Joe_Pineapples

Hi All As discussed previously, I had a look at the .msi file in Orca and it's actually quite a simple job to associate MS Office file types - Go to the property table and set 'REGISTER_ALL_MSO_TYPES' to value '1' to enable the registration of file types and then further down in the property table there are switches for each individual file type (.doc, .docx, .xls, .xlsx etc etc) ; set each of these to '1' to associate the file type. I've attached a copy of my .mst file here; I haven't done much testing of it myself yet (so test before deployment, I take no repsonsibility etc etc) but it's based on the one supplied (and tested) for OpenOffice.Org 3.2.1 and all the entries targetted in the .msi database are identical in this version so I can't see any reason why it wouldn't work. I agree with PiqueABoo, that the settings structure could be brought into band alot more easily through standardised registry / adm settings; I guess this is one of the limitations of the OOo parentage although we can hope for more development in this direction... although the OOBE is so close to readiness for use that this isn't as much a problem as it could be. OpenOfficeTechnology are the actual reason I found OOo4Kids, I needed an office suite in a hurry and had no money for MSO. I deployed OOo3.2.1 and thought the add ons from OpenOffice Technology were a part of the OOo Stack for making life easier on weary sysadmins like myself - It turns out that OOT and their management and deployment tools are actually an attempt by Oracle to monetise their stake in Open Office after their acquisition of Sun Microsystems, and involves a not insignificant licensing cost. This wasn't made clear until I installed their product and found it popping up 'unlicesed software' messages on launch! I read their FAQ, wasn't best pleased, and then went back to the drawing board with OOo and found OOo4Kids. EricB2, I assume you're part of the OOo4Kids team - if so then thank you for your time and efforts in this project. I have deployed this software in one school already and the response from staff that have used it has been overwhelmingly positive. I intend to deploy this both alopgside and as an MSO replacement in several schools that I support, with OOo321 for teaching laptops. I'm also writing a paper on OOo4Kids' suitability for widespread use within our Education Authority both as an improvement in provision and as a cost saving measure for schools which is a pretty hot topic atm (and might keep me in a job next year if they can still afford me ;-) The Ecolier font is a great addition, and I presume it will be welcomed by many schools currently using licensed fonts (or even unlicensed ones..) to support their handwriting schemes. I liked the user level changing, and the general functionality is still powerful despite the simplification of the UI. I have to say that some of the drawing functions are a bit hard to work out how to get to on a 1024*600 screen, as the menu goes off the bottom of the screen, but I don't think netbooks and tablets will be using this resolution for much longer anyway... shame my school didnt listen to me about choosing when to invest. Considering they're education institutions schools often seem reluctant to do any learning themselves :-) Another point raised by PiqueABoo, which I thought myself upon installation could be a stumbling block to mass adoption - integrated Graphic/Clipart etc. I'm not that bothered for it myself but it's a bit of a sacred cow in primary school office apps and although it's not a dealbreaker I can see people complaining about a lack of it. Eric, are there any plans to include an education specific image / clipart set for use with OOoKids? TLDR: So far I've had no problems other than minor issues discussed here and am happy to consider this software suitable for mass deployment. For those interested, please find attached .mst file for association of Microsoft Office file formats with OOo4Kids. OpenMSOfficeFileTypes.mst

Well it's deployed to my Fizzbooks (v1's) over my 54g wireless pretty quickly, without any transforms or other tweakery; I didn't have the time to test more than the most basic installation because this school wants it done yesterday. The software works fine without errors for both limited and admin users and installed cleanly. As mentioned previously, there's no splash screen or registration wizard by default, and this version of OOo works without the Java Runtime environment too which is nice. There are mst files available for the standard version of OOo which set microsoft office file format associations to OOo, and I'm going to have a look at porting that mst file over to OOo4kids over the next few days. To summarise, this stuff is basically OOo with larger icons and less by default as SimpleSi said earlier. This in itself is a useful thing as until the classic MSO layout was "improved" to the ribbon it was always a similar, but more useable interface than OOo's. The other main advantage is the ease of deployment - it just works out of the box in a hassle free configuration and deploys quickly without error if you need it to work fast as I did. More like this please people. Given the depth of material on the OOo4kids page, and the commitment to learning specific values they obviously have, I imagine that we'll see more value added in this prject for our schools over the next few increments. @Jinnantonix: I'm not sure, and haven't had much time to look so I could be wrong but I think those are localisations for the standard OOo package only. @PiqueaABoo: Apologies if I'm telling you what you already know... You can customise the .msi file by applying .mst "transforms" then deploy through Active Directory Group Policy for automatic installation. Alternatively you can script the install through startup scripts. These "transforms" change default settings in the msi file and alter the properties of the installation. Also possible is registry changes made after installation centrally managed through custom Administrative Templates (.adm files) also applied through group policy - these allow after - install changes and can target any registry setting you care to add to them. These are a standard feature of AD / Group Policy and not specific to OOo though. I'm going to have alook at making some of these if I need them, If I do I'll put them up on here. I'll keep you all posted with any developments but I'm in other places for the rest of the week now. Cheers :-)

