kevinmcaleer

Indeed! Why did you install it on a server? Not best practice or recommended in anyway! You can always edit the registry to remove all traces of it. HKLM -> Software -> Adobe, remove all entries... Backup server before doing anything on it though, if its at all important to your school! -Kev

This is rapidly becomeing podcast material, Russ! -Kev

Lol! I know exactly what you mean. Its like in the interview, they ask "Are you any good with computers?" if they answer yes, they dont get the job! -Kev

Lol! And you did this at work? Your a funny funny guy Db! -Kev

What device only supports Fat16? I would have thought it was likely that anything that didn't understand Fat32 was probably to old to understand USB! Plus the memory stick defacto standard is Fat32. Having said that, I would have thought you could do this kind of thing. I formated a floppy disk as NTFS once to see if you could. You could but the FAT was as big as the whole disk! I googled it but nothing relevant came up right away. -Kev

WOW Russ, do you actually sleep? you posted that first one this morning at 20past 6! -Kev

So folks, what would you like to hear in the next podcast? I'm open to all suggestions! -Kev

I used iTunes to convert the AIFF file into mp3. I don't really care if the audio is joint etc, it hardly matters. If it were in mono the theme would sound pants! I'll export the podcast in WAV format next time! lol -Kev EeeeeduuuuGeeeek!

I thought it sounded more like a star wars droid! -Kev

Micheal, I don't work for a school now! I got head hunted by Becta, after implementing FITS. I've got my own IT consultancy now Advice Factory ltd, which I have a contract with Becta through; all from being a good network manager. You practically have to be an alchemist, but instead of changing lead into gold, you change sh!t into a state of the art network. I remember starting as a technican, with an RM lan manager 2.0 network running Windows 3.0 and Some old Nimbus 186's... -Kev

I've written a column about laptops (and tablets) for pupils... worth a read before you sign any deals! Click on Kev's Network Menagerie on the left hand side to view. -Kev

have you tried contacting argos customer services to see if they can give you the manufacturers support number? its the kind of thing they are likely to have. -Kev

Who did you purchase the drive from? -Kev

Been there and downloaded the tshirt. Teachers are just people, headteachers, double-so. There is no reason for the head to 'ignore' you, your an employee, and therefore just as important as everyone else. Your position in the school is just as critical as other roles. If you have the attitude that noone will listen to you, they probably won't. If you are passionate about what you do, wanting the best for the school you'll probably be noticed more. I try to avoid the 'us against them' style mentality as it gets you nowhere in the long run. The headteacher is a busy guy, with lots on his plate; don't go to him with problems, go to him with a solution, that will actually work. Don't be afraid to ask for money if you need it, but its always better to have things planned in advance. But timing is essential; If you inform the head that you need to upgrade a room of pc's a week after the budget has been approved by governors, its unlikely he can do anything about it. find out when the budget is drafted and get your wish list in then. You need to work with the head to provide the best ICT system that you can. He'll recognise what your trying to do with that kind of approach. I can completely understand where you are coming from as I've been there. Get inspired!!! Get those old machines working the best you can, sparkling screens and all, take pride in what you do and the head will be more eager to listen to you. It works, honest! -Kev

There is this great tool they invented on the internet called GOOGLE! I googled Liteon and found: http://www.liteon.com/liteon/index.jsp Enjoy! -Kev

Also found this: http://www.becta.org.uk/etseminars/presentations/index.cfm?seminar_id=50 -Kev

I think the question of the importance of ICT in the curriculum or as a discreet subject should be raised with management. If it is important then sufficient funds should be allocated. Its not your fault that ICT is expensive; its just the way things are. My view is that if computers are more than 5 years old they are not providing the pupils with a 'relevant' ICT Experience. New software brings new features and new ways of working. Just because the pupils are young doesn't mean they can be 'fobbed off' with a poor ICT experience; it just servers to devalue the subject. I'd look to agree with management a rolling programme of PC refreshes, such that every 4 years every curriculum PC is replaced. If this is considered 'unfeesible' then only have the number of computers in the school that is feesible. Sustainablitiy is a very important issue with schools, tends to be overlooked. Becta has some great advice for teachers, leaders and technical staff with regard to sustainability: http://www.ictadvice.org.uk/index.php?section=ap&catcode=as_pur_02 Hope this helps. -Kev

