MartinT

Run the standard Windows 11 setup (put it somewhere in your network) and it will chunter for quite a while before offering to keep your programs and files. If it errors with unsupported CPU or TPM, go to regedit.exe and add the bypass hack: - Go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\Setup\MoSetup - Add a new Dword32 key, name it AllowUpgradesWithUnsupportedTPMOrCPU - Give it the value 1 Re-run the Windows 11 setup. This should work unless your machine doesn't even have TPM 1.2, in which case it's junk I'm afraid. It will buy you about a year of extra life in these machines but they will not perform the next feature update.

I commute 80 miles a day on the M3 (J7 to J0 and back) at motorway speeds. That has put 116,000 miles on my modified (supercharged) 2017 Subaru. It has never missed a beat. I need that kind of reliability as I simply couldn't suffer from worrying about whether it would make the journey or not. So, you see, I might have a 'fun' car with performance in mind, but I never lost sight of reliability and I have it serviced twice a year with the best oil, filters, tyres and parts money can buy at Abbey Motorsport.

No, I do all my research beforehand and check the car over thoroughly. I tend to buy low volume rare cars like my current Subaru BRZ. It's a long time since I had a Ford and I always formed the impression that they are built to fail parts soon after the warranty expires. Sadly, in more recent times I have had the same experience with BMWs. I'm pretty much only going to buy Japanese from this point on. I've never had a breakdown in one yet.

We are busy doing in-place upgrading to Windows 11, which takes some hand-holding with some of our machines.

All our recent purchases for big spaces have been laser projectors. Anything else gets a large Iiyama touch screen.

All I can say is that I pushed back on the Exams Officer some years ago and it was my mistake. They have a very difficult job to do and only ask for what is strictly necessary and compliant with JCQ. I have since befriended our EO and do what I can to ease the exams process using IT. Of course, it increases each year with more laptops specified in Access Arrangements, but I make sure we have enough of them (plus spares) plus the setups of reader software/headphones and whatever else is required. Of course the SEN team are involved, but it's the EO I work with as they will know exactly what is specified and allowed for each student. Things have worked much more smoothly since I changed my approach.

3 Body Problem is up there with Dune for epic scale, both in the books and what I've seen of the Netflix production.

Another vote here for Cloud Design Box. Essential if you're going the Teams/SharePoint route.

We converted all of our machines to UEFI boot some time ago.

We had the opposite impact last year when our Linux server for the phones acquired some malware which was saturating the gamma line with bad packets making phone callers sound like Daleks. It took us a while to track that one down, which of course didn't affect our main internet leased line.

We are using the Azure/Entra reporting for W11 compliance. Looks like we will be replacing some 200 machines by the end of 2025 as they have unsupported CPUs.

Junior and secondary. We do have ICT suites with Windows machines for Computing and online exams, while all the admin staff and teacher offices also use Windows. No, I don't relish mass online exams, the infrastructure and support load could be extremely non-trivial.

Especially if you run a swimming pool. Energy costs elsewhere pale into insignificance.

Don't know about the school, but since I detest the bloody things I do have to bite down hard sometimes. Yes, we have a full 365 and Jamf landscape with lots of OneDrive storage and wi-fi like you wouldn't believe (and, trust me, whatever bandwidth you have iPads have a way of guzzling it all).

Yes, it's a third-party web app for providing parents with all the information they need, supporting all platforms. They can support viewing assignments via Teams or Google Classroom. https://www.theaccessgroup.com/en-gb/our-brands/myschoolportal/

We have 1:1 student iPads and teacher iPads in a 365 eco-system. All notes are taken in OneNote and assignments provided in Teams. 'Textbooks' are provided electronically via Classoos. We have no exercise books and no textbooks.

Office 365 with SharePoint/Teams will do all of that internally. If you have a parent portal like My School Portal then that can expose Teams assignments for parents to view.

Not very helpful, but we have a TS-2477XU-RP running QTS 5.1.5.2679 firmware applied quite recently. No problems with logging in.

It's still coming

We use Cloudpath together with our Ruckus APs and Smoothwall for filtering by year group. We also use IDex on our domain controllers, including the NPS server for RADIUS. BYOD is for Sixth Formers only here, all lower year groups are denied (they have their phones locked in Yondr pouches during the day). I agree that installing the certificate from the getmitm page is the most tricky step in our instructions and different Android flavours behave differently. Apple is no better with their need to install and trust. We give instructions for Android, iOS, iPadOS, Windows, MacOS. We do not support Chromebooks. I was going to say to look for do not filter rules, but it looks like you've sorted it.

Watched the limited series One Day on Netflix about two university students who meet during the leavers' party and subsequently meet up again over the years. It's an on/off relationship drama but very well done and quite a lot better than the film. Certain scenes strongly resonated with me. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WlopfWYGBh4

We haven't been on 365 for long enough yet for the 10 years' retention to kick in. We anticipate applying the retention policy for all files in the Data Lifecycle Management section of Purview. Then all hell will break loose. (If staff want a document retained, just open and save it.)

Phoenix Software Ltd. provide all of our licensing.

Push for it strongly, it has allowed us to recover a couple of well screwed up Teams in the past. The Barracuda 365 backup service is very good.

We use VEEAM to CT (Central Technology). Storage charges only, per TB.