srochford

If you go with the case statement, you need to get the syntax right - eg your example becomes: Case "s08-w103", "s08-w104" WshNetwork.AddWindowsPrinterConnection "\\s08-print01\s08-library" WshNetwork.AddWindowsPrinterConnection "\\s08-print01\s08-room103" WshNetwork.SetDefaultPrinter "\\s08-print01\s08-room103" Case "s03-wsci" , "s03-c22" ,"s03-c23" , "s03-c25" WshNetwork.AddWindowsPrinterConnection "\\s03-print01\s03-library" WshNetwork.AddWindowsPrinterConnection "\\s03-print01\s03-room103" WshNetwork.SetDefaultPrinter "\\s03-print01\s03-room103" ie - it uses comma to separate the different machine names, not and

As I understand it, devcon will work if the hardware is already present in the machine but isn't as good (ie may not work at all!) if the hardware isn't there (which I'm guessing it won't be in this case - it's a device that can be plugged in at any time) DPInst is newer than devcon and, more importantly, is designed to install PnP drivers when the hardware is not present.

Should be able to do it with dpinst (part of Windows). Assuming you've got the zip file unzipped somewhere on a server you could do something like this: if exist %windir%\picaxe.installed goto end xcopy \\server\share\picaxe %windir%\temp\picaxe /i /s dpinst u c:\temp\picaxe\ftdibus.inf /q dpinst u c:\temp\picaxe\ftdiport.inf /q echo installed > %windir%\picaxe.installed :end Not sure if you need to install both .inf files (some hardware has multiple .inf files but doesn't need them - eg they're for different versions)

I've done it so many times ...

Do you know you need to run exmerge on the Exchange server? I've not done this with Exchange 2007 (last time I had an issue like this we were on 2003) but a quick google says it's supported. Just done a bit more googling and found this - How to Export Mailbox Data: Exchange 2007 Help the preferred method is:

You can turn on user environment debug logging - there's some info here What is logged to the Userenv.log file? - AD Troubleshooting - Site Home - TechNet Blogs - about how to do this and the info you get. You will see all sorts of stuff which looks wrong if you use wireshark (or process monitor) - often it's not wrong; just not ideal. For example, when Windows goes to load an executable file it will try each folder in the path until it finds it. If you've got network folders in your path ahead of the actual file location then these will appear on the Wireshark trace. On a fairly clean machine path might look something like this: PATH=C:\Windows\system32;C:\Windows;C:\Windows\System32\Wbem;C:\Windows\System32\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0\;c:\ic-utils On a machine with more stuff installed it can look like this: PATH=C:\Program Files (x86)\NAG\FL22\fldll224ml\batch;C:\Program Files (x86)\NAG\FL22\fldll224ml\bin;C:\Program Files (x86)\NAG\FL22\fldll224ml\MKL_ia32_10.1\bin;C:\Program Files (x86)\Intel\Compiler\11.1\065\mkl\em64t\bin;C:\Program Files (x86)\Intel\ICTCE\4.0.0.022\mpi\em64t\bin;C:\Program Files (x86)\Intel\ICTCE\4.0.0.022\Compiler\lib\Intel64;C:\Program Files (x86)\Intel\ICTCE\4.0.0.022\Compiler\lib\ia32;C:\Program Files (x86)\Intel\ICTCE\4.0.0.022\Compiler\lib\Intel64;C:\Program Files (x86)\Intel\ICTCE\4.0.0.022\Compiler\lib\ia32;C:\Program Files (x86)\Intel\ICTCE\4.0.0.022\bin;C:\Windows\system32;C:\Windows;C:\Windows\System32\Wbem;C:\Windows\System32\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0\;c:\ic-utils;C:\Program Files (x86)\QuickTime\QTSystem\;C:\Program Files (x86)\Enterprise Vault\EVClient\;c:\MATLAB\r2010a\runtime\win64;c:\MATLAB\r2010a\bin;c:\mingw\bin;c:\msys\1.0\bin;c:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft SQL Server\90\Tools\binn\;C:\Program Files (x86)\Common Files\Intel\Shared Files\IDVC;C:\Program Files\NAG\FL22\flw6i22dcl\bin;C:\Program Files\NAG\FL22\flw6i22dcl\bin This can lead to a slow down - a file which is actually in c:\windows\system32 could be checked in quite a few folders before it's found (and, yes, we should fix our build process to tidy this up - but it's down to some bad packages which prepend their own folder instead of appending it)

