Gongalong

These are definitely XLSX files. It's a weird one. I've found a rather clumsy workaround, but it does work. I can move a spreadsheet and the label template (Word file) to a different directory, open the Word file, and connect up the spreadsheet again. I can then move the files back and set the Word file to be read only. Then it always prompts to open the data source as the changes to the new data source cannot be saved. It means three extra clicks when opening before you get the data source prompt, that's the only difference.

Hi folks, One of our departments regularly mail merges a (Word) label template with one of several spreadsheets. They somehow had this setup that whenever you open the Word document it prompts for the spreadsheet location. I cannot see where in mail merging, or elsewhere, you can set it to always prompt. They now want to use a new Word template but have this same prompt behaviour. Anyone know how this is configured? Thanks

It could be this new janky File Explorer. I went into Options, View tab, and turned on and off the various bits of the navigation pane. That cause all the quick access bits to disappear from Home.

Hi folks, I've flattened and reinstall my PC with 22H2. I don't remember having a Home section before, but I've got both that and seemingly anotehr Quick Access section with horizontal dividing lines. Home has everything pinned to quick access plus OneDrive, then the section below has just quick access. Anyone know how I can get rid of the second section as it's essentially duplicating? I can't spot anything under File Explorer options. Thanks

Hi folks, Anyone here get involved with productions? We’ve borrowed some body pack mics with a headset mic, and the mic needs to be secured to the face of the performer. I’m aware of surgical tape. Anyone use that and know if it works well, or should we use something else? The mic has no extra anchoring so it does need securing in some fashion. Thanks

That explains it. In removed policies they are still called blacklist and whitelist, whereas in the live Extensions folder they are allow list and blocklist. I don't suppose there's a place that Google publicise these changes, albeit a one off in this case?

We do have FFT, and SISRA, so I'll make sure that our attendance officer speaks to the person using those already.

Hi folks, Our attendance officer finds the SIMS and Discover attendance analysis poor. Does anyone out there know of any 3rd party tools to use with SIMS that do a better job? This is at secondary level. This is where Arbor and Bromcom are looking more attractive, but we’re interested to know whether it can be done with something that links with SIMS. Thanks

Hi folks, A question about using the Chrome ADMX templates in group policy, if there’s anyone that keeps a close eye on those. I think I must have configured these in 2017 to block extensions, as well as change a few other settings. I just spotted students using extensions, so downloaded the latest version of the ADMX template, copied it to the central store, and spotted that my original extension blocks and allows have been moved to a GP folder called “Removed policies”. It’s still possible to block extensions, but back under Google Chrome/Extensions, so I’m not sure what Google have changed here. Just wondering if anyone knows whether this was changed, and if there’s somewhere to monitor to be informed of these changes? Thanks

Hi folks, I have been asked to look at heat branding, or otherwise physically marking laptops (on the lid), with an asset number. This is for laptops that are handed out to students during lessons. We are trying to prevent damage to laptops happening during lessons, and this is one potential idea. (Any other ideas gratefully received!) Has anyone come across a system that will allow marking of plastic in this way? (It would need to be a 4 digit number) Or are we more likely to have to use an engraving tool? Thanks

We're playing to some huge ceiling mounted projectors. They are run over CAT5 to a wallbox at the front of the hall. Perhaps we should have added a connection at the back of the hall as well, but I have a feeling the CAT5 goes directly into the projector and it only has the one socket. I've not come across SDI before. Is this just a high quality video cable? I'm guessing these https://www.blackmagicdesign.com/uk/products/microconverters I have bought a 20m CAT6 S/FTP cable that looks the business so will test that. The only difficulty is that in initial tests all was fine with the unshielded CAT5 cable so might be difficult to know for sure that all is working until rigorously tested.

We did get SCCM/MEMCM to work. It transpired that the current build of the Photos app is for Windows 11, which is why we were having problems installing it on Win 10 machines. We had to find the Win 10 version (2020.20120.4004.0) and then deploy that as part of the AppX bundle. We rebuilt the machines over the Summer anyway, and this time left the Store app intact and blocked it with AppLocker. So hopefully it will sort itself out in terms of updating the app.

