ajbritton

Have to say that I worry about XP mode though. How many software houses will use this as an excuse not to update their software to work properley on Vista/7? I get the impression that Microsoft engineers consider XP mode as a last ditch method to run legacy apps (with the app compat toolkit to be used first), but I think that the money savings from not having to spend time testing/redeveloping applications to work properly will be just too tempting. Arguably, most end users won't care how it works, as long as it does. End result is that you have two OS's per PC to support. Security in 7 might be better that XP but if you than have to run XP to support some apps as well, then how good is the insulation between the VM and the host and hardware? What new vulnerabilities can we expect. Until now, I doubt if much malware is seeking to exploit any VM weaknesses but if usage becomes more widespread then you can bet that will change. It really bugs me that software developers should have 'known' how to do it right for the best part of a decade and yet they still do stupid things like writing to HKLM or %ProgramFiles%.

Running the RC on an old Dell Latitude D600 (Pentium M 1.3GHz with 512MB RAM). I only really use this machine for Internet and Chrome is my browser of choice, but I frequently have many instances open. It's also running MS Security Essentials and I've got Open Office 3 as well. Sure it's no speed demon, but I don't recall a single crash and it's only become unresponsive when seriously overloaded. Love it. edit: I should point out that I obviously don't get any fancy Aero features but never having used Vista I'm not missing anything.

I cannot test on my Win 7 box as I don't have Office installed, but it works fine on my XP laptop. Odd thing is, I didn't really expect it to! The behaviour you are seeing is what I would expect, I just tried it on a whim and it seemed to work! Do you need something that will work on 7 ?

You could try this... dim objWord set objWord = CreateObject("Word.Application") objWord.Visible = True This should launch the 'default' version of Word, assuming it is installed. To launch a specific version, you can specify "Word.Application.12" for Word 2007 or "Word.Application.11" for Word 2003 etc.

You may find the following functions of use; These simply work by using the ADSystemInfo object which can return the AD path of the user or computer account in the form CN=user,OU=students,OU=users,DC=domain,DC=root. It's then a simple InStr to see if whatever is sent as a parameter appears somewhere in the string. This does mean that you have to be a bit careful with the parameter as asking for a match with 'Students' would return a positive if the OU 'NonStudents' was somewhere in the path!! Easiest to use a parameter in the form 'OU=full OU name,' ' Check if user is member of an Organisational Unit Function UserInOU(sOU) ' Returns true if the user is a member of the specified OU (or descendant) Dim oAdSys, sUserDN Set oAdSys = CreateObject("ADSystemInfo") sUserDN = UCase(oAdSys.UserName) UserInOU = (InStr(1, sUserDN, UCase(sOU)) > 0) End function ' Check if Computer is a member of an Organisational Unit Function ComputerInOU(sOU) ' Returns true if the computer is a member of the specified OU (or descendant) Dim oAdSys, sComputerDN Set oAdSys = CreateObject("ADSystemInfo") sComputerDN = UCase(oAdSys.ComputerName) ComputerInOU = (InStr(1, sComputerDN, UCase(sOU)) > 0) End Function

I agree with Mattx that Koda is a good way to get started but all you need to know is in the excellent AutoIt Help File. Look under GUI Reference, GUI Concepts and you will see that you need to use the GUISetState(@SW_SHOW) command to display the GUI. AutoIt really is a top tool. edit: Forgot to mention that the key concepts you need to get your head around are the differences between MessageLoop mode and OnEvent mode. IIRC, MessageLoop mode is OK for simple GUIs but can get a bit cumbersome for more complex designs. OnEvent on the other hand is overkill for simple work but a better choice for detailed work.

I've no experience of using c# or creating web services but I would not have expected a web service to use the 'current user credentials' unless you mean the credentials of the user issuing the request(?). If the service is running behind a web server (IIS) then I would expect it to default to use the anonymous logon account or the .NET account.... Just a thought.

Lack of responses may be down to experience that offline file sync can be problematic. If I wanted to force sync of certain folders (and assuming of course that these contain no sensitive information which should not be stored on a laptop), then I would consider using a startup script that used ROBOCOPY to do the sync. This could be configured to write results to a log so you could monitor progress.

I really HATE it when suppliers/support staff ask you to set up Full Control when they obviously don't even understand what it means or implies. I have never seen any justification for Full Control for any application. Sorry. It's a pet peeve !!

If you are using Windows batch commands then it will be something like; MD "\\servername\sharename\folder\%username%" This should work as long as the username does not contain any characters that are invalid in folder names. Without any error checking, the script will look something like; MD "\\servername\sharename\folder\%username%" COPY "Path to log file" "\\servername\sharename\folder\%username%" DEL "Path to log file"

I think the key to your problem here is the word 'share'. Outlook Express was not designed to share anything between multiple running instances of the application. It expects to have sole access to the files and will not share them with another instance of the application running on another PC. I've no idea how it managed to work at all unless the PCs always started in a particular order and the users of the PC that started up last never opened OE.

