gshaw

Just had a look for the requirements... Bit pointless as a Remote Access solution for non-domain computers then... how many staff are using Enterprise or Ultimate... although I guess MS would argue that's not the usage scenario they've designed it for but even so...

Doesn't DirectAccess require everything to be ipv6? We want to do Remote Access as well but the RDS Web Access component in Server 2008 R2 is awful from an end-user perspective especially on XP SP3 clients... needs 2-3 updates \ patches and MS still expect people to log in with DOMAIN\username format... user friendly much?

I think any design where there's a one size fits all approach is crazy and it's been on here time and again with wireless, thin clients, cloud... the list goes on and you know what... ...a hybrid approach tends to come out as the most sensible solution! Far too many gimmicks out there that companies latch onto, people get taken in by the shiny shiny effect and before you know it a lot of £££ disappears on a whim with no consideration into long-term effects. Why rip out and throw away working tech, build on what you have and use each bit of kit to its strengths.

Just had a look at the Unifi with m25man, looks pretty good - only question is long-term build quality... are there any example installations trundling along quite happily after 1-2 years that can be seen or being a relatively new product is it still a bit unknown?

Keep the replies coming guys, I'm considering Ruckus, AeroHive and now Ubiquity (due to the crazy low price)... Gut instincts say... Ruckus - proven and nice solution, good performance and seems to cover with less APs than some competitors... just the cost for controller that's a bit of a pain AeroHive - nice management, like the controller-less solution but don't like the fact the costs are just shunted onto "management" which becomes an ongoing cost (or an upfront VM purchase that's the same price as the Ruckus controller!) Ubiquity - so cheap I could cover the whole building for the same price as 1 controller for other solutions but I have some doubts over long-term reliability and build quality (it's almost too good to be true so have corners been cut somewhere?)

Linux-hates-Windows-copies-Windows shocker From being a complete Windows luvvie I'd started to warm to Linux then Ubuntu borked my last upgrade and had to start afresh with the recent versions with Unity... oh dear... It's a dog of an interface imo, can't stand the full screen switcher or the clunky side bar icons, luckily found Mint and the classic GNOME option and got back to some sort of normality again. As for this latest idea... I like the quick search on the Start Menu in Win7 but I also like to have the option to do it the old way... seems Ubuntu don't quite get that bit and it's "my way or the high way"... kinda like Apple but without the design skills. Some days I might want to use keyboard, some days I prefer mouse and don't appreciate some designer trying to force that choice onto me whether it's Microsoft, Ubuntu, Apple or anyone else. Ubuntu won't be going near any of my machines again, firmly with Mint now and hope the classic GNOME fork stays alive

Usually for installers to save typing long command lines and previously for login scripts... most of that done via GPP now

I'll wait until full release then probably wait a while after that before replacing SCCM 2007, someone else can take the bleeding edge pains for me on this one Part of me still prefers to keep the AV as a non-MS product from a paranoia point of view...

We're in an odd place of doing part training courses, part certified qualifications and part social classes so Microsoft makes sense in order to keep things consistent. I dread to wonder how confused students would be jumping between Office 2010 and Google Apps interfaces If MS sorted out their integration they'd wipe the floor with Google... hoping Office 365 with ADFS being SAML based will open up more opportunities than the current LiveID system which can be a right pain to work with at times Skydrive and Office Web Apps are the most valuable part of it for us, definitely more so than email from what I've seen

Apple have managed to mould themselves into almost religion-esque levels of following now... doesn't matter what they bring out now people will buy it in droves just to be part of the Apple lifestyle. Along with clothing brands it's quite disturbing just how easy it is for brands to make people buy and the social pressures involved around it. No wonder everyone's broke Personally I'm not a fan of iPhones and Apple's interface and will take HTC Sense any day

Core2Duo E8400 standard classroom spec from a couple of years ago but upped to 8GB RAM and dual 22" monitors for graphics and web editing work

Also note if uninstalling Office 2007 it does a reboot halfway through unless you add an extra suppress switch in the customisation wizard... Even when testing with SCCM it's not foolproof at stopping users running Office before \ during the installation... can't understand why the deployment methods don't have some way of locking a PC to users when installing major suites like Office...

Haha yup before we set up LDAP for scan-to-email typing the addresses was painful... however I found a good use for my ID card as it seems to be much more effective on a resistive touchscreen than my finger ever was

Looking at it here as well but need to make sure our copiers are compatible, what problems did you have with the accounts @soveryapt I'd like to link PaperCutMF with the copiers using HID cards that also tie in with Active Directory... is this possible? Idea being that if staff are using the copiers they login with the HID card but if they're printing from their PCs to a standard LaserJet it also tracks the usage...

What type of SAN (iSCSI, FC etc?) How much performance and failover do you have \ want? How many hosts do you need to hook up to it?

