gshaw

I'm setting up a new VM file server to move our staff from XP to 7, part of which is going to involve resetting the Documents folder structure (as it's a mess at the moment from a previous setup) I've got the standard permissions as per the usual MS and external articles but there's a couple of queries around the edges I'm trying to find the "official" line on does Offline Files have to be enabled on the share? do you enable the Windows Search service on your file server? Reason for this is I've never been much of a fan of Offline Files, seems to cause more trouble than it's worth but the thing seems to be harder to remove in 7 (haven't been able to fully turn it off on our classroom machines I migrated in the summer) yet some articles I read suggest search and some other features won't work unless it's turned on? Also regarding the Windows Search service, seems like I have to enable it on the server to turn off the "unsupported save location" error you get in Windows otherwise, only problem is I've seen that it's limited to how many documents it can handle (1 million?) and max number of concurrent connections. Even the server itself says it's only suitable for small scale use but yet clients still complain if it's not turned on?

I got it working with Windows 7 clients but XP was a nightmare. Needed an RDC client update, some other random update and a hotfix then still throws up a bunch of security alerts before you get to where you want to be. Also as far as I could tell there was no way to SSO to a desktop session (as opposed to a Remote App) after logging in via Web Access without installing a hotfix, which then promptly broke the RDC client on my test machine

Has anyone tried this on Server 2012 yet? On one hand it sounds great with Web SSO that actually works... Remote Desktop Web Access single sign-on now easier to enable in Windows Server 2012 - Remote Desktop Services (Terminal Services) Team Blog - Site Home - MSDN Blogs ...but on the other hand it requires that you run a Windows 8 virtual desktop and have RDC8 client on anything connecting in Back to the drawing board for something that will work across all devices I guess...

Just looking to download Server 2012 to see if RD Web Access is any better than it was in 2008 R2 (where it wasn't that great imo) but just wondering which edition you're installing? I'm licensed for Datacenter across our virtual hosts (to get the unlimited guest licensing) but not sure if it's worth installing that or just using Standard for the guest VMs?

It always puts Media Player back on the taskbar and the default pinned Start Menu items, really dumb design imo. Check out my blog under the Windows category, there's a post there about scripts etc you can use as a workaround.

@FN-GM do yours have an AHCI option in the BIOS? Ours are in good physical condition so seemed a waste to get rid, wish the batteries lasted a bit longer though

Knowing MS there'll be no GPO control and we'll have a wait on someone from TechNet forums kludging up a script to fix it (ref: pinning programs in Windows 7)

Stone MR052 laptop, old mobile Core2Duo, 2GB RAM CPU not a problem, HDD was awful but upgraded them to SSD; even on IDE mode it makes a huge difference.

The WinMail is a particularly annoying one as it sets up a 15MB database on every logon if you don't kill it through registry

Yup all configurable via GPO Computer Settings, Administrative Templates, System, Power Management iirc I've turned all sleep and hibernate settings off for all networked machines as the NIC going to sleep broke all redirected folders when it came back on I do turn off monitor after 10 mins though

I'm really picky about logon times and from testing the ones I've found are... - turn on Verbose messages (shows which policy is taking ages and lets the user see something is actually happening) - GPP printer mapping, check your driver versions to make sure they're up to date as it can make a big difference - delete the WinMail stubpath and IsInstalled values from the registry, particularly if you use mandatory profiles - get your mandatory profile size right down, use WinDirStat to find junk that gets recreated anyway and remove it - use the Event Viewer Group Policy Operations log to check how log each GPO is taking to process. Along with splitting out your GPOs you can isolate slow policies - if you use GPP file creation policies check whether you have them set to Create or Update... if a file never changes don't have it recopied every logon

Interesting, will have to keep an eye on that. Ironically after being the weak link for so long Skydrive is now one of the biggest draws for MS in terms of its integration with Windows and Office. The interface is better as well now, certainly a lot better than Sharepoint as it stands. As for the Google Apps argument it's the consistent Office interface that keeps us on a pure MS platform but the over complexity of 365 isn't doing it any favours at the moment imo.