Relocating the PST will not enable users to save configuration changes to Outlook. These settings are mostly saved in the user portion of registry or under Application Data. The default location for PST files is under the Local Settings\Application Data folder which cannot (and should not) be redirected. It is certainly possible to store PST files on a network drive/share although this is not supported according to Microsoft (Personal folder files are unsupported over a LAN or over a WAN link). There is some information here (How to manage .pst files in Outlook 2007, in Outlook 2003, and in Outlook 2002) about transferring settings between PCs that may be of use. The Flex Profile kit is designed specifically to address this problem so that mandatory profiles can be deployed but end users can still be given a limited and controlled level of customisation ability.

If you really do want to use mandatory profiles to enforce a 'baseline' profile but allow users to tweak certain settings, then this can be achieved using 'Flex Profiles' (Immidio | Flex Profiles). The Express Edition is free. I've looked at them from time to time but never had a good occasion to use them.

ha ha! Yes, that's exactly what it is! But with better animation effects! I've actually removed this from the two systems I was using it on. The version I had started complaining that it needed upgrading and began running in 'reduced functionality' mode - would not let me add icons to a fence. I downloaded and installed the upgrade OK but still could not add icons to fences. I also noticed another icon in the tray called 'Impulse' which I had not asked for. I uninstalled Fences but Impulse remained. Looks like a slash/burn mission in the registry will be required.

Can you tell us what you had to change them to?

I wouldn't set one up with a roaming profile either BTW. I take your point however. Your original post referred to 'writing back to the profile' which seemed to me not relevant in this case as mandatory profiles are in use and the permissions to these would surely be limited to list/read.

He's using mandatory profiles that aren't supposed to be written back to the server. Read/List is all that is required.

How will you be deploying? Win 7 deployment tools? WDS? Ghost/imaging?

I will be interested to see what people say about this. I hear conflicting opinions about the security of RDP. According to Microsoft, of course, it is secure but I've also heard that it is susceptible to a so-called man-in-the-middle attack. One way to increase the security would be to tunnel in over SSH. You would need to run SSH software on the server (e.g. openSSH) and something simple like PuTTy from wherever you need to connect. You use PuTTy to establish an SSL session to the server then tunnel RDP through it. I'm sure someone else can explain the intricacies better than I. http://www.softwaresecretweapons.com/jspwiki/windowsremotedesktopoverssh

A couple of possibilities suggest themselves; 1 - The LA wants some good publicity about it's proactive approach to the latest tech. 2 - LA has some kind of relationship with MS whereby they get preferable licensing in return for showcasing MS products. 3 - The LA has a roadmap to get all schools off XP and wants to trial 7 to see if it's an option before committing to Vista. What OS are you running at the moment? Being in the pilot should be a good thing as you usually ought to get better support or some other sweetener for taking the risk.

Windows Installer will write to user portion of registry (HKEY_CURRENT_USER) and to files in AppData and Local App Data. Depending on how the mandatory profiles were created, writing to the user portion of the registry can go wrong. Occasionally people try to copy a profile by dragging/dropping and then changing file permissions on the profile folder so that any user can use. This will not work properly. Profiles MUST be copied using the 'copy profile' function in the System dialog box or registry permissions will be incorrect. Having said all that, I don't think that incorrect registry permissions would explain the problem you describe. If the Installer settings survive a logout but not a reboot, then something else must be going on. Perhaps a startup script deleting cached copies of roaming/mandatory profiles?

Perhaps because so many have been holding back from using Vista coupled with the perception that 7 appears to be stable and quick. No evidence for this, just theorising...

It looks like the SIMS dev guys are already onto it ...

I would also point out that you can fine tune this as follows; - Run MSTSC and define all the settings you want to use (computername, display settings, local resources, programs, experience etc,) - Return to the General tab and click on Save. Choose a suitable location and name for the .RDP file that will be created. - Use a script to execute the following MSTSC (path to .RDP file) This will make the connection with all the settings that you have predefined. The .RDP file is just a plain text file with all the settings in. Information is on these pages Remote Desktop Protocol settings in Windows Server 2003 and in Windows XP http://louis.steelbytes.com/rdp_settings.html Note the 'SmartSizing' option that allows you to scale the remote desktop window. This is not available via the UI. Other options available by doing the usual MSTSC /?

I do wonder about this with all the app compatibility stuff the MS have built in. My udnerstanding is that if an app tries to misbehave, W7 simply 'virtualizes' the calls so that in most cases the app silently succeeds (e.g. writes to HKLM, %ProgramFiles% etc). I agree that educational software if some of the worst designed from a system point of view; probably because so much has been developed by ex-teachers... The design guidelines from Microsoft (you know, don't write to HKLM, %ProgramFiles% etc) has been available on the MS website for many years. There really is no excuse for any user application software needing PowerUser let alone Admin rights. As someone who used to spend a lot of time repackaging application, it really gets to me