Hi Folks I thought I'd mention this one here because it's only just gone v1.0 and I couldn't find anything about it on the foums when I was investigating it. The people at OpenOffice.org have released a version of OO with a cut down UI specially for the 7-12 age range, and taken steps with both teaching and technical staff to make it easily deployable and child friendly. Working in several primaries I've found Open Office to be okay with the Juniors but often a bit much for infants, so this simplified build is well received. The suite includes versions of Calc, Draw, Impress, Math and Writer and the project appears to be a well structured and considerably mature offering given it's young age. Have a look and decide for yourselves OOo4Kids The installer unpacks an msi file which helps for AD GPO deployments, and the default installation drops such things like the user agreement and the registration splash familiar from the full OOo install which helps make it easier for us admins. I've had a brief look at it over the weekend and I'm satisfied with it's stability and features. I just wish there was an EN localisation, but I guess we can't have everything for free... I'm going to deploy it live to 32 fizzbooks this afternoon. The school did the usual trick of spending all their money with a local boxshifter without consultation from the experts (ie., me) and then acted all surprised when they found out Microsoft charge for Office licenses... sound familiar? I'll return with any problems etc if and when they occur. Cheers folks, and respect to the people at ooo4kids.org :-)

I've been shopping for some servers at the moment to replace older machines in some of the schools I support - The Dell Poweredge T605 (Dual CPU AMD Chassis) currently has £200 knocked off as well as a free second CPU - So if you spec the highest model CPU (Opteron 2384, 'Shanghai' Core) then you get the same one free, saving a further £410 according to Dell. I specced up a 2x Opteron 2384 box with 8Gb ram for £1200. Also included a 3 year hardware warranty.Tip - add your own Hdd's after purchase if you go this route, cos the Dell ones cost a fortune. This doesn't affect warranty. I agree with the statement made earlier that buying top-tier manufacturer's servers (Dell, HP, IBM) will save you hours of time and stress in the long run, with driver support etc. I'm not an ardent Dell supporter as such and am open minded about my hardware suppliers, but over the last 5 years the servers that I've had least trouble from have all been Dell ones, and the most troublesome ones have been either the cheaper 'super desktop' types or the OEM built ones from the local PC shop. Also 2008 server is wonderful software and I agree that there is absolutely no reason to use 2k3 these days. I love server 2008 and am constantly finding things in there which make my job easier. I'm also in west yorkshire btw, PM me if you want a copy of any of my dell quotes for comparison. We should have the same area sales manager.

@ Michael - Yeah I thought it would be too, but from what I've read it seems that the Nehalem Xeons are significantly better per - chip than the Shanghai Opterons; if the difference is only a small performance advantage to the 2 Chip AMD system, I'd be prepared to spend the cash on the Intel rig and have future upgradeability and power saving etc etc. Besides, I've never used an AMD Server system before, only on the desktop, and I don't know if the whole platform is as extensively featured as the Intel stuff. @CPLTD - I'd be happy to look at a comparitive quote if you can supply one. I'll PM you my email.

