Stuart_C

So just an update. I've tried to uninstall Office, which won't due to the invalid character in start menu issue. When I suearched the registry there was noting I could see that was invalid. Having said that it went through a numebr of keys, some very random, and I'm not sure exactly where to be looking. I tried cleaing out as much as possible and then updating it from Windows update but that didn't help. Can anyone help. I'm worried that I might need to flatten and re-install to get round this bu I'd really rather not.

Just found this You receive an error message when you try to install 2007 Microsoft Office suite service packs... Which also fails to install! I'm going to go home now, I suspect tomorrow is going to be fun if I have to keep on at this!

No joy The repair actually fails, with the error: error 1324.the folder path 'start menu' contains an invalid character A swift bit of googleing leads me to You receive an invalid character error message when you install Office XP and Office 2003 However that is not much help. When I looked through for an invalid character in "Start Menu" I couldn't see anything that looked invalid (not quite sure exactly what I'm looking at with some entries). I'm wondering if this is causing the problem for the service pack? I tried logging in as three different users and no joy.

possibly though I don't think so. The reason being that they are all running under WSUS and have the same updates applied to them. I can't really see a failed .Net update... Really the only failed updates are SP2 and a couple of Office Updates that come after SP2.

Hi there, I'm having a problem geting Office 2007 SP2 to install on a number of machines and I can't figure out why. They fail through WSUS install and through a manual install from the downloaded file. The install will start then part way through it will stop and I will get an error that the SP cannont be installed. The following message is left in the error log: Product: Microsoft Office Professional Plus 2007 - Update 'Microsoft Office 2007 Service Pack 2 (SP2)' could not be installed. Error code 1603. The machines were bought at the same time and are part of the same batch. I really don't want to wipe and re-install one. SP 2 has gone on fine on all the rest of the machines in my organisation, it just seems to be this block of 8where there is a problem. Any suggestions? Edit: Just had a quick look. Some of the machines that were purchased at the same time DO have SP2 installed. Cant remember which ones I have wiped over time as they are a few years old

The probelm is that I don't really want to decline the update... considered it... Currently I'm going round all the PC's and maunaully updating them, XP SP3, Office XP2 so the big time cunsuming ones are installed and then manually running windows update to get everything almost upto date. WSUS then pick up what I've missed and keeps the machines up to date. this is for two reaseons, some machines were failing due to lack of disk space and needed manualy attention and this XP SP3 issue. However If I miss any, or anyone's got a laptop that dosen't connect to the network that often or I don't get chance to update I need the Service pack allocated to cover me. If GATT is correct and some updates will ignore the settings what really is useless! MS!

Firstly I'd like to say that I've contemplated putting this in "behind the red door" but if I cut out the ranting I suppose it can go here.... Have WSUS configured to do the following: Download updates and install according to the schedule I tell it Don't install updates immediately if they don't require a rest (wait until scheduled install) Don't restet computer after scheduled install (wait until the next time a user re-sets the machine) This seems to work OK appart from for XPSP3 which just installs as and when the computer notices it on the server and then just re-sets the machine (apparently without warning though I am not 100% on this I am working on what people have said). Why? Regardless of the warning message I can't work out why it seems to be ignoring the setting when it come to XPSP3. Any ideas?

Echo most of the above, BIOS passwords and then a block on all exe/msi files from external storage (I use my McAfee EPO server to so that, it's not 100% but as no-one I know of has worked out the flaw I'll live with it) I also use DHCP reservations for all my machines (time consuming but usefull when I'm using websense and want to block an IT suite from the internet). My actually range of "free" IP addresses for DHCP leases is only about 10 address and all these are totally blockeed from uning the internet. Again not foolproof but filters out most of the people trying things.

I have a spreadsheet with a column of hyperlinks. The text for the cell is sumply the domain, http://www.edugeek.net for example, however the hyperlink points to the exact site, http://www.edugeek.net/forums/behind-red-door/ for example. I would like to show the actual link in a cell. Given that I have over 200 rows this is not something I want to do one at a time is there a quick way to do it? To rephrase I have colum's like this: www.edugeek.net And I actually just want them like this: http://www.edugeek.net/forums/behind-red-door/

Word of advice, make sure you uninstall the compatability packe BEFORE you install Office 2007. The only problem is that if, at a later date you decide to remove the compatability pack with Office 2007 installed it also uninstalls all the file associations... Even though Office is installed!

Personally I use the Windows Server command DSAdd. Output form my MIS into excel, bit of messing around (would be easier if I coudl use joe.bloggs for usernames but I'm stuck with the syntax that was here before I started) to get the syntax and copy it into a .bat file and run it. Something similar using "mkdir" to create the home area, "subinacl" to set the security on your home area and job done. All using stuff built into Windows server (or downloadable from Microsoft, I think subinacl is in a toolkit).