Seen this problem before, I had it installed on a room full of workstations and they had that error message and eventually ground to a halt as one of the hundreds of associated processes went 100%. I found an alternative solution was to do away completely with the AIO drivers and to allow students to scan via the webpage on the printers IP address. You can password protect all the other settings but allow scanning. It also means that you can add links to the scanner webpage onto the desktop or start menu (or all in a folder etc). If they want to do something with the image after they have scanned it, they just treat it as a normal image (Office Picture manager or paintshop pro etc). OCR can be done from within Office 2003's Document Imaging software. Its only a small comprimise of functionality; They can no longer 'insert image from scanner', but the result is the same. -Kev

I'd advice caution when removing the printers icon from control panel with group policy (there is an option for it by the way guys, under User Config->Admin Templates->Control Panel->Hide Specific Control Panel Applets, hide or show specific applets) The reason I'd advice caution is because I hide the printers icon once and users could print anything as usual apart from within Internet Explorer, they got a strange message about default printers. word and other office applications were fine. When I enabled the printers icon in control panel everything worked fine. -Kev

Yes Exchange is/has a Directory object(s). anything you do on an exchange console affects the data in the active directory. Therefore any Exchange server on the domain will see these changes. Sounds like you've got a mess because 2 exchange servers think they are the only server on the network. You'll have to remove the old exchange server using the exchange setup application. Otherwise I think there is an article on technet.microsoft.com about forcably removing an old exchange server from a domain. It always pays to visit microsoft and read up all the information before attempting any kind of 'recovery', otherwise things just end up worse. I find using a change management process (from FITS) focuses my mind on what I need to do to get back to where I started in case I make a mistake or if it doesn't work. -Kev

I've seen that before, its usually caused by a number of things: * disjoined machine (take it off the domain and then add it back on**) * the time on the machine is invalid * the certificate for the machine is invalid (take it off the domain and add it back on**) **Rebooting between taking off and adding back on. -Kev

If you logon to the workstation with a user account that shows the fault, then click Start->Run-> Type "MMC", click File->Add/Remove Snap-In, Click Add... -> Select Resultant Set of Policy and then click Add, Click Next until the wizard is complete, Click finish, then close then Ok. Now if your using Windows XP SP2 you'll have to right click on the new item that is listed in the console and select Generate RSOP Data to create the data whereas Pre SP2 it will already be generated at this point Navigate to User Config > Admin Templates > Start Menu and Taskbar to see what policy settings have been applied. If the Force Class Start menu has been set by a policy (possibly a long since forgotten policy!) it will be shown here. If its not listed there isn't a policy applied for this. Its probably best to set a policy rather than accept the 'default' setting as this may be different for each workstation, at least in theory. -Kev

I've given Russ the finished, polished podcast. Hopefully it will be on the site sometime soon! I'll make sure it gets published on iTunes... -Kev

I'd be interested in being the editor, would fit well with the podcast, same kind of content. -Kev

I'd have to agree with Michael, NT4 isn't supported by Microsoft anymore, I mean its nearly 10 years old FFS! Schools 'Have' to keep up with the times when it comes to software otherwise you end up loosing out. See my column about patching, it applies to Antivirus software as much as it does to Criticial updates. Whenever I make this kind of comment I always get the 'we can't afford' type reply. The school I was at as a network manager had no more money than any other, yet we ran a network that was state of the art. In fact we were ready to install Sophos 5 (?) before the LEA had even considered upgrading their Enterprise Library. Important issues such as 'Sustainablitiy', 'Data Security' and 'Change Management' have been touched on here. For more information about these see: http://www.ictadvice.org.uk/index.php?section=ap&rid=57&catcode=as_pur_02 http://www.becta.org.uk/fits -Kev PS the column is Kev's Network Menagerie, Article: Patch Patch Patch.