maniac

Yes, ours was exactly the same, WMP was affected the most. I'm sure the Version 4.9 of the K-lite codec pack had a dodgey codec in it, because when we upgraded to 5.50 the problem disappeared for us.

We've had this issue on most of our workstations. Tracked it down to a dodgey codec in the end, and installing the latest version of the K-Lite Codec pack fixed it for us. Mike.

I place my money on a permissions problem within the registry hive. The user you created it with will have the correct rights, but any other user may not be able to read the registry hive, so will act as if it's a brand new profile - hence the prompting for details etc. Easy solution, load the registry hive into regedit as described by theaman above, and right had click the root of the loaded part of the registry, click permissions and add everyone as read only - then any user will be able to read that mandatory profile proprly - problem solved. You may also need to change the folders as described above, but these are usually replaced automatically by windows anyway - on my mandatory profile I blanked them all so there's no chance of any settings pointing to the wrong places. Mike.

Hmmm, We're not much bigger than you, secondary school, 450 students and about 30 printers. Papercut has just informed me that we've printed 22,677 pages in the last 30 days. Mike.

Show us your setup! Or more precisely if there's anyone here that uses Thin Client technology extensively in their school that wouldn't mind myself and our Business manager popping in for a visit one day soon, please let me know. I'm not too worried what thin client system you're using, although it would be helpful if you've got a good mix of end client devices, and if you're using it on a relatively large scale i.e more than 1 server and more than 30 end devices. Also if you use it for serving the remote desktop environment to ourside users over the web, that would be a bonus as we'd like to see that in action. You don't necessarily have to be local to us - anywhere with a good pub nearby will do Thanks in advance, Mike.

I have no doubt they will, but the thought of them putting the full album version on a compilation, Radio 1 accidently playing the un-cut version again (like Bruno Brookes did many years ago) or even just RATM getting into the charts (even if it's not No1) brings a smile to my face. Mike.

541,000 members - when I joined that group on Satruday there were but a mere 80,000 members. Xmas number 1 last year sold approx 350,000 copies in the week leading upto christmas, so if only 2/3 of the people in that facebook group buy the song, it might actually do it. The same idea got Jeff Buckley to Number 2 last year and only had about half the number of members in the group, so who knows. I think it'll be funny if it happens - just think of future christmas number 1 hits compilation CDs.

The difference between the address bar and a search box. (OK most browsers now automatically search on terms put in the address bar, but it can't help to explain) Difference between logging off and shtting down (come on, how many people shutdown the computer when you ask them to log off instead of just logging off?) Volume control, how to check that the right volumes are turned up (Big problem when people try and play DVDs on their laptop and the laptops only turned up a small bit, so they turn the speakers up loads to compensate so there's then loads of hiss in the background) Using the 'pages from and to' option when printing a PDF or other big document so you only need print the pages you actually need insted of the whole document - most of which then ends up in the bin. You'll be shocked at the number of people who don't know how to do this. Mike.

1. Secondary School 2. about 500 3. South East 4. Not officially, but I do in my head 5. Once when I setup the new system 6. Ocassionally 7. Once - lost an entire server when the RAID array failed, tape restore worked like a charm. 8. Sony AIT3 tape changer which is struggling to cope now. 9. Fire proof safe on site 10. Weekly with differential backups Mon-Thurs

IE7 across the network here. Would love to use FF, except it doesn't transparently authenticate with our internal webserver for our helpdesk, or our internet proxy so it would make life a lot more complex for the users having to re-authenticate everywhere. Mike.

That's what we've done, the password's about 30 characters long as well.

As title - if you have any PGCE students at your school, do they get issued with their own laptop for the duration they are at the school? And as an extension to this, does anyone know if universities would actually expect them to be issued with their own laptop while they're on a placement at the school? Thanks, Mike.

Just noticed this post. In answer to your question, we have Dell, Stone and Viglen laptops in this school. The Viglen ones don't have this feature, but the Dell and Stone ones do. This prevents the students disableing the wireless adapter using the key combination. The only issue we get is ocassional drop offs from the wireless network that we can't fix without a re-boot (Normally you would be able to right hand click and select repair) We also had to put a shortcut to volume control on the desktop so the students could change the volume, as hiding the tray completely also hides the normal access to the volume controls. Mike.

I hardly watch TV ever - I think the only program I actually make time to watch is Top Gear, and even that's nowhere near as good as it used to be. I brought Sky TV when I moved into my new house, and I think I've watched it about 4 times in 6 weeks Mike.

Nope, I have little to do with it apart from ocassionally moving extensions to different parts of a room, it's an absolute nightmare the switchboard in this place, so I'm quite pleased to have nothing to do with it! Mike.

