mattpant

Hi, Just wondering how long it takes for your users to logon to your computers? What's the profile setup, Roaming? Mandatory? Re-Directed? etc etc What is a normal logon time for Windows XP?, I know it's slower then Windows 98 beacuse of all the group policy processing. But would just like to get a rought idea to see what other collegues are getting. Regards, Matt

Hi, I'm hoping somebody can help me out here. I am having trouble running certain programs when used computers are used offline. We have a number of Tablet PC and Laptop users, when they open up programs in school everything seems to be working fine, However, if they go home, the programs don't open (Not all programs, just some), one program that courses a problem is Adobe Acrobat 7. In my Group Policy I have a OU for Laptop and Tablets, and I have specified in their only to use a Local Profile, (Same person using the same Laptop/Tablet all the time so not filling up with 100's of local profiles) That doesn't seem to fix the problem related to the programs not running. I'm guessing it's trying to "look" at the Application Data Folder in their profile which is on the server, and thats why it works when connected, but Why is it trying to look at that folder when I've told it to use a local profile? Any thoughts what I can do to make it work????? Doing my head in now!!! Regards, Matt

Hi, If you just modify the C:\Program Files\Sims folder you are likey to run into problems as a Sims Update can also do stuff in the Windows Folder aswell. Easiest thing to do to make sure you have the correct permissions on the correct files or folders is create a group on the server with all your Sims users a member of, i.e SIMS, Then on the workstations, go to the SIMS Setup Directory from a command prompt... e.g. S:\Sims\Setups then type in the following... simsperm.bat DOMAINNAME\GROUPNAME i.e DOMAIN\SIMS S:\Sims\Setups>simsperm.bat DOMAIN\SIMS That will then run a little script that will set the correct permissions for everybody who is a member of that group. YOU MUST be an admin tho in order to run that script. Hope that helps, Matt

Hi Guys, We are using Lesson Monitor, had the odd problem every now and then but nothing major. We have a setup of all staff having a Tablet PC connected to a Wireless Network. It is very user friendly and like Steve says there is no mesing around as the class list etc etc are already "known" to the system. Each Teacher has there classes presented to them for that day, but they are also able to select another teacher should they be covering a class. The License File is all that is needed to get Lesson Monitor working , as you will already have the program setup from the SIMS.net install. I know for a fact that Capita will not give you a trial version of the software... they will come out and give you a demo/presentation of the software, but not a trial version you can install on your own systems. Any further info required drop let me know. Regards, Matt

OK, i'm going to look more into setting up a local proxy server, but I can't understand why what should be a simple Group policy setting to change the Proxy server setting for a user to a "duff" address and only apply to members of a certain security group should course so many problems? How do others send out Settings related to Internet Explorer, 'cos I like I mentioned in the first post, I've never been successfull. Even if I want to change the users homepage etc etc I've never got it to work Regards, Matt

There is no OU setup called "No Internet" The pupils all belong to the Pupils OU, I link the group policy that disables the internet to the Pupils OU but because I've removed the "Authenticated Users" from the Security Filtering section of the Policy in GPMC and added "No Internet" the policy only applies to members of the No Internet group, so I don't have to keep moving accounts back and to from different OU's (And I know that that bit is working correctly by running the gpresult command I can see that that particular policy setting has been applied to members of that group and not to anyone else) @ Ric_ Nice idea, but we don't have a Proxy at the actuall school, it;s one all schools in our LEA access, so setting it up in that way is not an option I'm affriad. @Geoff I was aware of the delay to apply the settings, but I thought a "gpupdate" would sort that out, I also did a restart aswell Regards, Matt