Hi Folks I've got a couple of quotes in for a new server. They're both roughly the same price, and I wasn't too sure which one would be the best option - considering price / performance, features, energy use and future upgradeability. I'll list the basic specs here: Server 1 - Poweredge T605 - 2 Socket Tower 2* AMD Opteron 2384 (2.7Ghz 'Shanghai' CPU) 8Gb ECC DDR2 800Mhz SAS RAID Server 2 - Poweredge T410 - 2 Socket Tower 1* Intel Xeon 5520 (2.26Ghz 'Nehalem' CPU) 4Gb ECC DDR3 1066Mhz SAS RAID I'm not sure how the performance of the AMD System compares with the Intel one - I know that the Shanghai chips perform well against the Xeon 54xx series, but I haven't been able to find many direct comparisons to the 55xx series. I imagine the AMD system will be faster to begin with, but is it worth going for the Intel system for the future upgradeability? Would 2 CPU's in the Intel system be *noticeably* more powerful than the 2 Opteron CPU system? Also, if anyone has any experiece with either of these server chassis, it would be nice to hear your thoughts on features / BIOS options / remote manageability etc. It seems that the T605 may have a more extensive feature set but I can't find much solid info out there. Thanks for your input folks :-)

Is this printer installed locally to all the clients, or is it shared through a server? Also, is this for all printing jobs, or is it only when certain types of print job are sent (eg photos). In schools I find that people using the Windows Photo Printing Wizard often send huge amounts of data to print that can timeout or take ages to spool to my server, and hold up the print queues.

I guess that you can't really plan for this failure then; it seems like there are issues from a whole host of manufacturers on this one. I imagine that quality of environment is the major factor in all of this. I've concluded that whilst LCD probably offers a better quality image, (lower contrast levels but no rainbow effect) it suffers from a higher chance than DLP of being damaged by a dusty environment. Apparently newer LCD based projectors are more dust resistant than the older types, although the proof of this pudding is 3 years down the line. I've had a quote for some Sanyo PLC-XE32's, @ £349 each with a 3 year lamp and hardware warranty, next day swap out on site service. These are XGA LCD Projectors with built in alarms, 'becta' orange with no controls on the projector, and they match the throw distance on the old ones. Unless anyone has a better suggestion, I think I'm going to go with them. Less than or equal to £116 per annum is a reasonable amount to budget per IWB installation. Thanks for all your thoughts on this one so far! ------- @ John: Interesting about the LP100 & LP200 there, cheers. I Wonder why they've started buying stuff in? Saying this, I heard recently that NEC had shut down their Desktop PC division so perhaps they're scaling back in other areas also. Financial climate hasn't been kind to the .jp companies I guess.

Thanks guys, some interesting points there. While I suspected it may be the case that the NEC VT-x70's were a poor design, it's reassuring to know that other organisations in the same boat are planning a 4 year lifecycle for this kind of kit; I just wish that the LA in these parts would make it clear to the schools that this requires a commitment to ICT funding, rather than a one off payment for technology that lasts forever! I've been reading around on this, and I've discovered that the LCD design in the NEC's (especially the older ones) is an open system, compared to the closed system used in a DLP projector; the older the projector, the more likely it is that dust will contaminate the optics in an LCD system, although I guess this becomes less of an issue with warrantied hardware on a 4 year replacement cycle. Does anyone have a favoured manufacturer? I haven't bought that many in the last few years so I haven't had chance to compare.

Hi Folks I look after the IT resources for a number of schools in West Yorkshire. The original tranche of funding for smartboards back in 2004/05 went to a local supplier with contacts in the LA (suprise suprise) who installed almost exclusively NEC Projectors (VT470's, VT570's etc) at massive cost. Most of these are now on to their second or third lamp, and are increasingly dim despite the purchase of a new lamp - some of these have been sent back to NEC for cleaning, at about £100, and then needed a new 'optical unit' which has cost another £100. This is stupid when contrasted against the cost of a new projector. Unfortunately if you've ordered a lamp for £150 to correct a brightness issue, then told the projector needs a clean, you're already wandered down the garden path of spending and it's hard to stop. I also look after a couple of schools who decided to shop around back in 04/05, and they went for Hitachi ED-X3400's and Epson EMP-S3's. Although they've received the same amount of use, these are still bright and usable wheras the NEC's are rubbish. My questions are: Are we the only ones who've encountered this? What lifespan do people regularly achieve / expect from their projectors? I'm considering planning to replace them every 3 -4 years now, and writing this into the ICT budgets. Did we simply get projectors with a design flaw? Lastly, does anyone reckon this scenario still applies to NEC projectors? I've seen the LP200's cheap with a 3yr hardware & lamp warranty but I don't know if I should trust NEC. Anyone got any good recommendations up to £450 inc VAT (3 yr warranty essential given previous experiences!) Sorry to be so verbose, but I'd like a good consensus to take back to my Headteachers. Your advice is both representative and greatly appreciated :-)

