Gongalong

Hmm, it seems that adding authenticated users has now started applying that GPO to all logged in users. Not just the users in the group added under security filtering. Is that to be expected? Should I add deny permissions to authenticated users, or is that going to stop the GPO working?

Thanks all for the replies. Sephiroth + Koldov, it does indeed look to be that authenticated users must be added with only read permissions to delegation. I'll do some more testing to be 100% sure.

I'm testing at the moment, but the security group has my test user in it (double checked). The GPO has just this test group set under security filtering. Delegation shows the security group there also with read and apply group policy set (I'm guessing this got carried across from security filtering, because it wasn't added manually). I've run a gpupdate /force on the test PC, which forced a sign off. I sign back in and... it's not applied. If I use the group policy results wizard to check that PC and user, it also shows the policy is not applied. The GPO is linked in the root of the domain, in case that has any bearing. There are no other GPOs with these settings applied that it could conflict with. I feel like I must be missing something basic, but not sure what.

Hi folks, Can I check my understanding with group policy, because I've had a couple of issues recently trying to apply user configs with a GPO. Under security filtering for the GPO, if I remove authenticated users and add a security group with users, should the GPO apply to that group? In practice it doesn't seem to. Am I doing something wrong? I note that removing "Authenticated Users" prompts with the message re. it being a necessary group etc. etc. and should at least have read only permissions, but if I add authenticated users then unsurprisingly the GPO applies to all users that login, and I don't want that. Thanks

Understood. I was fortunate at our school because we looked at what *objectives* we wanted to achieve with the MIS, and it was decided that SIMS still met those, and the cloud solutions didn't (of those, Arbor looked to be the favourite). We will continue to review here as it feels like the MIS landscape is still in flux, and will see what happens...

Just to add, Next Gen isn't a replacement yet for the SIMS 7 client. I suspect it will take years before everything gets moved over so that it's a fully cloud based MIS. We're still with SIMS, and I've seen some folks sing the praises of other cloud MISs, and others not so much. There's no perfect product.

Hi folks, We are going to try and update our tills with Win 10 21H2 IoT, as it has the longest support life. I've gone to the 365 admin centre to download the ISO and only Windows 10 Enterprise LTSC 2021 (21H2) is listed. Anyone know if there's an option to install the IoT version from that particular build, or are education enterprise customers not eligible for the IoT version? Thanks

Hi folks, Setting a 2025 server VM up for the first time. I'm not seeing an English International version for download in the 365 product centre. I'm seeing plenty of other languages and "English", but that typically means US English. Having then used the "English" ISO and kicked off the setup, it is giving me the only option of "English (United States)" for language. Just double checking that's the only option available, and I then configure the correct language (FWIW) in settings? Thanks

Can you login to MacOS via 365? We weren't using 365 so heavily when we bought our iMacs, but I'd be interested to know if it's an alternative (we'd probably still need MDM to lock them down sufficiently).

I started with Jamf, because it seemed to be the most popular system, but ironically they couldn't figure out how to get domain joining to work via a profile and their support wouldn't help me further. I then tried Mosyle and found their support much more helpful, and between them and I we figured it out. I still find Mosyle a good system.

If you chuck it into a google search i.e. site:yourschoolsite thebrokenlink, does that turn up where it is?

We use Mosyle for management and that can domain join via a profile. We did find that it would come off the domain again and the profile had to be reapplied, but I think that has stabilised in recent years (or at least our head of music hasn't complained about it so much).

We use NetSupport School, DNA, and Notify. We've always found their software pretty good, along with their support. What features are you after?

We had a bad experience with Sophos a few years back, after it failed to detect a virus that changed PDF files to executables, and spread like wildfire across the server. To add insult to injury, their support was poor. We switched to ESET, so out of interest did their product detect it? (if they're on virustotal)

I've logged into the support account and it still isn't available, so my guess is they've nuked the article.

Chris, you're quoting me incorrectly 😊 I said "consistency of screen UI", and that's not between Benq models, that's between models of different manufacturers i.e. retaining one manufacturer in a school to keep the UI consistent (SLT's want), but that hasn't worked work anyway because a single manufactuer (or Promethean at least) are changing their UI across models. It's probably unrealistic because features are inevitably going to change, but the bulk of our teachers don't use a lot of the advanced stuff, they just love that built-in annotation and timer app!

Recently we've bought a few of each to give staff the choice. From Dell at least the 14" is the same price.

Will be interested to hear what you think of the Viewsonics. I tried to persuade SLT to at least try Benq, but it was vetoed on the basis of consistency of screen UI. But when the screen UI changes with every generation of panel... One of our first Prometheans has just failed (over 10 years old), which is why we bought the ActivePanel 10. I think this is our second to fail, the other being an equally old one.

It transpires that we definitely have the OPA 2 module. That needed to be updated, but once done it has an app called "HDMI IN". You connect HDMI and USB to the module, and then it behaves like a big Android tablet. You swipe up from the bottom of the screen to access annotation and other apps, albeit not as intuitive as the older panels. I've been told that the LE behaves at least like the ActivePanel 8's, so annotation, timer app etc. are readily accessible. We have been quoted £1,095 + VAT for the LE screen versus £1,459 for the ActivPanel 10, plus bracket, install etc. I suspect we'll go for an LE screen next.

HDMI's a horror for long cables, but we've got round it with limiting to 10m, using decent quality cables, and switching laptop display output to 30Hz. With more recent screens you can change the HDMI version or change the EDID so it doesn't think it's 4k. For some of the longer cable runs we probably would have used ethernet if we'd realised how frustrating it woudl be. Replacement is an issue, and we've had a couple of screens fail already (one was already over 10 years old). We bought a "cheap" 80" Hisense TV with stand, so that's our temporary solution when a screen goes down. Not a lot of fun to transport it, although it does of course separate from the stand.

We've only ever had HP servers, I assumed that was the norm. Yep, it's horrendous!

Good point, we are buying 5 at a time, but still not huge volume. Dell seem to call them a "PC16250". I've just spotted that this is also with a 3 year onsite warranty.They've moved over to requiring a "Dell Premier" account for viewing quotes and ordering, but the quotes still have to be requested from the account manager. You'll see on an invoice if you order, but they have item codes for everything on the invoice. That particualr laptop has something like 40 item codes!

Direct from Dell. We have a specific education account manager, so likely get the best pricing possible. And they have an ethernet socket.

Of late we buy Dell Pro 16 (i5, 16GB RAM, 512GB SSD). Last paid £455 per laptop excl. VAT.

If it's cable length related, for USB make sure you get the cables with "active extension" (how they are typically labelled).