Hi, I've been trying for some time now to disable the internet for certain users. This is what I am doing (or trying to do) I have created a group in Active Directory Users and Computers simply called "No Internet" when teachers ask me to disable a pupils internet access, I make that pupil a member of the "No Internet" group. I then have a group policy setting which under User Settings and Internet Explorer Maintance sets the proxy server to a false proxy address so that the internet cannot work. I also have Internet Policy Refresh enabled and set to "even if no changes are made" This Group Policy is set to enforced and only to apply to the "No Internet" group If I log onto a workstation as a user who is a member of the No Internet group and do gpresult I can see that the Policy has been applied, but when I try the internet it still works and the proxy servers have not changed from the working ones to the false ones. I've never been able to get the Internet Settings to work in group policys, even to set things like the home page etc etc What am I doing wrong, or what else do I need to do to make it work (or not work as the case may be!!!) Regards, Matt

Super.. Thanks very much for the replies.. Just downloaded the software, going to give it a go in a bit! Regards, Matt

Hi Chris, Thanks for the reply. We use a Mandatory Roaming Profile for Pupils. When the profile was created, the "Sort By name" right click was applied, although when users logon it doens't seem to make a difference. Matt

Hi Folks, Does anybody know if there is a Group policy that will Sort Start Menu Items by name? When i click on Start - All Programs the list of programs is all over the place, and I can right click on them a select "Sort By Name" which makes them look alot neater, However not everyone has the ability to Right Click and Select Sort By Name, and was wondering if there was a Policy that could be fired out that would ensure that the Start Menu Items always appeared in that way. Any thoughts? What are the chances of a forum focussed purely on Group Policys and Settings? Regards, Matt

Hi Guys, Thanks for the info and the file upload will give them ago next week when everyones back in. Regards, Matt

Hi, Does anybody know of any Freeware Software that will allow me to scan a network and obtain the Mac Address and Computer Name of a machine? Ideally you would be able to export this information into a text file. I'm wanting to setup a number of Access Points in the same room (Hall) each will be labelled with the same SSID name, and to avoid all the machines trying to connect to the same access point, I'm going to setup an MAC Address Access Table so that X Amount of Machines go to Access Point 1, X amount go to Access Point 2 etc etc to balance the load. Any thoughts Regards, Matt

I've got a really good script that will do exactly this, you can add the variable that says if the computer name starts with "xxx" then add a printer "xyz" as the default Will send it on Monday when I get back into work Regards Matt

Hi I just had the very same thing about a month ago when I upgraded a room to Windows XP. Using Windows 98, the machines shutdown automatically, then after a clean Install of XP, they just went to the "Its now safe to turn your computer off" screen, I had to upgrade my Bios, BUT after the Bios had been brought upto date, I had to re-install Windows XP because it didn't have the correct Bios settings before, the correct Power Management Drivers and bits and bobs wern't present, after a Re-Install on the new Bios all was well. I then just ghosted the machine with the correct settings, installed the Bios on the other machines and then copied the ghost image over Regards, Matt

Hi Guys, Yep, as "Tarquel" mentioned, all our teachers have Tablet PCs, we use the RM Teacher Tablet, seem to be a good build at a good price. They are slate style Tablets so don't have any CD-Rom Drives, Floppys or Keyboards; we have bought "Clip On" Keyboards should they want to use them. We are using the Tablets to connect to Sims and use Lesson Monitor to register AM/PM and Class Registers, also for staff to run reports from Sims, do their Pupil Reports. We are using the Tablets as an alternate to Interactive Whiteboards, We have got them connected Wirelessly to Projectors, advantage is better classroom management, teacher can walk around the class, stand next to people mis-behaving and also pass the tablet to people sitting in their seats save coming to the front, we found that some pupils want to take part in Interactive Activities but didn't like standing in front the whole class. Also when using the Tablet for Interactive Activities, it's alot clearer to see the screen then standing in front of the Projected surface Any further info required... I'll be happy to help Regards, Matt

Hi, Thanks for your tips, I will give them ago when I'm back in school. Regards, Matt

