CHiLL

We've deployed out Windows 10 Education, mainly because it's that's apparently what it's designed for (debatable). I haven't modified my WIM and use AppLocker to disable access to the built-in AppX apps, however they do still appear in the Start Menu. If you do modify the WIM to remove the AppX packages, they will also disappear from the Start Menu.

I'm glad you've posted this because we're experiencing the exact same issue. TL;DR: Emails not auto-appearing when received and users have to refresh the page to see new emails. Couldn't easily determine where the issue was coming due to increased workload during first week back. After testing, it has been determined that it's a filtering issue that is causing this. Machines being filtered don't get emails automatically and emails in the proxy bypass group do get emails automatically. This has been raised with Smoothwall. Updates done over summer: Upgraded machines to Windows 10 1903 x64 (from 1709) Deployed Chrome Enterprise 76.0.3809.132 x64 Forced UI updated to Office 365/Outlook by Microsoft I'm not currently sure which (if any) of the updates have contributed to the issue as I've had more pressing issues to deal with at the start of term. Staff have been told for the time being to manually refresh the page until it is resolved. We have raised it as an issue with Microsoft's Office 365 support and had a response this morning - asking if it's happening in any other browsers, which is what we'll check today if we can. Note; We're not using Sophos - we use Smoothwall for filtering. Update 1: This issue is also occuring in Internet Explorer and Edge. Update 2: On my office workstation I still get emails appearing automatically via Chrome. If I log on as a staff account on a Library PC and then log onto my Office 365 account using Chrome - it does not get email automatically and needs to be manually refreshed. Both are using Chrome 76.0.3809.132. Update 3: We appear to have confirmed that our issue lies with Smoothwall. I put a known problem machine into the proxy bypass of our Smoothwall and the emails started automatically came through. Which explains why they were coming through for me on my machine, because I'm also on the proxy bypass. We've raised this as an issue with Smoothwall. I've created a thread in the Smoothwall Direct forum: http://www.edugeek.net/forums/smoothwall-direct-support/209387-office-365-emails-not-coming-through-automatically-affecting-all-users.html#post1789858

I've started watching Peaky Blinders and most of the way through Season 1 now. So far I'm enjoying it. The accents from Cillian Murphy and Sam Neil are incredible, but some of the others are questionable! I swear some of the brummies sound scouse sometimes!

The film of the rally has been uploaded to their website: http://www.tyrestraits.com/filmportal

Just finished season 4 of Billions. I've liked the show as a whole throughout the different series. Season 4 was good, but it's just not as good as earlier seasons (like with most shows). Though it has been renewed for season 5, airing in 2020.

Update: Turns out that once I'd got the new certificate, I had to configure the SQL Reporting Services, specifically the Web Service URL and specify the new certificate. Then MBAM worked straight away. Despite that's working, shouldn't the server's automatically renew their certificates (even if I have to manually configure the SQL Reporting Services annually)?

We have a CA setup on one of our DCs, which issues certificates to servers, workstations and users. We're using MBAM for encryption and it is failing to encrypt because of a certificate error: "A required certificate is not within its validity period when verifying against the current system clock or the timestamp in the signed file." The time/date are correct. Checking the server that has MBAM configured, Computer Certificates > Personal > server.local has a certificate that expired on 02/08/2019. I thought these should automatically renew from our CA? If I right click the certificate and select 'Request Certificate with New Key', a new certificate is issued and installed on the server, though MBAM still doesn't work (with the same error), even if IIS is configured to the new certificate for the MBAM site. Anyone got any ideas?

I think our Salamander process is: Detects end date in SIMS > Converts mailbox to shared > Removes O365 liceneses > Moves user account to another OU (still within the synced OU structure that Azure syncs) > Moves the Home folder to an archive folder > Disables the AD account. There may be more steps, though I believe that they're the main ones.

When our staff leave (when an end date for their employment is entered into SIMS), on that date Salamander automatically converts that mailbox into a shared mailbox and remove all assigned licenses.

The only way would be to push out a Start Layout to users that has a preconfigured layout. You can customise the layout by editing the XML file. https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/configuration/customize-and-export-start-layout

Crawl (2019) Went to the Secret Screening at Cineworld last night and it was Crawl. One of the worst films I've seen in years. It was almost TV movie like, in the realms of Sharknado. At least Sharknado knew what type of film it was and played to that in a tongue in cheek way. However Crawl was taking itself seriously. The acting wasn't great and the bad science and first aid in the film were second to none. Surprisingly it's mostly rated as 3/5 for reviews and got 84% on Rotten Tomatoes. Did I watch a different film to everyone else?!

The Lion King 2019 It was just OK. Nothing special and the lack of emotion on the animals faces was quite distracting. Not a spot on the original animation and if you had to pay to see one film this month, I don't think I could recommend The Lion King.

Finished Season 3 of Stranger Things. Really enjoyed it and it left me craving for more. Note for those who haven't (and maybe those who have)...there's an after credits scene. Next on my list is Killing Eve Season 2. I have three of the six weeks off this year, so maybe that'll give me the time to binge everything I need to. Yeah, he plans to make it available for public viewing, though he's still not sure where or what time scale. I'll try to message you when it does get published online.

Did either of you requested your data location set to be in the UK only for GDPR reasons? O365 Admin Centre > Settings > Organisation Profile > Data Location. We're wondering if they're using these location settings to for DBA? It's unlikely, just wanted to rule it out.

