jmak

Just Mobility - apart from cost, I had the impression that users need to authenticate and these computers are intended for multiple users to access the oscilloscopes. I wouldn't have it that way, but that's not my call.

I love people with your biases - keeps them nice and cheap for people like me [emoji16] I've had two Superb estates and was very happy with both of them.

I'm trying to soothe some fraying tempers as "Printing isn't working. Fix it now. Don't make suggestions, just make it work". Which is really inspiring me [emoji2959], but that's a different topic. Can I reject prints from specific applications? Or reject files over a certain size? Or restrict to a single page. We have up to 80 students in a room with four HP LaserJet Printers. They are mostly printing graphs which are generated by either an oscilloscope or results entered in Excel. They have been told not to print from the oscilloscope as it takes 30 snapshots at 1 second intervals and prints a high definition image of each one, one per page. This is causing the printers to keel over. Especially as the students who do this are typically the same ones who then get impatient about the delay and then try each of the other printers and then we get the report that printing is broken for everyone - which essentially it is, but with the equipment we have, there's no solution that will just fire out all the pages instantly and not delay the next print job. They're supposed to take a screenshot and paste it into a Word document, giving a much smaller file size. We are using Papercut Mobility Print. The clients are all Windows 10 laptops connected by wi-fi. Last week I was fairly convinced the bottleneck was the WiFi, as we were getting printing failed messages, but we've replaced the APs and upgraded the backhaul and that problem appears to be resolved, but (as I predicted) we've just shifted the bottleneck along. Suggestions welcome....

There was another thread on here earlier this week about a problem that was never apparent in testing, but which one teacher endlessly complained about and the best suggestion I saw on there was to go and be in the classroom during the lessons that were being complained about. That way you understand whether there's really a problem or something that is very minor - or user error or pupils pranking. I'd suggest it's worth doing this proactively. Some teachers will put up with things that should be better, some can be easily helped and seeing how the kit is actually used rather than the theory you used when you configured it can inform (equipment) management and procurement strategies. It's also a quick way to find out who will be good advocates when you want to make a change and who will complain whatever you do for them.

One of our team had been supporting an Autodesk user. They (IT Support) submitted an enquiry three weeks ago. They came back today with a link to a KB article on their website. Chocolate fire guard comes to mind.

Have any of the other email addresses got auto forwarding set up? Has it been sent to a group you're a member of? Or a Teams channel?

Always worth remembering one of your biggest vulnerabilities is people: /showthread.php?t=219912

You should probably tell them, but AFAIK the reading in the meter has legal standing, so that's all they're entitled to charge you for. Once you've notified them, it's their responsibility to fix the meter. The only exception I'm aware of is where a landlord has subdivided the supply so that they can split the charges from the meter owned by the supply company into charges for multiple tenants. IANAL, but I'd definitely challenge it. Years ago our supplier installed a new meter, but configured it so that we got the economy 7 rate between 7am and midnight and standard rate between midnight and 7am. I and they had submitted several readings before anyone noticed it was wrong and they completely accepted responsibility and took the hit of several hundred pounds.

We use Huddly cameras in some large rooms with Teams live events - the built in mic seems to do quite a good job of identifying which sounds to include in the feed.

The service requests raised by forms give better data for analysis and options for workflow management (automated or manual), but I've never got above 80:20 email to portal. I put a link on the desktop, the new tab homepage, the favorites bar, the landing page for the staff area of website, a link in my email signature, mentioned it every time there was IT training, minimised the number of fields requested, changed process so that tickets from the portal were always prioritised, didn't require login (submissions required you to provide an email address from the school domain), yet still they preferred emailing the helpdesk... If anyone has more persuasive techniques, please let me know!

I've seen the first error at my (still quite new) place. I've been told it's quite normal and just go back the next day and try again. Alternatively, I'm finding far fewer problems using the O365 client.

BiL was desperate for a dog, sister eventually gave in. As predicted by everyone who knows them despite who's dog it is, the fact he is semi-retired/home-based and she is a nurse, can anyone guess who walks the dog in the dark in the morning? We looked after the dog for 24 hours when they were away and other dog care arrangements had fallen through; I've never wanted a dog, but it was a real eye-opener to the level of inconvenience they cause. We either had to be within an hour of getting back including finishing what we were doing or doing something we could take the dog with us. I also don't like picking up dog sh!t. Or cleaning up dog puke when it's eaten something out shouldn't have. Or washing faeces of indeterminate source or rotting animal corpse from their coat. And even if you find somewhere dog friendly to stay in holiday, in their experience the dog isn't always keen. Their normally exceptionally well behaved dog is unsettled, barks and chews the furniture in the rental accommodation. And theirs is a lovely dog, with a really easy going temperament. I can't imagine a dog I'd rather have, but I really really don't want it.