Hi, I've have got in place a Mandatory Roaming Profile that all Pupils load up when they logon to the computers. It has just been brought to my attention that they have found out that they can go into Word and edit the AutoCorrect list so that when other pupils type in Words they "Magically" change into something else. Any Ideas on how to stop them doing this? And why the settings are saved if it's a Mandatory Profile? Any ideas why my Mandatory profile grows to well over 100MB?? I thought the idea was that no settings/changes were saved? I tried making the whole folder "Read Only" for pupils, but this seemed to course problems when they tried opening Office programs Regards, Matt

Hi Folks, Just before I left this evening, I copied over an old "working" profile of a user that was having the problem with Images not appearing and Hey Presto - The images appeared!! So that kinda proves it's gotta be the user profile... any Ideas what part of the users profile might have messed up to stop these images from being displayed? Regards, Matt

Thanks Guys for the info, I think that it is something to do with the profiles, just seems weird why some work and some don't when the profile is loaded from a "Default Roaming Profile" folder on the server. This also has happened on machines where I have a local profile setup (Tablet PCs) but I think this loads the default profile also from the server, then makes that local. @gecko If we copy the pictures (From a user that is able to see them, and save them as a JPG file, they seem to work ok then. Just some files have loads of files that would need converting, when there shouldn't be a need to convert them! Regards, Matt

Hi, I'm hoping somebody is able to help me out here. We seem to be having a problem with some users trying to open Office Documents with certain types of images. Where the image should be there is a box with a red cross in it, however if I log in and open the file (or some other users) the images appear correctly. The users didn't have a problem a few weeks back, but a few things changed with the users profiles, and since then the problem has been happening.... I've havn't got a clue what has changed in the profile tho to course this problem Anybody come across this or knows how to fix it?? It's a problem for staff when they try using PowerPoint files in class!!! Regards, Matt PS. I think the images it can't see are Windows Meta Files????

Sorry, forgot to mention... It's Server 2003 with Windows XP SP 2 Clients

Hi Guys, Many thanks for your replys, I've been in today and had a play and thing I achieved what I was after, we'll see what happens on Monday I guess! Just a quick querry with regards to setting Internet Settings via GP, I have under a "user" GP settings for the proxy server, home page, Fav Links etc etc, but they never seem to be applied when a user logs in, I have also added to our Default Domain GP under the Computer Section - Admin Templates - System - Group Policy - And Enable the setting about Internet Explorer GP Settings, but this still doesn't seem to make a difference Any Ideas?

OK, The areas I'm keen on would be locking down users, but mainly sorting out the problems I'm getting here with Sync of folders. We have a number of Tablet PCs and they obvioulsy connect up online and sometimes offline. What I don't want is them Sync any changes, as sometimes the User is logged onto a Tablet from their class, but may use a PC in a classroom. We are using Roaming Profiles for staff, Re-Directing My Docs to their Home Drive and Desktop to a server location, I don;t want anything to Sync when they log out, but whenever I try the settings on the server to stop this, they still seem to want to Sync!! Any Ideas??? Thanks, Matt

Hi, Does anybody know of any websites where I might be able to find examples of Group Policys people have used, ideally in schools. Seems such a simple thing to do now by saving the reports from the new GP Management in Server 2003 but can't seem to find any examples anywhere on the web! Anybody able to help? Regards, Matt

Hi, I've just been setting up a Network with Windows XP SP2 Clients and Windows Server 2003 Enterprise Edition Network OS. The thing that is really bugging me and everyone else is that when the clients are left on the logon screen, after "X" amount of minutes the screensaver kicks in, then after a further "X" amount of minutes the screen goes off. Does anybody know of a way that I can disable these power settings for the logon screen, ideally by running something from a Group Policy, so that they just stay on the screen that says Press Ctrl+Alt+Del to start. Kids and Staff keep thinking that the machines are off, and press the power button whcih just shuts them right down! Which is becoming a right pain!!!!! Many Thanks, Matt PS Anyone know if you can "lock" the "Logon to" dropdown menu so that it can only be set to the Domain name and not changed to the local computer??