCO rather than just the purchase price....

Excellent resource for ISA is http://www.isaserver.org - takes a bit of navigating due to amount of info but has plenty of good articles on upgrading from 2000 to 2004. Can't help personally as it's my next project too. I'd highly recommend using w2k3 rather than w2k server though....

Have had a quick look and as Russdev rightly says it's obviously aimed at standalones. However, the disk protection tool could be useful to those who have workstations frequently messed up by meddling and could be a free (?) alternative to the likes of Deep Freeze. It does have a registration process whereby you have to have a .Net passport and answer some questions before you are given a code to install.

Intel all the way (I like to be different ) Celery in low end desktops - The newer Celeron D are actually pretty good... P4 in high end desktops... Xeon in the servers always...

Thanks Russdev - good spot. I'll give it try out and report back when I can... Oh, and you might want to edit your post a little, there's a full stop included in the url... Cheers,

If it helps, i've been using Securus since the beginning (helped beta test the first version). It was developed partly in response to Policy Central Pro's (Cyber Sentinel's) numerous problems and IMHO is an absolutely must have product in a School (for obvious reasons). The chaps at SecuritySoft are some of the best I've dealt with for support and general friendliness - in fact, I'll ask the Sales director if he minds my posting his contact details here as I'd highly recommend dealing with them direct rather than a reseller (I'm assuming they are still selling direct). The sheer joy of knowing everytime someone says f**k on your network!!! Oh, and I'm not in the employ (paid or otherwise) of SecuritySoft... :!:

I'm from a very rich school!! But also work with a very poor one (voluntarily). Thankfully your replies have been really helpful and it seems it's just not as good as I've heard, in which case I'll carry on using GP and probably stick with Altiris for RC/Management of remote clients. Or go back to NSM (Have used at a previous job). Your replies have been much appreciated..... Thanks

Thanks for the feedback.... I appreciate the points about AD GP as that's what I use now (2003/XPSP2), however, it was also the remote control and general network management features such as instantly seeing who's logged on which machine, management reporting etc. We currently use Altiris for this but as it's coming up to contract renewal I'm looking at alternatives. I'm thinking along the lines of saving time and making life easier by having a complete management tool rather than using different packages -I also have two technicians (I know I'm lucky!!) who don't have the skills to use group policy so it would be a bonus to be able to give them something to use so I can concentrate on building an extranet and VLE next year....! any other tools that you could suggest...? Must say I'm new here and what a really great idea this forum is.... mucho kudos (not the software!) to the originators... Once again, thanks for taking the time to reply....

Thanks for the info - was considering trying one out - although when I requested a trial unit from RM they said they don't do that but I could return it under warranty if I didn't like it.... yeah right!! They really must be used to selling to teachers if they think they'd get away with that. :mrgreen: ...am thinking that wireless projector & tablet PC would be a better classroom solution than IWB... will certainly avoid these now though I think.....

Hi all, Am thinking of buying Ranger as have heard nothing but praise for it - anyone use it could let me have some feedback, I'd appreciate it. Looking at it as a time saving exercise more than anything as I'm already happily leveraging GP to lock things down but could do with an all-in-one tool. Haven't had the time to evaluate yet though..... Ta...

@Kingswood... Nah, they bring them to me in September and ask for them to be installed by.... September To stay on topic - MSI via GP. Also use Ghost(Initial deploy) and Altiris.

.... Or if 5k is a little rich for your School, I can highly recommend the NAS servers from Iomega. We use a 200d (Cost about 1k) with WSS 2003. Lovely bit of kit - particularly the Volume Shadowing which has saved us tons of work in the last 6 months....