I've just received another response: So they're saying DBA won't work outside the US, even with the A1 Plus license. I'm going to get them to proceed with the A1 Plus licensing anyway, incase it does actually work. It's not going to cause us any issues anyway.

Thank you very much. That appears to fix this issue. I had actually seen that article before, though not acted on it because the VPN was just working without that extra configuration. Though it does seem strange that all of our clients have developed this metric bug at the same time. I will add this info to my configuration document, to hopefully avoid this again in the future. I wonder if it's possible to automate this as a part of my configuration steps for the VPN, or script it and deploy it alongside the VPN profile?

This is a bit of weird one, so please bear with me while I try to explain it! I've had Always-On VPN deployed for many months now in a testing phase, with about a 10 staff using it and it's been fine for most of that time. I came to configure it for a new member member of staff and noticed an issue where it won't let the user log in from home, though I've not heard of any issues from staff that are currently using it. The error that was shown on the login screen stated: The VPN is supposed to (and has done in the past) automatically establish a connection to our VPN server and then authenticate the login when the device can contact the DCs through the VPN. However this isn't happening and it's throwing that error. I've checked my VPN configuration, VPN profile (configured and deployed by SCCM) and firewall rules...and they're all the same as when I configured them and it worked. Now onto the strange part. We have a backup line provided by VM that we can access from our office (and therefore is not associated to our domain/network in any way). When I join a laptop to this Wi-Fi and attempt to log onto the device using a VPN configured user, the VPN fails to connect with the above message. However, if I join it back to our school wireless and log onto our domain with said user - and then switch to the backup line's Wi-Fi once it's logged on...the VPN notices the switch and automatically connects the VPN service and it works! Accessing the file shares, SIMS, etc all work when it's connected this way. That proves that the actual technology/configuration of the VPN service is working. So the issue appears to be that the VPN is not establishing when the user attempts to log on, when it should do. I've tested this on both a Windows 10 Education 1709 x64 laptop and another Windows 10 Education 1903 x64 laptop - both provide the same results. This is where I am at a loss, because no configuration has changed. Edit 1: I've just been informed that our Head appears to have been connected to the VPN from home on Saturday, as she reported one of the desktop icons is incorrect and needs amending. We do create a local account on devices that allow staff to use the laptops at home, however the icon she was talking about only appears on our staff redirected desktop on our domain. That suggests she was connected to the VPN. Edit 2: I sent an email out to those staff who test this VPN, asking whether they've had issues with it. One replied with that they tried it last night and it wouldn't work for them and had the same error message.

Shared Activation appears to only be relevant for effectively the old MSI installers, so the Professional Plus versions of office (despite 2019 being a Click-to-Run installer). These Professional Plus versions are activated from your KMS server that has your KMS keys from your VLSC agreement. Office 365 ProPlus uses your Office 365 licenses, not KMS licenses and is limited to 5 activations per user by default. Not ideal for schools where students will roam around many different computers and exceed the maximum amount of activations. Microsoft are recommending Device Based Activation (DBA) for these situations, though it's only officially supported in the US at the moment. That is what we're having trouble getting activated on our tenancy at the moment.

Have you tried using one of the Office 365 accounts on multiple computers with Office 365? Our issue is that our students roam around different rooms, so may use in excess of 10 computers in a week. This takes them over the maximum amount of Office 365 installations that they can activatem hence the error. If I install it on staff laptops - they are effectively 1-1 devices and don't run into these issues. It appears to be related to specifically the roaming user (even though Shared Computer is set to enabled during the installation - that doesn't work for Office 365).

I never got clarification from them as to which document they meant. I sent the Welcome Letter we received, but they will wanted the rest of the information afterwards.

That's exactly what's happening to me, because my tenancy has not got access to the A1 Plus license to assign it, even going through the signing up process. That's when I raised with with O365 support and I'm still in that process at the moment.

Looks like the letter wasn't enough, as I had this sent to me on Friday: I filled all that in and sent it back and I'm waiting for a response.

I've been running SIMS on 2019 since summer last year and haven't had any issues. We've even had Capita support remoted in for SOLUS or general issues (like reports, bugs, etc) and they've not batted an eyelid about it being 2019.

Binged Stranger Things Season 3 over Friday/Saturday - absolutely loved it. It's just a shem they only make 8 epidodes per season! I also watched race 1 of the Formula E (no spoilers, I'm watching Race 2 this evening). It was an exciting and event packed race! My Brother-in-Law did the Mongol Rally (drove from London to Mongolia in a crappy car...a 2002 Vauxhall Agila). He's an avid photographer and had the cameras, drones and what-not. He made a documentary of the journey and spend the last year going through the footage, putting it all together into a film. He premiered it yesterday, hiring out a small cinema screen in a restaurant. It was great and amazing to see the adventures and scenery that he went through. The premier was being held in Wantage, Oxfordshire, so a 90 minute drive from Brum. On the way down the M40, I saw the Red Arrows join formation and fly over, which would have been for the start of the British GP. I also drove past Williams F1 HQ, which was nice. After I got home yesterday, I watched the F1. Despite starting the race at 10pm, I'm glad I watched it all, what a race! It's rare that there's that much racing in F1 these days!

I did a direct in-place upgrade from 2012 R2 to 2019, using the ISO on all my servers. Had no issues and that was done last summer.