sqdge

Vista does have the low power state thing. It behaves more like a screensaver, so it's not technically "boot time" - but it will significantly shorten the time from black screen to exciting graphics. I've also found that disabling the sidebar can significantly reduce startup time.

My HP printer will now only print in best.

I turned UAC off - and have not suffered any ill effects. However, for those who want it switched off only every now and then, there is a utility called Tweak UAC that will temporarily disable the function without the need to restart the computer.

Do people really do that?! I thought it only happened on TV.

I'm going to install this on a completely blank machine this time, so hopefully that will eliminate some of the problems I had last time. In return for your help, I'll offer you my garden for any BBQs you may want to have, my services as a photographer, and my ability to draw sheep.

It must be Wednesday, so here's this week's PQOTW. There was a slight break from it last week as I was in the middle of nowhere in Scotland with no access to the internet (a poor excuse, I know). This week I have been spending a large part of my spare time trying to organise a concert of classical music in my village. The concert will hopefully raise money for the New Hope Orphanage in Kenya. If it is successful, then I hope to be able to donate about £1000. If it's not, then I hope to still retain some dignity. Which leads me on to this week's PQOTW: [align=center] What is the most recent thing (not school related) that you have done that means you can polish your halo? [/align] Go on, this is your oppurtunity to brag to the whole community about what a model citizen you are. (Incidentally, the Orphanage website allows you to donate money to them online. So, if you haven't done any good deeds recently, here is your oppurtunity - I would be very proud of you).

Thanks a lot Wesleyw! I have looked at Liberum and One||Zero, and while I like their help desk layout, there aren't enough 'other things' that they do (calendar, bookings, etc.) So I think I will tackle GLPI. I have previously attempted to install OCS NG, but got into a bit of trouble, but I'm ready to try again now (some days are best designated as "Ink cartridge replacement day"!) I've come across enough tutorials in English on how to install GLPI now (I wish I could read French) - so I will probably have a go this afternoon. I've downloaded XAMP in the past, but could not get it to start all the services. Again, I'm ready to tackle it again now. Or, I'll see if there's an inkjet printer needing a refill.

At the moment we have a help desk system in the form of "The Red Book", which is always kept in one part of school - which is not always practical for me to write in. So, a digital helpdesk would be replacing the work that goes into the Red Book - so, in our case, I don't think it will be increasing the workload but streamlining it instead.

I did like spiceworks, but I found it took forever to do anything. At the moment, I'm finding the demo of GLPI quite fun to play with. I might investigate that option further.

I have often looked at GLPI but found it a little daunting. I'm not a Linux man, and although I know it can be installed on a Windows machine, strikes me as something that would take quite a while to configure. Does anybody know of a guide that may put me at rest (and by that I mean help me rather than kill me).

Basically, this topic is about help desk systems. However, before you say "why didn't you just search the forums" I have and I think my problem is different enough to warrent its own topic (plus it makes me feel more important than I actually am). We are not a large school so there are only three active members in the ICT dept. The Network Manager (me), the Co-ordinator, and the Technician. The technician works in the morning, and I work in the afternoon (the co-ordinator is a teacher and I think she lives here...although I haven't found a bed or anything). The problems we currently face is keeping up with what the other person is doing. In theory, we are all working on seperate tasks: the technician works on the 'here and now' tasks, I work on the future tasks (basically, buying stuff), and the co-ord deals with the edu side. However, ocassionally we need to find out what each other is doing. Therefore, I am looking for some sort of (free) task logging / incident reporting / calendar program that wil allow everyone in the dept. to see what each other is doing. Budget really isn't on our side for this thing, so while I like the look of ServiceDesk Plus I can't really warrent spending the money on it (and I'm under the impression that the free version only allows for 25 nodes before it gets stressed). Any ideas?

Boring blue for all the students here...and the teachers. Although custom bmps can be used on the teacher's laptops. I also use boring blue (bar one admin PC which i deliberately set to boring grey for a bit of variety). My servers feed into one monitor so I have cleverly added the words "admin" and curriculum" to their desktop backgrounds so that I don't get confused.

OK, so some parts aren't very nice. But the piers and the abbey are quite something I feel. Anyway, I've corrected my opinion. Nobody can fault Milton Eonan (probabaly because nobodys really been there).

I'll correct what I said. There's a little hamlet in Scotland called Milton Eonan. If it wasn't for the 8 hour drive I'd go there at every chance I could. I am also certain that my spiritual home is not in a middle school in the heart of Suffolk. Maybe if there was a pot plant and view I might think a little differently.

I went on the "Whitby Trip" before I was employed by the school - and so I am considered one of the experienced members of staff that go on the trip. Also, the person who organises it happens to be my Mum. I guess I'm just lucky. Although my mobile phone was used quite a lot on the trip between my technician and I. I couldn't escape!

Sorry about the delay in writing this week's PQOTW (I know many of you have lost sleep as a result) but I have been away on a residential trip with the school for the past week. Every year we take 44 eleven year olds to Whitby to show them what hills and sandy beaches are like (both of which are quite rare here in Suffolk). I love Whitby and could happily see myself spending a happy life time there. Which brings me to this week's question: Where in the world is your spiritual home?

OneLan is one approach - but I don't know how good it is.

EduGeek law: Like Godwin's Law but with nonsense instead of Nazis.

I like the look of SpiceWorks, but I have found that I can not get it to find all the computers on my system, and it has a habit of classifying things as being "unknown"...but other than that it's a clever piece of software.

I am more sure that it is the workstation, since I am led to believe that it occurs with more than one child - and the problem doesn't occur on other PCs.

I know someone who did precisely that. He quit because he found it boring. They don't get to play the games normally, they have to explore every area on the screen - which includes repeatedly running into walls (so, not too different from our current jobs then).

I do that for a small company in the nearby town - we do large outdoor airshows and small indoor amateur productions (and everything in between). One word of advice though: If you are going to do an outdoor event, make sure you have a nice caravan!

Is your successmaker running as part of the whole school network, or on a seperate system? Ours is on a seperate system, and will occasionally have problems if it loses connection to the 'server' and thus can't find the child's records.

Today marks the first day of my school's OFSTED inspection. I am friends with an inspector and understand why she became one (a second income) - however, that can't be the only reason. Which leads me, in a rather convoluted way, to ask: [align=center]If you weren't an EduGeek, what job are you most likely to have done instead?[/align] For example, I would probably be still working towards becoming a psychologist.

I did - but I have checked so many today that I can't actually remember what it said any more. It's OFSTED tomorrow, so I might have another look tomorrow to make it seem like I do something worthwhile at school rather than just hide in the staff room.