tarquel

Guess I wont be using that one then.... hehe thats about the amount of budget we get for IT each year lol I use LanView myself - just for easy remote control of things. Most the teachers don't know that they can even print off pupil work [years 7-9 cannot print to our colour Laser printer] when they need to lol so I dont think I'll let them loose on LanView yet hehe There's a simple rule... if they dont listen when you say pay attention - kick them out of the room for part of the lesson or get them banned from using the computers for a week [they should listen then lol]. Cheers Nath

OWA for the kids - much easier for you and less large Outlook archives floating around the network.... Plus, I think I read that Exchange 2003 Device / User CALs dont include the use of Microsoft Outlook 2003 any more.... OWA, of course, is allowed And of course, if you have Office 2k3 Pro on all the machines then it doesnt matter naturally Cheers Nath.

Joost? Whats that? I'll give it a go if you dont want it Nath.

I dont allow LA rights to anyone.... *decides to not go here as he hasn't enough time to rant on this one ;)* Thankfully, no one has asked for them [that I can think of]. Only staff members that have asked get "DVD/CD" access [with a legitimate reason]. While the current SMT will likely never draft a proper AUP for staff [or the kids - the kids do have to sign something, but its extremely old - and nothing to do with me. I did ask, but was looked at with a "why should you have anything to do with it?" kinda look, so there we go hehe], the county filters the internet and they technically come under the county employee status so if they misuse it, the county will know etc etc.... *realises he did start the rant and promptly stops - time, printer toner out, etc etc* Nath

Will do... when I get the chance [even if its just to say Hi and see you about hehe] I've only got the first "episode" tho. Nath.

I signed up as I got a invite from MS.... although I doubt I'll get picked as I have dont have a x360 [or a live account] lol But I do have a PC and the idea is that players on PC's can play against players on X360 [and vice versa] so you never know hehe Cheers Nath.

Does it happen on both the 98 clients and the XP clients, or just the XP clients? IF its just the xp clients AND you have installed Office to the local machine, then its likely permissions and/or group policy's that could be the cause... ...gonna log into one here with my pupil test user to see what happens. Nath.

AutoImage edie? Nath

Thats opening up a topical debate limbo hehe but try to keep this just as a "tips for beginners" area - not a general discussion on whether or not remote installation / RIS is worth doing please But just to answer your questions, i do it every 6 months and/or whenever I get a new machine / or the pupils have managed to foul up windows in some fashion [i.e. pulling cables out and hitting reset buttons etc etc] and i dont do it manually [i.e. just joining a machine that came with XP to the LAN] as i like my XP installs being fresh and free of other OEM configuration. [pm me if u want to carry this discussion on and we'll open up a thread for it ] Regards Nath.

Also, if you are using nlite [or similar] to alter the source, you may have a tweak that is disabling it also [but 'tis more likely to be Chris' suggestion - just thought I'd add another thought ]. Cheers. Nath.

Hi guys We've been using Office 2000 Pro [i.e. with Publisher] here for years on XP Pro.... can't think of any problems I've had to date. Don't know of anyone trying that.... just given it a whirl myself [although I'm not logged in as a normal user at the moment] and the only message I got was that the picture was too complex to use hehe It could well be permissions, especially if u are juggling settings for 98 clients and NT-based clients. Wanna give us a step-by-step of what actions you are taking? any screen shots of the message? Have you got any Office policies in place in AD Group Policy that may be affecting it? Cheers Nath.

Just thought I'd revive this one and also ask a question... To the users relating to using Ghost & RIS, its fine if you have Ghost licenses to cover you [i.e. you still need to buy Ghost hehe ], but I'm using RIS because a) its included for free and b) it does the job pretty well despite that its free @adent: nice one - good for those users who havent tried RIS And now for my question.... Is there any way to set in the RIS .sif file a way of partitioning half the hard drive OR to only format/repartition the first partition on the HDD? So far, here's the combinations of what I've tried: [RemoteInstall] Repartition=Yes UseWholeDisk=Yes Result: Repartitions the whole hard disk with one partition and installs the OS onto it [RemoteInstall] Repartition=No UseWholeDisk=No Result: Does not repartition or format any of the partitions on the HDD and installs XP onto [presumably - as i'm not by the machine] the first partition [along side any other OS that exists] [RemoteInstall] Repartition=Yes UseWholeDisk=No Result: Seems to have removed the two partitons I had on the HDD... Seems to be best with No to both options so far, if i could just get it to format the first partition at the same time :S Any thoughts to this welcome Nath.

[driver list updated - tarquel]

[sticky-ed for you all - tarquel]

I use my own custom made script that I can import a SIMS export of the new year 7, move a few things around and then run it through my script. It creates the user, adds them to the year group and a general pupils group, creates the dir structure and permissions, sets the allowed times etc etc and is automatic... My OU structure is mostly the same as others here... I'll link a picture later on [if i remember] Nath.