Got there in the end. You can download a recovery image specific to your device from Microsoft based on the serial number. It must have some magic sauce that's not in the standard Windows iso as it booted first time and rebuilt itself. Feeling greatly relieved. I'll be testing my ppkg configurations on older, cheaper machines from now on! I had a similar experience with Dell last week (that was borked by an MS update while not in my possession) - a recovery image specific to the service tag of the device worked when standard images from USB or PXE didn't.

Admittedly not my speciality, but if you get no problems when you plug into the router it suggests no issues on the internet line or the router.

Bump - sorry for impatience. I don't have that long before I have to admit to the user that I've bricked their brand new shiny toy.

I created a ppkg configuration package using Windows Configuration Designer and it failed the initial installation (I suspect loss of power during installation.) When it starts I get the error "The computer restarted unexpectedly or encountered an unexpected error. Windows installation cannot proceed. To install Windows, click ok to restart the computer, and then restart the installation." I now can't boot from USB or PXE. I've disabled all other boot methods apart from USB in the Surface UEFI menu but it doesn't find a bootable device. The notable USB was created from a Microsoft iso using Rufus and works on multiple other devices. Any suggestions or have I made a doorstop?

Not on this occasion - Dell Latitude. I only mentioned it as I'd seen the same issue and wondered whether it's a Windows update thing rather than a Surface thing. I did look inside a Surface a couple of weeks ago. It was taking itself apart though. Expanding battery...

Seven years ago I took one of our teachers to BETT to look at them options and we ended up with Surface Pros to replace laptops and didn't buy the iPads that had been proposed. One device for everything was popular with teachers and I liked being able to manage the devices along with my other Windows clients. I'd be more comfortable with iPads now than I was seven years ago - just an alternative for you consider.

Have you recently had a Windows update? I've started seeing this issue: https://www.neowin.net/news/microsoft-confirms-bitlocker-issues-in-the-latest-windows-updates/ We don't enforce Bitlocker and now that I've read more I've started to believe users who say they didn't enable it. Slight side story, but the last one I dealt with,I had a similar follow up issue to what you've described, only on a Dell Latitude. I managed to recover the data and was able to use a Dell Recovery OS USB to reinstall Windows. The weird bit is that even though I eventually got that back to a full working version of Windows, I still can't image the PC from WDS, a Windows boot disk or from the rest this PC option on the running OS. It just doesn't see the drive. Unfortunately not much help to you, other than knowing there's another victim. The only thing I haven't tried is replacing the drive as I don't have a spare m2 SSD.

We don't have AD/Windows domain where I currently work and the details have changed since I last set it up (the sync client is different and Azure AD Connect has developed), but I've had a read and I think the closest instructions I've found to what I did are as per links below. Summary of process is: Register device in Azure AD Set (SilentAccountConfig) Silently sign in users to the OneDrive sync app with their Windows credentials GPO Set (KFMSilentOptIn) Silently move Windows known folders to OneDrive https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/sharepoint/use-group-policy#silently-sign-in-users-to-the-onedrive-sync-app-with-their-windows-credentials https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/sharepoint/use-group-policy#silently-move-windows-known-folders-to-onedrive I'm currently working on setting this up through local group policy - I'll report back if I find out more.

You can use group policy to SSO into OneDrive. You can also set specific folders to synchronise to OneDrive (I have documents and desktop). That setup replaces home drives for me. Edit: Happy Friday!

It's the kind of thing that I could imagine I might have ended up being involved in when I was working in a school - it's often a small team and people often do things that wouldn't normally fall in their job description, I'm fairly efficient at searching the internet(!) and coincidentally I'd had safer recruitment training as a governor. However, one step removed (no longer working in a school), it is absolutely clear that this is not an IT support responsibility. It's entirely inappropriate - just because the job requires use of a computer doesn't make it an IT support responsibility. And you have every right to refuse to do anything that requires you to break terms and conditions.

It's against Facebook's terms and conditions and they actively seek out fake or dummy accounts to close them. Seems like a bad idea to me. https://www.facebook.com/help/1216349518398524/?helpref=hc_fnav

Came back to say thank you. All working now. The trick was installing the patch before creating the deployment share. I've got my basic deployment working, now tinkering to automate more.

Not sure what Microsoft was trying to say, but I think they could have phrased it better