jamesbmarshall

This doesn't sound like a good idea. Aside from any potential licensing issues this may or may not have, it's unsupported and may affect your ability to update those apps in future. I mean, I get why you'd want to do it... but anything this hacky does not sound good.

@SYNACK, @Junior2k, if I had more I was able to share then I would - trust me! I just give my two cents' worth as an when I can. Whenever I find something useful, or learn of something that I'm able to share, I will always come here.

You can't include more than 24 in your image, assuming you had 24 .appx packages to use. Yup, this is a tough one at the moment, but not impossible. It's always worth approaching a vendor to see if they have a model for sideloaded delivery. Don't forget that this only applies to the full screen "modern" apps; traditional desktop applications are handled in the usual way. Again, totally understand how it works in schools - and I promise you that this is heard loud and clear internally, too. I don't have anything I can share about how this will be handled in future, but as soon as I do I'll share it here. I suspect my next point will become something I say over and over again... Yes, there are some improvements that could be made to the way you can deploy and manage Windows Store apps; however, that shouldn't stop you from rolling out Windows 8.1 to your devices. Where it is not suitable to manage devices on a 1:1 basis, such as in IT suites, etc. then you could take the steps to turn off the Windows Store and configure the devices to boot to desktop. (Windows 8.1 Update made it a lot easier for keyboard and mouse users) I'm still trying to rationalise my thoughts on this into something bloggable but there are good reasons that deploying Windows 8.1 over Windows 7 is better, beyond any touch-enabled experiences. There will invariably be a Windows v.next (it doesn't have an official name yet) that will iterate and improve on the current version, but the days of skipping versions are a bit behind us - things are improving all the time. IMHO it's more about building the infrastructure to support simple and fast rollouts. A lot has changed since the days of rolling out Windows XP, etc.

Firstly, it's great to hear that you're using Windows 8.1! Now, on to the slightly tougher bit. Windows Store apps are deployed a little differently to regular applications. Currently, unless you have the whole application package to distribute it's not possible to use SCCM or Intune to push out Windows Store apps to devices - they have to be delivered from the Store. This in turn requires a Microsoft Account. Microsoft has put together a couple of pieces of guidance around this, specific to education, which you might find useful: Download Windows Store Apps - A Deployment Guide for Education from Official Microsoft Download Center Windows RT 8.1 - Deployment Guide for Education Even with Windows 8.1 Update it is a bit trickier than it could be, and I'm confident that in the not-too-distant future things will improve but for now, I'd work with some of the guidance in those links.

Hey everyone - I don't know if this will be useful or not, but I get asked all the time about whether Microsoft ever produces any materials (posters, etc.) for people to use to promote and train others on how to use things like Windows 8 and Office 365. Well, there's a swanky new user readiness toolkit that recently went live that might help! Windows 8.1 Update User Readiness Toolkit Now Available | James Marshall It's all fairly generic, but the templates are there for you to tailor with your own messaging, school branding or whatever you need really.

I did debate whether or not to use the image... but then I thought Office 365 works on pretty much anything, so why be so exclusive! It's my blog after all...

Hey everyone, this isn't specific to education but I thought I'd share it anyway just in case anyone wanted to know more about what Office 365 is, how it works, etc.: Office 365 Weekly Webinar | James Marshall No registration necessary, just drop in if you feel like learning more!

Do you need SSO? Deploying Office 365 Education? You don't need single sign-on, and here's why!

Office 365 Education does include the Office Online apps, through SharePoint Online & OneDrive for Business. The Office 365 platform and the consumer platform are separate so they will look different.

Quick bit of terminology refresh: Live@edu = predecessor to Office 365 Education Windows Live ID = Microsoft Account ORGID, MOSID = Office 365 Account / Organisational / School Account SkyDrive = OneDrive SkyDrive Pro = OneDrive for Business -- When the Live@edu upgrades happened we split out the accounts that existing users had into two: a Microsoft Account and an identically named Office 365 Account (different GUIDs underneath basically). This meant that existing users at the time of the upgrade got to keep their existing OneDrive contents, etc. Subsequent users, created in Office 365, were only given an Office 365 Account. It is possible to use this Office 365 Account to associate with an identical Microsoft Account (through a process called EASI - no different to using your Gmail account to sign up for OneDrive). So you're either in the Live@edu upgraded user bucket, or at some point you've signed up for OneDrive using your existing email address (Office 365 Account). Hopefully that makes sense?