The answer to that is two fold. Firstly a Terminal services/Citrix type system to allow students to use the schools selection of software using remote desktops or simelar technologies, that way the student device merely becomes a terminal. There is also the option of using services like WebDav to provide access to home folders via a secure interface, and also to allow printing to remote printers via HTTP (it is possible) These are the sorts of services remote office users have been using for years, but there's no reason they can't be used in a LAN environment to provide as much seperation between the servers and end devices as possible. Student monitoring is an issue, but if the school is that worried, they could restrict it so the only interface the student machines could access is a terminal server, so to actually use ICT recources the student has to log into a terminal session which can be monitored. Mike.

The problem schools will face in the next few years is the current model for ICT resourcing in a lot of schools is not sustainable in anyway, and with school funding potentially taking a hit budgets are going to be tighter than ever. How else can you ensure all your students have got a device to use in school unless you allow them to bring in their own? Most schools just won't be able to fund (long term) a big enough device pool to allow students the sort of access to ICT that the curriculum is likely to demand in the future, so somethings got to give and that something is going to be to allow students, where possible, to bring in and use their own devices. Yes it's a minefield of new problems, but none that can't be overcome, just another chapter in the evolution of ICT in schools. Mike.

I can see your point, but some of these can be addressed. 1) This is no different to what students can do with mobile phones now 2) Any guest network will not allow device-to-device communication, only device to internet/firewall etc. 3) Kids have mobile phones with cameras on, and already take photos and videos when they shouldn't Just search youtube for your school name, I bet there's something on there somewhere. 4) If the system is properly setup, anonymous surfing is not going to happen, but what's to stop them doing that sort of thing from home anyway? Playing games, simelar problems to what we have now. Cyberbullying, same issues as we have now. Compatibility, well whatever resources you allow access to will probably be web based anyway which is crossplatform and thus it's a non-issue; it's likely that 90% of devices students bring in would be windows based anyway. Licensing is the responsibility of the end user for the device, and any services offered to it would be licensed appropreately for the userbase, no differently to now. Viruses wouldn't be a big issue, as the devices would only be able to talk to the internet and secured servers, and wouldn't connect in such as way as to be able to transmit viruses easily, i.e no direct file shares etc. Hacking, again secured network no device to device communication, hacking becomes a non issue. The big issues for most schools with students bringing in their own devices will be non-technical ones such as insurance, theft and security, and what to do about students walking to and from school with a potentially expensive laptop on them. There would have to be good guidelines as to what devices were acceptable to be brought in, and procedures written and put in place for how students own devices would be stored and physically managed within the school. While I can see the logic in the school supplying devices, getting enough parents to buy into this sort of scheme to make it worthwhile is difficult in my experience. As for the support questions, the end device remains the responsibility of the end user. If it doesn't work, then they get a school machines to use - plain and simple. The school could offer a technicians service to the parents which could be a chargeable service at a reasonable rate, but I don't see why there's any obligation on the schools part to provide a technicians service to end users devices if they are owned by the individual and not the school. Mike.

Check out BWireless, Wi-Fi hotspot solution, managing a system of hotspots, ideal for schools, colleges and universities, wireless internet access It looks like it does everything you need to allow 'guest' laptops onto your network. The only requiremet is that you can setup Vlans on your wireless network. It provides a simple web based authentication screen which can link to AD as far as I know, and keeps track of whetever users are doing while they're connected. I've spoken to Christian at ITS on many ocassions about this product, but haven't quite persuaded senior management to part with the cash yet! Mike.

If you have a helpdesk, use that. I raise support calls on ours for every task I need to do, that way I get nagged if I haven't done it, as I check the helpdesk pretty much constantly when I'm in the office. Mike.

Says who? I issue students punishments if I catch them doing things they shouldn't. The last 3 students I caught trying to 'hack' the system had to write a 250 word essay on "The Computer Missuse act, and the consequenses if they got caught 'Hacking' " Now I get regular e-mails from them in school when they find things not working, or discover a new flaw in the system - as a reward they get access to some of the games sites which are blocked for most of the rest of the school, but they are warned if I see them on them in lessons, it's back to square one - works quite well that arrangement does for the time being. Mike.

Not sure if you can un-install it, but you could use software restrictions to block access to it. The program is called mstsc.exe and resides in the system32 directory. Altunatively, you could write a VBS script which checks for the exe file, and deletes it, but that might cause a windows file protection message when you logon as admin. The group policy you're refering to is to do with users remote connecting to the PC, and not to do with running the terminal program. Mike.

We have LanSchool here, which is very reasonably priced and does what you want and more - you just pay for as many teachers console licenses as you need, and you can have as many student clients as you want. Mike.

I brought 6 25metre rolls of tape (3 of each sort) over the summer to velcro all our PCs down with - works a treat Paid about £15 a roll I seem to remember, but can't remember where from. There's loads of online retailers which sell tape like that pretty cheaply - I brought it on my credit card and claimed it back as it was easier than ordering it in the traditional way. Mike.

14k, is that right? That's an astoundingly small amount. Sure you don't mean 14,000k ?