I would stick with your first method. If I've understood the syntax of your second printui then you're directly printing to the printer. Benefit of this is that you don't need a print server but downside is that you could hit problems if too many people try and print at the same time (depends on the printer - if it's got enough RAM it can buffer the jobs) If you use printui to create the port for all users like this: "Rundll32 printui.dll,PrintUIEntry /ga /n\\Server\PrintShare" then you are connecting to the server BUT every document gets printed as "remote downlevel document" this may not matter but if you use any kind of pull print system it's a nightmare - the user goes to release their job and everything is called "remote downlevel document" instead of "my maths homework" or whatever.

Except that the new package is just a box - doesn't include the internet connection ("a further £9 per month")

Not sure what you're asking for - do you just want help making the reports look right? (You've said you can do the queries for the reports but you want help with the design???) If so, some samples of what you're trying to achieve would be useful (just a mock up in Word or something)

Worth remembering that all the parcel companies shift large numbers of parcels - that means that even if they have a 0.1% failure rate that's still a lot of elephant crushed parcels which is why everyone is able to say "Don't use company XXX they will destroy things" Personally I've always had good service from Royal Mail and I have nothing but total and utter hatred for DHL (HP now use them for warranty stuff; it's by far the worst thing about dealing with HP who are generally amazing!)

But I live much more than 20 miles from the BBC wireless transmitter and that works fine at home - why have you broken your school wireless :-) Of course, it's stupid but "ordinary" people don't understand the ways in which wireless for WiFi is different from any other wireless (if they even think about it at all!)

Trouble is, it's not really "greener". If you burn oil of any kind you release carbon dioxide into the atmosphere - doesn't really matter whether it's veg or mineral oil - and that's not very green. By using veg oils you don't have to dig up the Arctic or spill oil into the Gulf of Mexico which I'd guess makes it greener but you do end up using food crops as fuel - this means that people who used to be able to get food now can't get it so easily (or find it's more expensive - the people growing it can sell it for more as fuel than as food)

I'd agree with @sonofsanta. I've just spotted yet another "how many people work in your department" thread - surely it would make much more sense to add that on to one of the existing threads so you then get a reasonable amount of info in the same place on the same subject. If the initial thread was "how do you do XXX in Windows 2000" and someone now wants to do the same for Windows 7 then that probably merits a new thread (unless, of course, the answer is the same) Why does it matter if an old thread is continued? Is this some kind of weird ageism going on in Edugeek :-)

The "teacher" and "teacher.v2" are normal if you have a mixed XP and Vista/Windows 7 network - the profile format changed so the server copy is kept separate - leave them alone unless you've now got rid of all XP clients in which case archive the "teacher" folders and delete from the server to save space. The NTFRS folders normally indicate that you've got DFS File Replication Service running (eg you have 2 or more servers making the profiles available) and there's been a conflict of replication at some time. There's lots of info Troubleshooting journal_wrap errors on Sysvol and DFS replica sets about what this is and how you fix it but unless you really need DFS replication for the profiles (it's good on a multi-site setup, for example) it might be better to move the profile share. If the NTFRS folders have been there a long time you can probably safely delete them from each server which has a copy. I seem to remember it's safer to do this with FRS stopped (otherwise as soon as you delete from one server, the paired server will try and put them back and bad things happen!)