The 2 I have had the most complaints about are: TDS ActivBoard T2.58 Build 0 firware on a USB Connection, 3Ghz P4 with 512Mb RAM - This one is the one I mentioned where it seems to stall TDS ActivBoard T2.64 Build 0 firmware on a Serial connection 2.8GHz P4 processor with 1GB RAM - this one, apparently is slow all the time) I have has a complaint about a second TDS ActivBoard T2.58 Build 0 firware on a USB Connection, 3Ghz P4 with 512Mb RAM and TDS ActivBoard T3.34 Build 0 frimware on a USB Connection 3Ghz P4 with 512Mb RAM (this is new TDS board and differnet to the rest) Having said that I spent some time on a TDS board with the 2.64 firmware and appart from the eraser issue it seemed prety usable. And just having a look I do feel that a lot of complaints stem from the eraser problem. I have however had a few complaints about the time it takes to chage page. I have asked a couple of people if they will video it in action and E-mail me any presentations they have trouble with so I can have a look as at the minute, ignoring the eraser issue, it seems reasonably usable. I think it tends to be when they have been working on a flipchart for a while...

Actually I believe that those tha have complained about it catching up are TDS boards. which the software won't check for updates. I have been round using the control pannel and "checked for firmware updates". I'll double check this afternoon and get back to you. The boards in question are USB and they go straight into the comptuer not throug an extranal hub. Thanks for the magic ink advice though

@Ricki - No I am applying the right type setting to the right opbects . As I was just trying to configure the computer settings I only had a computer in my OU. Now I've moved on a bit I've got a comptuer and a test user in my OU. @Geoff. I'm using Update (with the "Make this the active power scheme" box ticked). I'm a little curious why it decides to stick with the last logged in user's setthings when the user logs off. It's going to create a minior problem if a teacher logs of a computer but doesn't switch it off (when do they ever) as they will have a much longer interval before the monitor switches off as they will need to be showing things on IWB's. I can set the computer and student values to the same as they are either "working" or not using the computer.

It does seem that when you log off the settings of the last user are reatined. Bit of a pain.

Will check Colout deapth but it does this with no applicaitons running on my XP clients.

Unfortunately not specifically configuring the power options On the up side I think I've found an answer to my problem, well sort of. If i configure the comptuer settings for the power these are applied to the login desktop. When a user logs in their setting are applied, however if there are no power settings for that user then defaults are applied which are the ones defined on the comptuer NOT from the network. If I define user settings from the network than these are applied and supercede the computer settings. Well that's what seems to be happening anyway. How odd. Must be something to do with the nature of Preferences as opposed to Policies. When I was testing I would apply the computer preferences and log in as me which would override the settings. Just go to see what happens if I log in and log out...

I've been uing ComputerConfig ==> Preferences ==> Control pannel settings ==> Power Options ==> Power Scheme. Also I can't create it on the server as according to the instructions you need 2K8 server or the RSAT. Still playing and thigns have got more frustrating. In the spirit of scientific experimentation I set the options in UserConfig ==> Preferences ==> Control pannel settings ==> Power Options ==> Power Scheme. (After creating a test user in my test comptuers OU) I logged in with that user. This time my power configuration was successfully applied and the monitor went into power save. When I logged out the settings remained and the monitor switched off to save power. When I logged back in as a user not in my test OU the power settings reverted back to default (which makes sense), the monitor didn't go into powersave and when I logged out the monitor reamined on and didn't go into powersave mode. This implies that the power scheme options are being appled at a user level but not at a computer level. After logging in as my test user then restarting the computer the monitor doesn't go into power save mode. This is a bit of a problem as realistically I need the settings applied at a computer level.

Sorry if I've not explained myself well. I've got a 2K3 domain. All my clients are XP (SP3) and it's XP that I'm trying to configure. I just have a vista machine (mine) and I'm not intending to deploy vista. The client side extensions have been installed and when I look at the GPO that I created with preferences there are some XML files there presumably to be appled to the worstation. I am tryimg to alter the power settings so that the monitors go into standby after 10 minutes. After apparenetly configuring the settings correctly in GP Preferences these then don't seem to apply on the machine. The odd thing is that I used GP Preferences to create a folder on the computer and this worked fine.

I've been trying to impliment Group Policy prefrences on my network. I've got a 2K3 domain, a Vista SP1 machine running the RSAT and some XP machines with the client side extensions and I've been having a play. The ultimate aim is to alter the powersetting on the computers, something preferences claims to do. But can I heck as like get it to work. Thinking that there might be some problem I tried using preferences to create a folder on the local disk. This worked. This implies that the computer is interpreting the instructions from the group policy preferences, it is NOT however changing the power scheme! Can anybody help?

simply saving the exe file and then extracting to a folder works as well. Just a bit neater than having to install it and find the files.

Right so I've deployed AvtivInspire to my network and it's all installed OK. My problem is that it just runs REALLY bady on a number of machines. The computers are above the minimum specification though some have the minimum ammount of RAM but are 3GHz processors (min spec is 1GHz). The problem tends to be using the eraiser it can take a while for it to activate when you click on the icon and then when you try and erase something it then pauses for a few seconds (with egg timer) before giving controll back. Also a couple of people have mentioned that it seems to stop when writing think, then wake up however if you have continued writing it puts a straight line between where the pen was when it started thinking and where the pen is now. Has anyoine else had problems with it being slow and constantly stopping to think? These problems were not present with AS3 so I don't think it's a board problem directly.

It does. