tmcd35

Honestly didn't realise you could buy EES without! I thought the basic package was Windows+Office+CALs for eash desktop.

What are you looking to do with SCCM? The basic licencing requirements are built in to the standard EES agreement as part of the desktop CAL's package. You only need these additional licences if you want to manage a server with SCCM.

Yeah, not going to expect dear old mum to remember those.

It's the same with businesses still running 16bit apps. I think it's one area Apple have right over Microsoft - forced obsolescence. It annoys me no end when I buy PC's to find BIOS instead of EFI, PS2 ports, Parallel ports, or worst of all DB-9 Serial ports. It's 2014 not 1994 for gods sake! I've just helped my mum buy a new laptop. Windows 8.1. I'm almost ashamed to admit I was quietly impressed by it. The Start button does make a huge, huge difference, even if it does go to the start screen instead of a menu. Still don't like having to move the mouse off screen to get to the settings. From what I've seen Win9 looks like a step in the right direction and should be the successor to Win7. It wouldn't surprise me if it's 64bit only. I think we've reached the point now, even bottom of the range Celerons are 64bit as standard.

Marketing rubbish. I don't think there's a defined standard on the "bitness" (yuck) of a CPU. It could be argued that the x86 has been 128bit since the release of the SSE instruction set in 1999. I think some of the more recent extensions (AVX) are 256bit and Intel are working on incorporating 512bit registers for the AVX-512 instructions...

This is a "I just install the drivers, I don't use the software" post... Is Smart Ink the thing that pops up when you pick up a pen to write on the board? If that's the case then I can understand why it's grabbing focus and disabling it is probably not the right answer. Are any pens missing from the tray? Is the USB cable okay? Any sensor problems with the pen tray? The pen tray usually has two RJ-11 connectors for some reason to connect it to the board, try switching which one is being used? If Smart Ink is something else, ignore my ramblings.

Your description sounds like the Word window doesn't have focus, is inactive. Are you sure there are no dialog boxes hidden from view that have taken focus away from word, or another background task is getting in the way. Anything look out of place is Task Manager?

Which is why decisions such as this should be taken after a careful cost:benefit analysis, rather than a technicians whim or flavour of the month technology reasons. Ultimately only @Gaz can say what is right in his particular circumstances. To my mind having a ratio of 3 drives redundant, 2 drives live, leads to questions like why 600Gb drives where used instead of 300Gb drives? But that's based on experience of supporting local primary schools not experience of @Gaz's particular setup.

I'd come from the angle of using 600Gb SAS disks that cost around £200-£250 each. Using RAID-1 for OS is a waste. That's 1.2Tb (600Gb formatted) just for an OS that'll take up less than 60Gb, at a cost of £500. It's the same argument when looking at RAID-10, RAID-6 or Hot Spares. As you pointed out yourself the small user base doesn't warrant the IOPS boost. IMHO, Both the number (and capacity) of drives and number of users don't warrant anything more than a straight RAID-5 array. RAID-5 and a hot spare might make some sense but I almost feel given the low number of drives and their relative high capacity/expense it's a waste of £250/600Gb having it sit there doing nothing. On the other hand it could be argued £250 is good value on a £2000 (guessing) server for a bit of piece of mind. Is five drives enough for a RAID-6 array? I thought you needed more because of the double redundancy.

So you'd prefer either: a) Only people rich enough to be able to dedicate the time required to pursue the gentlemanly art of public debate or b) a dictatorship Puts 300 years or so worth of emancipation in it's place (but then so does current voter apathy and low turn outs).

They will only lend based on what the property is worth. As in 95% of the properties current market value. That fact that @sippo has been pre-approved for and can afford a more expensive mortgage is immaterial. They are lending against the value of the property so there wouldn't be any extra at 95%LTV to spend on renovations. What he wants is a very risky 110% LTV but then needs to be pretty damn certain that any improvements is going to add more than 10% to the value of the property going in. Which is why the official advice is to get a unsecured personal loan then remortgage if necessary. If @sippo can afford the same property on a 75% LTV mortgage, then why not get a 95% LTV mortgage and use the deposit to do the work?

Given the size, price and number of drives - I wouldn't bother with either 2 drive redundancy (RAID10 or RAID6) or Hot Spares. It's just doesn't make economic sense. If you was talking a 10-12 disk array it's a little different. Personally, K.I.S.S. - 5 Drive, RAID-5. Budget to replace 1 drive each year. This will help lesson the chance of 2 drives failing at once and give you spares you can swap in if a drive does fail.

If there's space/support in the server, I'd buy a couple of cheap SATA drives to mirror for the OS and leave the 5 SAS drives in RAID-5 for the data.

What do you want the two arrays to do? Is it your only server? How many users? etc. Gut instinct, just on info given, RAID-1 mirror would be a waste of 600Gb.

Build a new VM and restore the system state to it from the Windows Server backup, assuming the physical is also down. If the physical is up then grab the FSMO roles onto the physical and build a fresh VM DC.

I think things may have changed a little with Server 2012, but even then I wouldn't trust it. You shouldn't restore a DC from a VM backup...

They certainly do, although you may have to buy the property first before you can apply for a second charge on the property. It usually comes down to two things, equity and affordability. It'd be tough getting a combined (mortgage and secured) loan to value of more than 90%, 95% is tops and rare these days (some backing crises or other scared lenders away from 100%, 110% mortgages). If you can comfortably afford the repayments with a 5% interest rate increase and there is enough equity in the property for the additional borrowing you are after then you shouldn't have any problems. Just bear in mind that it's an extremely expensive form of borrowing. Although the interest rate is very low, you're paying over a long period of time which makes for some scary repayment figures. You're usually better, if you can afford it, to get an unsecured loan at a higher interest rate over a shorter term.

AD is a funny beast. It's a majorly complex database and yes should be backed up daily using Window Backup. If anything goes wrong it's the only way you'll restore your user accounts, policies, etc without causing any problems. Certainly never use a restored VM as an authoritative DC. You right in terms of rebuilding one, but if the worst happened and both DC went...

It doesn't help when the people actively vote against change when it is offered. This parliament is bookended by a referendum on alternative voting and a referendum on Scottish independence. What a great footnote in history for democracy

Not sure I like the idea of compulsory voting. Seems like a poor solution to the issue of a disenfranchised electorate. Does employment or agriculture need to be decided on at a UK wide level? Not even sure if it needs to be at State level... On the other hand, defence could be handled at an EU level <*ducks for cover*> I'm sure there's aspects of all of these that need unified national thinking - but how much can/should the County/City councils be empowered to decide on these issues more locally?

As a general principle I believe in devolution of power to the lowest possible level. In practice, how that is to be achieved I don't know. I'm not sure new tears of government, regional assemblies, are necessarily needed. Individual, Household, Parish, Borough/District, City/County, National, UK, EU, UN. I see it more that the right decisions need making at the right level, not all at central government, and England needs something that mirrors the Welsh, NI, Scottish Parlaments/Assemblies. Even if it is restricting votes in the existing parliament to existing English MP's on purely England only matters.

A lot of GP is best picked up exploring the system. If at all possible your best setting your self up a small test rig. Perhaps using something like VirtualBox on a reasonable spec'd PC. Along side that the first of the MCSE exam books (http://www.amazon.co.uk/Installing-Configuring-Microsoft-Official-Academic/dp/1118511077/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1411129810&sr=1-1&keywords=microsoft+mcse) is well worth working you way through whether or not you actually go for the qualification.

Not quite, DC said English MP's should decide English matters. Unlikely, at least under a Tory government. William Hague this morning, who has been put in charge of the West Lothian question, was quick to steer the conversation away from an additional parliament with extra costs that might entail.

We had a similar issue here. Student profiles were collecting printers as they moved between rooms. We found a script on the web which we run at logoff to delete all printers that way only those in the GPO are installed next time the login.

@GREED, I think you underestimate the amount of data already being kept either on paper or otherwise outside of the MIS, and overestimate how long it would be down for. If the worst happened a school could survive on non MIS data and records for a few weeks, in which time large parts of the MIS would be rebuilt. Ultimately it's the depth and accuracy of data that will take time. I'm yet to meet a department head who doesn't in some way keep there own bespoke tracking spreadsheets in addition to the requirements of the MIS, or a teacher who doesn't keep their own markbook of some kind. We are heavily dependent on technology, but we are not totally dependent on it. If I lost my home Internet for a month I can still visit my bank or pick up the phone, tesco's will still take my money. All inconvenient but doable in the short term. I don't think many of us are underestimating the importance of the data, I'm certainly not, but the question is what would happen if it all suddenly went. The answer, the school will survive but the short to mid term will be a miserable experience for all involved.