Not more than a couple of minutes though. I guess it's a way to be thorough.

Dell Support said to remove the power cable, then hold the power button for 10-12 seconds. Seems odd to me, but I have tried it. So far no recurrence, but it is weirdly intermittent. Next up is reinstalling Win 11 from scratch if it recurs.

Well I spoke to soon, the freezing is back again. Might log a ticket with Dell Support but I don't expect much from them. And might just reinstall Win 11 from scratch. Annoying.

A friend suggested the same thing so I swapped it with the SATA lead to the DVD player, which looks better quality. So far data is restoring without issue.

Found the SM bus driver via a forum post at this link. That's worked. Looks like the other unknown device is a temperature sensor that an ASUS util uses, so presumably nothing to do with drives. I tried multiple times to take ownership of the drive but it didn't work, so I've deleted the partition, recreated, and will be restoring data for the next day or two. Hopefully it doesn't recur!

Power supply is a Corsair CX750M (750 Watts). Two of the USB drives have a separate power supply. I've had a look at the hardware ID for the SM Bus and can find various bits of discussion about it. Seems to be a pain for lots of folks! Sometimes driver works, sometimes not. The security info on the drive appears to be scrambled which is why it says it's inaccessible. I've made a couple of attempts at taking ownership but it seems to lock up. I might remove the partition and start over as it's all backed up, then see if the behaviour continues.

Hi folks, I have an Asus H97M-PLUS based Win 10 21H2 PC. A few weeks ago one of the Seagate SATA drives attached to the PC kept going to 100% usage. I did run CrystalDiskInfo on it, but it didn't give any reported problems. I assumed still it was faulty, it was several years old and used heavily, so I replaced it with a bigger 6TB Seagate Barracuda (ST6000DM003) drive. A few weeks later and I've spotted the last few days it's been doing the same thing. Sometimes it takes pulling power on the PC to be able to restart it. I've updated the motherboard BIOS to the latest (from 2018). There's an unknown SM Bus driver. Not sure how critical that is but despite downloading drivers from Asus's site I can't seem to find what it is. There's also one other unknown device but that seems to be a mobo temp sensor. Today I spotted that Windows does disk checking every time it starts and says it's fixing this drive. To make matters worse Windows is also saying the drive is inaccessible. Any ideas what could be causing this? There's two other SATA drives on the system, a Samsung SSD system Drive, and another 6TB data drive. There are also three USB drives connected for backup. Suffice to say it's replete with drives, but none of the others are exhibiting this issue. Thanks

Thanks!

Hi folks, I've found plenty of guides for how to block the Microsoft Store on a specific PC with applocker, but I want to block it via GP on the domain controller. The guides I've seen want you to pick it from the installed list of apps, and of course it's not an installed app. What method should I use to block the Store in this case? Thanks

The cable is labelled "RW System Cable UTP Cat6 4 pairs 24AWG Stranded ISO 11801 250MHz". No specific mention of shielding, but it does have the 24AWG there. I need to do more investigation as the extenders have DIP switches and having spoken to their support it might be worth changing some of those. I haven't had the time to test yet because it means some setup and then leaving it to see if it occurs. I had hoped it would be a plug and play simple solution, I hadn't considered that video and audio might drop out. - - - Updated - - - Ah, UTP. Unshielded Twisted Pair?

What sort of range did you use it over? I found that speed decreased significantly with range, and that was only over a few metres. I'm thinking 20m away at the back of a hall, with students/parents between, mobile phones etc. could make it more of an issue for sending things like video. For power we're OK as we have lots of local-ish sockets. It's the AV side that's a pain.

Cost is likely to be prohibitive. We used some HDMI extenders with Cat 6 cable this time, but couldn't get them to work properly (video was cutting out, and audio cut out at the start of clips). If I can get them to work it might be useful to get a Cat 6 cable properly installed and ducted to the back corner of the hall.

Since removing the Dell apps all seems good. Curious!