Is there a guide for students on how to access their "My Files" area and will the next release allow customisation of the landing page you see on login? What I want is simple access to a cloud based file store for students working from home. Moving files around needs an easy drag and drop interface like Windows rather than lists and multiple click menus. Is this something we might see in the not too distant future?

MRBS... free, open source and highly customisable

I usually go but it's more manic than ever here at the mo so can't get up there this year

Awesome!

^^^ this I had Meraki on test as well at one point, found the management interface very nice but without a reliable crystal ball it's hard to know that a) the budget will always be there to pay for the ongoing cloud controller costs and b) the company will still be there and supporting that particular product at the same price in 3-5 years (less likely than point a but still possible, at which point you end up with a bunch of lovely white paperweights) In the end we went with Ruckus. Also considered AeroHive but their cloud management \ support has the same caveats as Meraki and buying the VM appliance was the same cost as a Ruckus ZD. That, coupled with the fact AeroHive's APs were a fair bit more pricey than Ruckus sealed the deal.

Have HP sorted out their management console yet? Last time I looked it couldn't do captive portal or guest authentication without an additional box and software (at extra cost of course!)

Mine are solely functional but becoming ever more cryptic as I try to get the role, version and number of servers into the NETBIOS character limit (never liked going over it for whatever reason)

As above depends on the usage... if it's a server doing roaming profiles and lots of ever changing documents then get the fast disks on the case, especially if you've got hundreds of users logging in at once and hammer the profile server. If it's a shared drive resource server then you'll need capacity over speed, at this point 2TB NL-SAS \ SATA will be more effective. If you're virtualising the file servers the handy part is that you can separate out the file servers to match their role and store them on specific sets of disks matched to performance needs We run 10 x 15k disks at the moment on our EMC VNXe, that does file servers, SQL and a couple of others but YMMV dependent on number of users etc. Also are those disks 2.5" or 3.5"? The smaller drives give less IOPS but you can pack more of them into the SAN chassis. Also have you run a capacity planning tool on your current servers? You really need to do that to get your current disk IOPS requirement from your existing servers before you can have any idea what you'll need on virtual. The VMWare planner is very detailed but you'll need a partner to run it for you. As an alternative you can run perfmon over a period of days to get an idea but to do it for 20 odd servers and collate the info is more aggro than its worth imo, get the company you're going to buy the kit from to do it as part of the tender.

I've got a set of netbooks I need to set up to be used externally (won't be touching our network so haven't domained them) but need to have them set up in a specific way: same profile as we use in the classroom custom desktop \ logon wallpaper Documents folder redirected to the D: partition The first point I've sorted by setting the network mandatory profile to be used locally (works fine), second point done via registry edits and scripts but trying to nail down the last one. On XP I used edited UserShellFolders and ShellFolders registry keys to redirect the My Documents, Pictures and Videos folder as part of a script in the Startup folder. That worked a treat but Libraries seem to make it work differently on 7. If I set the registry only it makes no difference but if I put custom Libraries files in the profile with the folder I want set as the sole location it seems to work fine. Question is then I guess whether I need to bother with the registry at all and just use the custom Library files on their own to get the required result? (alternatively any neater solutions would be appreciated as I can't think of a better way to do it at the moment)

Check out the thread http://www.edugeek.net/forums/windows-7/100928-problems-smartboard-under-windows-7-a.html#post871362 some really good advice from @timbo343 on fixing dodgy Smartboards. Steljes and SMART's support of older products is poor imo, especially as some of the faults that have come out over time are down to poor manufacturing in the first place (imo)

Always wondered why you can't do this through SCCM or other 3rd party management tools. I remember Lenovo going on about how the remote management was meant to be wonderful but their links to actually making it work have a habit of ending in 404 pages or marketing hot air

SkyDrive is a good bet, shame about the 7GB free limit for new users though

Advantages of Sophos... ummm.... errr... can't think of any (unless you're on the LEA deals above) We moved to Kaspersky then onto ESET after KAV turned into a clone of Sophos (i.e. so slow it killed every workstation it was installed on at boot or during scans). Thus far NOD32 has been quick and picked up what it needs to... hope that continues