jamesfed

Have tried PTC Pro Desktop in App-V myself - tried quite some time with it but just couldn't get it to work theres a little more about it here - http://www.edugeek.net/forums/windows/81448-prodesktop-8-updates.html

Good old Intel lagging behind AMD.....E-350 already has out of order ex

Too right about the Microsoft theatre - the Veeam demo I watched had empty seats the Microsoft one I was luckey to be able to hear the guy!

Are you deploying your software through group policy by chance?

In theory yes - I think the HP/Dell guys will be the ones we will end up seeing in schools though. With Intel Atom instead of i5 CPUs (like Surface Pro) they will be a lot more affordable.

A shortage of Metro Style Apps yes - but on a full on Surface/other x86 Windows 8 tablet EVERY program you use in your school (be it Google Earth/2D Design/Adobe CS6/RM Maths/ect) will all work as well as the Modern UI style apps. So anyone who says Windows 8 has a shortage of Apps......point them at the millions of Windows programs that are already out there. As I said the Surface RT is not suitable for education but neither is the iPad (IMO) Surface Pro......yep thats the ticket!

Just to put the record straight – the Surface RT is (mainly) a consumer device; it does not run full Windows 8 applications and should be compared against an Android/iPad Tablet. The key advantage it does have however is the fact it runs Windows. That means yes to (among many other things) Native network share connection Native Word/Excel/PowerPoint However the Surface RT is just as suitable in education as the Apple iPad – which basically means it is wholly unsuitable and the worst possible (I would use the word stupid if speaking to someone direct) idea you could come up with. The Surface Pro (and other Windows 8 tablets) however ARE ideal for education/business as they can above all else be domain joined and managed using the tools that we all know and love (you can even manage Modern UI/Metro style applications through GPO!).

I must be more clear in the future Was good fun! Fusion IO looks cooler every year, the System Centre 2012 presentation shows what you can truly do if you tap into every product in the best possible way (not that we need it in that manner at a secondary school!) and although there were no Microsoft Surfaces there I did get to play with a Toshiba tablet. Terrible to see so few hands up on the who is using App-V thingy and I can add the guys at Veeam backup on my list of sales people I have annoyed without getting kicked out of the show.

Only here today but line up looks good - not that I would ever be able to afford it going to pay fusionio a visit again (see if I can win another mug) visiting some of the people I know at Citrix and 10zig as well as seeing more about server 2012. Its a long shot but would be nice if there are some Surfaces are there as well.

I'll take it at that price - but I want a 3G option!!

GRra!!!!

I want your budget!

Dont have any but I have kicked one right in the middle once (under the direction of the sales guy I might say) and it was working fine after

Take a look at the cleaver touch displays - @Millgate should be able to help you out. VERY expensive compared to a IWB in the first case but they are great bits of kit.

Easy task that one most of what you will need to know (command line switches to only install Movie Maker) is here - Deploy Windows live movie maker / Live Essentials 2011 | Compit.se Make sure you get the offline installer of Windows Live Essentials and then import it as a application with a set of source files in MDT (right click applications and import). Simple stuff

I would say first step is to do a application audit of everything in your network - if you have access to it use Microsoft App-V to package every application (it makes it VERY easy to deploy applications to PCs as they are not installed in the traditional sense which makes for a very clean and tidy OS). Ask HoDs to provide you with any CDs/DVDs that they might be holding onto and also look at doing a licencing check. You will have some applications that just will not work on Windows 7 and the only thing you can do is find a modern alternative. As far as user data goes I would suggest a two prong approach - first find out why are staff saving data locally - it is because of poor training, because they don't trust 'the network' or because they are just plain stubborn. From this you should then be able to work out the best way to get everyone's data onto the network - produce training guides, put together a YouTube video (we find these highly effective for our staff) and do 1 -1 with people. Next the migration - make sure you test every possible thing you can and if possible deny staff to save anything locally (else when we all go to Windows 8/9/10 you will only be in the same situation). Make sure staff are aware when their PC will be moved over to Windows 7 and that after that point if they have not moved their data over by themselves or at least asked for IT assistance it will be gone for good. Above all - make sure people are aware of what is going on, emails, notices on your intranet, posters and 1-1 training are the best methods to make any IT project a success.

We've got Windows Thin PC (kinda like Windows Embedded) on some of our older PCs that connect to a RDS farm - have used GPOs to restrict doing anything to the PC at all with a shortcut to Remote Desktop Plus (Remote Desktop Plus - Automatic login to Remote Desktop from the command line | Donkz) which acts as a locked down version of the RDP connection client. When we most recently played with Citrix XenDesktop Thin Kiosk did seem to be the best option as well - nice and simple .net stuff

If its for a school then just use the free SSL Certs from JANet - https://www.ja.net/products-services/janet-connect/janet-certificate-service Applies to all kinds of schools be they a uni or secondary.

UK Web Hosting - Web hosting Services - UK Reseller Hosting - My fav host, FANTASTIC service - email based only but they get back to you in just minutes and there’s no ‘have you tried turning it off and on again’ mentality. The cpanel control panel they have is great as well as the other little features like twice daily online backups.

Lets remember who is the customer here.... If they don't provide them then its time to either switch supplier or get the to provide them. Personaly I hate the idea of 'preferred' suppliers - yes we have a single company I will call if I need 10 keyboards pretty quick but anything over £500 will go to at least 2 companies.

Sorry just to be in the clear I mean constant up time

Just a little fun Who has the longest running server/hardware appliance. By running I mean hours turned on not the old Windows 95 PC that's been sitting back doing nothing for a while. Bets are the *nix guys out there will win but time will tell! Just to start us off QNAP TS-212 iSCSI NAS box - 246 days 19hrs 27mins

Pure SIP Trunking here over our fibre line with a backup ADSL - its the best way to go Make sure your backup ADSL supports fail over of the external IP that you use to talk to the SIP trunk as well though.

BECTA no longer exists

You can use Certificate based autentication to do this I belive thats included as part of Network Protection System in Server 2008+.