Yosemite laptop/desktop backup from Barracudaware (BarracudaWare / Yosemite Technologies) Puts an agent on the laptop; this backs up files to the local hard disc and whenever it can see the network it dumps them to the backup server. It doesn't just backup up (eg) my documents but every file with particular extensions (specified by administrator) - this means you can choose to backup all .doc, .xls, .jpg but exclude .mp3, for example. No idea of pricing but we charge users £15 per year for this which I believe is intended to cover the cost of running the service. Only downside is that there's no 64 bit version yet - it keeps being promised "really soon"

Went here for steak last Monday and had brilliant steak - I'd guess it's a bit far from Hammersmith and you can't get there with an Oyster card but if you're in the area, it's worth checking out :-)

If you're not going to replace the drive from which Windows is running (probably C:) then the shares will stay along with share permissions when you fit a new drive (as long as it has the same drive letter and folder structure) The file/folder permissions (NTFS ACLS) are stored on the disc - as others have said, you can back those up with robocopy /sec or xcopy /o to your backup drive and then reverse the process to the new drive.

sysprep doesn't change the WSUS SID until you get to Windows 7 - delete the SID before you upload your master image and a new one is auto-generated.

We also use CompuCover. We buy through a third party and I think we get better prices than shown on the site @gwendes has linked to. It would probably be worth talking to them and saying "we have xxx people who want insurance; what discount do we get" Worth checking what's covered - batteries will almost certainly be excluded (they just are!) but some people won't cover cracked screens (pencil left on keyboard and lid closed etc).

Yes - the startup script is running (effectively) as local admin. You can use startup scripts to do things like install software, add drivers, copy files into locations a normal user can't write to etc. What you can't do is make changes to a user's settings (because no user is logged on) - you can't set the user wallpaper, for example (but you can change the default wallpaper shown at logon)

The scripts under the computer config section are computer startup scripts - they're run by the computer as it starts up; the user ones run as the user when they logon.

As well as using DFS (which is a good idea!) you can use DNS aliases - eg your real fileserver is called FS_01 but your users connect to student_home and DNS just aliases that to FS_01 When you install FS_02, you copy all your content on to that, change the DNS alias and users carry on connecting to the same name. You can't do this in the middle of the day without rebooting all the machines (because they will have the old IP cached) Watch out for problems with "strictnamechecking" - Connecting to SMB share on a Windows 2000-based computer or a Windows Server 2003-based computer may not work with an alias name has details. Not sure if this is still relevant for Server 2008 but I think it is.

At the moment, if a student knows a staff password, the only way they can gain access is if they sit at a staff machine - typically those will be in staffrooms etc and not accessible to students. Move to a single LAN and that changes. As we all know, not all people can be trusted to use secure passwords so security which just relies on file ACLs may not be as secure as you need it to be. Adding VLANs so that classroom machines are on a different VLAN from staff machines and the SIMS server etc is only accessible from the staff VLAN puts back some of the security you had with 2 physical LANs but without the cost/complexity etc You put the AD servers and any servers which need access by both staff and students on a different VLAN. KISS is a really good principle but you can be too simple :-)

Solutions like filtering in the home are fine for sensible parents who understand the need for such a device. For Windows users I believe that Windows Live Family Safety 2011 is pretty good (and it's free). Sadly, there are too many parents who either don't know or don't care about web safety and this is why there's a proposal to move the filtering further up-stream. The technological problem then is that instead of needing a low spec device to handle the filtering for half a dozen users, you need mega-devices which can cope with thousands of users. You can't really do it by DNS which would be quick and low impact (because http://www.myspecialsite.com/porn is bad but http://www.myspecialsite.com/fluffybunnies is good) so you have to have URL based or content based filtering which needs more CPU.

Restrict usage of stationery in microsoft outlook might help. You can make the default a particular file but if people want to change it then I don't think you can stop this (but at least it's a conscious decision to change)