Just wanting to pick the brains of those who have already done it... My aim when deploying 7 is to take one Gold image (which I'll either prepare manually or via a Task Sequence) then send it out to all the various hardware types on the network. In theory this should work something like... - prepare image on some sort of virtual platform (might as well use vSphere) - capture as per usual - add driver packages to SCCM - apply WMI query to task sequence - apply correct driver pack as required - Windows should then auto install drivers and produce a complete imaged machine The only thing I'm wondering about is how much to strip the driver folders down. On one hand I want to ensure I don't get any pointless autorun programs (sound and graphics usually the offenders) but on the other don't want to end up debugging spurious errors if I go too far...

Judging by what I've found from Intel it seems Microsoft bundled the same version into the OS... http://downloadcenter.intel.com/Detail_Desc.aspx?agr=Y&DwnldID=18223&ProdId=2529&lang=eng&OSVersion=Windows%207%20Enterprise%2C%2032-bit%20version*&DownloadType=Drivers The one from the base install is the same 8.15.10.1930. Usually I'd do exactly as you mentioned and never use the Microsoft bundled driver but seems Intel cut these boards' support quite early. What I find silly is that when on the page for the DG965MS board Intel make out like there's no drivers available full stop, yet if you dig into each component of the board via the chipset you find 2/3 of what you need... maybe it's meant to be some kind of magical treasure hunt?! http://downloadcenter.intel.com/SearchResult.aspx?lang=eng&ProductFamily=Chipsets&ProductLine=Desktop+Chipsets&ProductProduct=Intel%C2%AE+965+Express+Chipset+Family&OSVersion=Windows+7+Enterprise%2c+32-bit+version*&DownloadType=Drivers

Edit: the Windows HD Audio driver doesn't work with microphone plugged into the back port... bizarre Trying these now... http://downloadcenter.intel.com/Detail_Desc.aspx?agr=Y&DwnldID=13706&ProdId=2372&lang=eng Vista drivers installed but don't actually work by the looks of it The MEI didn't pick up on Windows Update either unfortunately, looks like this is the official answer... http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_7-windows_install/intel-management-engine-interface-driver/7f13be54-fe75-4d79-aaf1-2f756e037035 Poor show from Intel, would expect better levels of support for boards that are meant to be sold for business PCs

Same as above really, VMWare hosts with everything split out... - 2 x DCs on 2008 R2 - file servers, split up so departmental shares will be on a separate VM to user shares... spreads the load out - management server (AV console, WSUS, monitoring tools etc) - print server - remote access server - SCCM server (best thing you can do to improve management of your PCs imo) - SQL server for MIS - Exchange for staff (students on Live@Edu) Then a couple of Linux LAMP servers for open source products we're either using or testing (MRBS, Xerte etc) The next version of Hyper-V could make the hypervisor battle very interesting indeed but at the present time vSphere all the way if you can

How do you want to run WSUS, as part of SCCM or standalone but just sitting on the same server?

32" Samsung for me... another vote for Richer Sounds as well, fantastic customer service

I'm testing Win7 deployment on some of our Stone machines at the moment but got a slight driver issue They're the BTX towers from circa 2007 (Core2Duo E6600) and running fine with warranty but having gone on the Intel site I get the lovely message that the board is discontinue (of course) and that Intel has no plans to release updated drivers for 7, which makes me :mad: Forced obsolescence via software is something that really irritates me so want to keep these machines running... so far I've manually found drivers for... - chipset, available on Intel's site (!) - network, available on Intel's site via the standard PRO1000 drivers - video, looks to be included within the Windows 7 installation and Aero was auto enabled working (demgmt shows it's an Intel driver ) - audio, comes up in 7 as a generic HD Audio device but seems to work so might leave it at that as the only other option is an old 2007 Vista driver as the company who made the chip has disappeared - there's no specific Windows 7 files for the MEI controller but I'm able to set it to use the Vista driver and it picks up OK. Looks like this might be as good as it can be for these machines unless anyone has found pure 7 drivers for everything?

If you're on XP put it on, makes life a lot easier for printer deployment as mentioned and bits and pieces like registry keys that you'd usually do by script

Hmm interesting... agree with the view above that you might be paying for more than you need. We don't use DPM so don't want to be paying for that and I'm happy with vCenter and ESET for VM and AV respectively. For me... App Controller - new? Configuration Manager - you might have noticed I'm a fan Data Protection Manager - don't use (Veeam) Endpoint Protection - don't use (ESET) Operations Manager - have it but needs a bit of work, hope 2012 is easier Orchestrator - new? Service Manager - got it this year, great for ITL but not played with it yet Virtual Machine Manager - happy with vCenter for now but if it's bundled could be worth a look If it's still silly cheap on EES happy days, will be annoyed if it goes right up but we'll soon find out I guess. This *should* be a pointless question but I hope it doesn't install as a single suite as that would be very, very silly...

This site will make your life a lot easier, loads of step-by-step guides... Windows Deployment Services (WDS) - www.windows-noob.com Will be very satisfying once you get it working and the whole process involves nothing more than supplying the machine name at the start of the process