Nice link geoff Nath.

doh! I've only i had setup remote access to my home pc Geoff... could have answered that question You can't [AFAIK] add Vista specific drivers to the 2003 print server as it doesnt "know" about vista, much in the same way as you couldn't add XP drivers to an installed printer in server 2000 [if any of that makes sense]. As im sorta lookin into School's agreement, we havent ordered a single vista business license for me to try out, although the new PC's that are "en route" will have the vista express upgrade voucher with them so it wont be long before i can help with this stuff Regards Nath

Odd... well whatever it was, I remember we discussed it on here lol Nath.

Just a thought here but i believe drive Z is used in the system for something when it comes to batch / command scripts etc.... Sorry i cant be that clear, but all I can remember is that I was trying to do something using drive Z and when I used a different drive letter, it worked. Maybe this is why you had: Nath.

just a wild thought here but couldn't u invoke a uninstall through the startup script? Not 100% sure on the syntax but using some sort of msiexec command i.e. msiexec /u Its just a thought mind you. BTW Do you have 500 Smartboards?! lol or is the licensing similar to ActivStudio [promethean activboard's] where it grants you a certain amount on licenses per board which u can use? But with that amount of installs, you really [as im sure u know now lol] need to keep the same version on all. Regards Nath

If u use xfire at all, add me I dont play Guild Wars but i might do a bit more often again at some point Could use the in-game online company :D Nath.

At least 20 mins - just installing the install DVD lol *sighs*

I dont know.... but I shall try one and see [there are 5 disc's in the package - and at least two is a DVD] But my point is that as they machines are formatted and deployed at least bi-annually, I'll have to spend the same amount of time installing them manually every time I wipe them, whereas if it takes me x time to work out how to deploy them automatically through the network, then when the clients are wiped and re-reployed, it will automatically get installed. Of course, there is also that they may want to buy more copies of it if they like it and the course gets bigger [more students start taking it etc]. So thats why I'm asking hehe Nath.

Thanks for the comments HodgeHi. Been on the Pinnacle forums and I was surprised that it seems to have never been mentioned. At least thats what serching threw up.... nothing hehe Along with browsing the threads too. Alas forgetting about pinnacle would be a bit difficult being that we are a small school with a low budget, and they've bought 7 copies of the software. Media Studies its for I believe, which has had a dedicated machine for working on, but they now want to use some pc's in one of the computer suites to give more scope to the pupils doing the course. The course itself hasnt got much money, so not knowing didley about which software to suggest [nor having the time to look into it] left me just say "that sounds good" when the teacher suggested getting it. The good thing is that version 10 is vista compatible [or is partically compatible etc] which is handy in that the computer suite in question may well turn fully vista. Depends how things shape up. And I did like the look of iLife when I saw it at the Edugeek Conf [north] last summer/year] *notice the shameless plugging here hehe* Think I'll have to wrap the main install and take it from there.... when I get a chance to that is Cheers Nath

Much as I'd like to have a decent server at home etc. [cant as I live in a flat with my partner], I only have: - A desktop PC that used to be good in its day - MSI KT6 Delta FISR, Kingston [HyperX] 512GB DDR 400, Hercules A-I-W 9800SE 128MB [can be soft modded to a pro heh], Creative Audigy 2 Platinum Pro ZS, Antec Super Lan Boy case with a Antec SmartPower 430W PSU. It can run Vista but comes in at about 2.9 [Vista RC2 private beta] on the performance. XP Pro on their for now. - A laptop - Acer TravelMate 8104WLMi - which is pretty nippy and can run vista too. Dual booting XP Pro & Vista RC2 private beta. - Did have the Netgear SC101 NAS drive setup but was so rubbish on the performance, along with the problem that you had to have the drivers installed to see it and the drives, that I've just got it used as a external storage holder for a HDD with a USB > IDE connector attached to it instead - Got an assortment of other stuff - more Amiga's than you can shake a stick at [along with the games], couple of old desktops & the other usual bits and bobs, etc.. The only server I do have is that I'm renting a dedicated server located in a data center [blue Square, UK] which is a AMD Athlon 64 X2 4200+ 1GB RAM, 160G HDD, 100M connectivity, 1000G b/w p/month and I have CentOS 4.4 running on it. Its costing me a fortune but hopefully will be able to get some private work to help make it pay for itself etc hehe I do love CentOS I want to create a new Desktop in the future with Vista Hme Prem on it... [just built one that gets a rating of 5.3 - its the CPU & RAM alledgedly bringing it down as the rest get the highest score 5.9 - but its no slouch.... Core 2 Duo E6600, Asus P5W DH Deluxe, Sapphire X1950 XTX 512MB GDDR4, HyperX 2x1GB PC2-6400 [altho the system thinks its 5300 for some reason], WD Raptor 74GB 10k rpm HDD, Antec P160B case & TruePower Trio 550W PSU. Its simply amazing! And I want to keep it hehe cost just over a grand] ...and have it double up as a PVR machine - but not sure on things there [thats another story tho]. If i kick the missus out, I'll have the room [and electric] for a server then hehe oooops over Cheers Nath