Office 365 plans are separate (although they can be added to an EES agreement). If you want archiving and litigation hold, etc. in Exchange Online then you'll need an Exchange Online licence (i.e. Exchange Online Plan 2, Plan A3, Plan A4, etc.).

I use IE 11 with EG and it works just fine... am I missing something? (I have Firefox and Chrome installed as well, for testing, although I've just standardised around IE because all my tabs and favourites are now on all my devices including my phones...)

You're right; unfortunately it's not that simple. That have been a few threads on this recently. Mapping a drive to OneDrive for Business isn't going to be an option; instead the sync client is the supported route to getting access to files from the desktop. That's great for 1:1 devices, but for shared devices you're going to need to look at using the browser to drag and drop, etc. Storing files in the cloud needs a bit of a rethink - for example using Office 365 ProPlus to save files directly to SharePoint Online or OneDrive for Business, etc. rather than saving to a locally mapped drive.

@Kamran7860 what you want to do will work, but it won't give the best experience since neither cloud service is integrated - are there compelling reasons to stay with Google Apps at all? There's no specific harm in not taking up Exchange Online when using SharePoint Online, but in terms of user experience they'll have to float between two systems ... so that's two sets of credentials, two sets of sync infrastructure for you to manage, etc. etc.

I've written about this (Deploying Office 365 Education? You don't need single sign-on, and here's why!). ADFS is a big undertaking, and won't necessarily give you much more than what you have now with password sync with respect to the end-user experience. ADFS does have benefits, but there will always be a requirement to have ADFS servers available, whether hosted on-premises or using IaaS in something like Azure as Azure AD will look to your ADFS servers for authN. If the ADFS servers (or DCs) are down then there's no access to Office 365, OR Azure AD and any other associated services. Using ADFS (or not) shouldn't impact your ability to use OneDrive for Business at all. It's better these days to think about your local AD's relationship with Azure AD, rather than specifically Office 365 Education. It's possible to use Azure AD to authenticate to lots of services, of which Office 365 is just one.

I hear that a lot, too. What are their specific objections? Anything that can have a positive impact on pupil outcomes, albeit indirectly, should get some serious consideration from them rather than being dismissed under the banner of "might get abused". If they're serious about trying to improve access to content, technology, etc. anywhere, anytime, then they should have some pretty solid reasoning behind choosing not to go for it.

If it still hasn't created a profile for your account after this long, I'd log a support request.

I'm not sure what you mean? The first time the user clicks on the OneDrive link, once you've assigned a licence, SharePoint will start provisioning their OneDrive for Business. This can take a little while, but it's a first-run thing. Once it's set up, it's good to go.

Believe it or not, I knew you'd say that. Truth is, there's a lot of stuff in school that has the potential for abuse but that doesn't mean that everything gets locked down, switched off, hidden away. You're absolutely right, some kids would probably abuse it initially but that's what sanctions are for. If you never turn it on, you're preventing everyone from ever benefitting from it (that is the whole of SharePoint, rather than just the Newsfeed element). After all, wouldn't you want your students to get their 1TB of storage? Or the Office Online apps? Surely it's a fantastic opportunity to work with teachers on educating students about online etiquette?

Why not?

Correct. OneDrive for Business is part of SharePoint Online, there is no separate licence for it.

Why would you want to remove that? (There are ways, via the registry to both enable and disable it...)

I'm just going to come out and ask it... what's wrong with the Newsfeed?

You can't have a domain in more than one Office 365 tenant at once; so you'll have to shut one of them down. The question is: which one? From what you're saying it sounds like you've got one tenant where users are hosted for email (the .sch.uk one?), and the other is where you're facilitating access to Student Advantage (the .org one?). Without diving too deep into the details, it looks like it would be easier to keep the existing tenant where users are already set up for mail (thereby avoiding any need for migration) and move the other one into it. There'll be some work needed to move the Student Advantage licences since this will be tied to your VL; however, that's going to be easier and quicker than doing a mail migration.

Have you thought about upgrading to Windows 8.1 Update, and taking advantage of IE Enterprise Mode? (How to Enable and Use Internet Explorer 11′s Enterprise Mode) You can configure it to automatically run in other IE modes for web applications and sites that do not play well with the latest versions, all the way back to IE8.