This thread is now about win16 nostalgia. ;-) Back at the OP, I suggest going windows 7 if you like to play IRL as opposed to VMs. Go 64 bit if you're feeling brave - My copy still seems nice and responsive. FWIW, I remember doublespacing my c:\ as an inexperienced 13 year old and then wondering where all the performance went in my amazing 133 rig

Hi Folks I have an almost unused RM Classboard (Manufactured 2002, also known as GTCO ClassComp) for sale. It came from a school where no -one realised it was interactive - it's been in storage since the old ICT Coordinator left 4 years ago. I've investigated it's history and realised that it's probably not been used more than about 3 times in it's life, including the demonstration that the sales rep did... it's astonishing just how much cash is wasted at these places. I've checked the PSU & control unit and that powers up and beeps a few times... the board itself is on a wheeled stand which is in good condition, as is the board itself. I've installed the software on my XP box and it seems to work fine, the pen tracks across the board, I can get right - click etc. I don't know how many pens this comes with originally but I've got one. The integrated felt tip part of it is totally unused which gives you some idea of how much use it's had :-) The board comes with what appears to be the original manual and software CD, as well as some board cleaning solution and the as - yet unused pen clips to attach the pen to the board when not in use. I don't really know what this is worth, so I'm opting for £150 ono. The board would have to be collected from Huddersfield though cos it's bloody huge. Photos are available on request. Cheers!

What does rsop say when run on the clients?

Hi Geoff, thx for the reply. Yeah, I assumed it was driver related but thought maybe it was a known bug in the way the OS dealt with other platform drivers and handed them out to clients. Unfortunately driver update isn't possible here because I'm using the most recent versions of all concerned. Short of writing new drivers myself (unlikely) this is a dead end atm. I'm not too familiar with how 2k8 handles OS identification for purposes of client device driver assignments, so I'm going to research this next. In the meantime, hopefully someone more experienced than myself has resolved the same issues and finds my thread... In fairness to 2k8 x64 however, I've experienced no direct driver issues with the host server itself, and I'm impressed overall with the capabilities and general solidity of what I suspected would be an immature product. It's the first Microsoft OS I've enjoyed using from the outset which says alot :-)

Hi Folks, any help appreciated here I took the plunge and installed a Server 2008 in one of my schools, and just in case this wasn't enough of a headache I dcecided to go with the 64 bit edition. Everything has been fine so far with the exception of print services; however I can't get the server to share a functional IP printer to my clients. The clients are on XP Pro x86 sp3, and can use the printer (Konica 5440DL) fine from a server 2003 x86 box... however the 2008 server, even populated with the x86 platform drivers just won't work right. The printer is allocated (currently through .vbs on startup) and appears in printers and faxes but anytime i send to print or query the driver it causes a general protection fault and breaks. FWIW, I didn't have any more success from Print Management and GP pushprintconnections.exe :-( The printer prints absolutely fine from the server using the x64 driver. Any ideas? I've had to set up a 2k3 VM simply to host the printer and it's not the most elegant solution...

Hi there If you install google earth from the command line onto your server with the following, you can then shortcut to the .exe and put the shortcut in your redirected start menu / desktop / whatever: msiexec /a "google_earth_filename.msi" Install to a shared directory and you're away. I think this is an undocumented feature of Google earth, and they haven't filled in the information fields in the installer - it looks a bit broken for the first screen where there is no text except 'next' and 'cancel' buttons. Run it and you'll see what I mean. This method works fine for me on 100+ network stations from my server.

Hi folks I've installed photo story 3 on my XP clients and it doesn't like non - admin users. When opening a .wp3 file (it's own association) it gives an error box "Access is denied." Does anyone know how to sort this in a manner that doesn't involve adding kids to local administrators? TIA.