theeggmaster

Hi all, We moved SIMS in-house a couple of years ago, and I've never managed to get the SIMS client to automatically update when a member of staff clicks on the shortcut. Currently I do a mass logon with Impero out of hours and run simsload.exe on each machine so it is ready for staff after the upgrade, which isn't a problem as I think it helps. However, there are always a couple of machines that don't power on (sockets switched off at walls), so I'd like to catch these by allowing them to upgrade automatically. My SIMS .Net shortcut points to simsload and then pulsar, so it does attempt to run the upgrade. However, it doesn't actually perform the upgrade and then tries to load SIMS with the 'Incompatible Database' error. I've applied simsperm.bat on each machine in school, and I have a GPO which has the following settings: Computer Settings | Windows Settings | Security Settings | File System %Program Files%\SIMS - Staff have modify %SYSTEMROOT%\sims.ini - Staff have modify Computer Settings | Windows Settings | Security Settings | Registry Machine\Software\Classes - Staff have full control Everything is set to propagate to subfolders and subkeys. The c: drive is hidden to staff, and they have read-only access to the Setups folder on our SIMS server. Any help would be appreciated!

I was looking for offline backups for Google Drive when we went to GAfE in 2012, and I was looking at this one - (workflow.ae). $129.95/Year for up to 3000 users. However, Google then announced they were upping the online quotas and I simply didn't have enough offline storage to cope with it at the time. May be worth another look, though.

We use Bromcom Webfolder SD for staff access to SIMS through a browser. Gives them access to marksheets and some student data, but doesn't replace the full fat SIMS client. We use Insight as well for our Parent Portal. We publish our reports to it through linked documents in SIMS and the PDF upload tool. We also use it for parents evening bookings.

Hi, Just read that the RealVNC for Raspberry Pi alpha release now supports Minecraft. Just thought I'd update this thread in case anyone was interested. Link

I've given that teacher both of the options, so it's up to them and their father from this point, although I agree that buying the machine and converting it to PC themselves is probably the best option. Thanks for all of your input.

Yes, I would have recommended similar, but as both of his players are water damaged and don't work, that isn't an option unfortunately. Buying one second hand and doing the conversion may be another option but may not be as cost-effective as shipping them off to a company to do the conversion for him.

Hi, One of our teachers is asking if we know of any way to do Betamax to a digital format to preserve her father's collection. His Betamax players have both been water damaged recently and he can't play them back. Does anyone have such equipment, or recommend any of the online services available through a Google search?

Yes, I've looked at that, but I was hoping to do this for free, so I've been looking at FreeRDP-Webconnect and Guacamole, but if Capita has a preferred solution, I would like to look at that. Microsoft also have HTML5 for Azure RemoteApp available in public preview. Also, we may be able to use the actual Android RDP client on Chromebooks in the future (link).

Unfortunately, none of those options are for Chromebooks.

My question is which Chrome App allows you to run RemoteApp? We have SIMS published with RemoteApp and it's only on Chromebooks that we can't access it due to no suitable RemoteApp Chrome apps. I'm guessing you could use Android's RemoteApp through Arc Welder, but that isn't great to ask staff to setup. What are Capita using for their hosted Azure?

We use Chrome Sign Builder, but I know a few people on here use Rise Vision, which is also free.

I used to have both iPads and Chromebooks on Meraki, but I moved away from Meraki once they brought in the device limit. We now use an Apple server to do the iPad MDM, and GAfE for Chromebooks. Ideally I'd like to put both into one MDM, but as we implemented the Apple server just before Google's introduction of iOS into GAfE, I'm not keen to change it just yet.

Depending on how much you use Meraki for iPad MDM control, you might want to think about using purely Google as your MDM solution. They recently enabled iOS MDM within the Google Admin console (link).

Do you have any links to any more information on running RemoteApp on Chromebooks? This is one of the reasons why we currently pay for Teacher's Webfolder SD, but I'd like the full SIMS client on a Chromebook.

When we moved to GAfE back in 2012, I was looking at solutions as Google Vault wasn't available, the 30 day snapshot wasn't available and it didn't have unlimited storage. The most cost-effective solution I found was this one from workflow.ae. However, once they announced unlimited online storage I knew that I'd struggle to provide enough useful offline storage longer term.

Hi, I've got a bit of an issue with RemoteApp and I'm trying to find a way of troubleshooting it. Clients can connect to the RemoteApps internally with no issues, and can also connect using the Remote Desktop app on iOS/Android both internally and externally. However, Windows-based clients cannot launch the apps. They can log in through RDWeb and see the apps. Clicking on the apps downloads the RDP file, and opening the RDP file allows them to enter credentials. At that point, it says Starting and then doesn't do anything until I get a popup which says RemoteApp Disconnected (image is attached). Any help with troubleshooting or pointing in the right direction would be gratefully received.

I think RDWeb is definitely better if you're using something like an iOS, Android or iMac device using the Remote Desktop app. That's how we get SIMS on our Macs.

We have also had SIMS and FMS published as RemoteApps for a couple of years. Both work fine.

Yes, I re-read it and checked against other sites, and it did look over the top, but when you're actually doing it, it's much simpler. I used that guide as it was in a series of guides I was following when retiring our Server 2003 DCs and creating new DCs.

Yes, I did this last summer, following these instructions. Where it says to uninstall the DHCP service from the old server, I just stopped the service so I could spin it back up again if the migration failed. I used a new IP address for the DHCP server, and our WDS server didn't have a problem. We are on a flat network currently, though.

I'm there Friday and Saturday.

Yes, Win 7 security support is active until 2020. I'd give Windows 10 a year or two until it's had plenty of large scale beta testing/consumer usage and plenty of enterprise adoption so all of the bugs are ironed out.

Tempt fate by putting permanent marker pens in the correct colours in each of the pen tray slots. Have a sweepstake on how long it'll take before permanent marker is used to annotate onto the board...

Speak to the supplier of your Microsoft Agreement. We had to place an order with ours with an approximate number of students and FTE staff. The order was for £0, but we still had to do it. You then assign them a licence in the O365 portal and they can then log on and download it.

I had to do more than one postcard request too, but it eventually got to me. @RichCowell is right. It does look like junk mail. I think it took around a month to get to me.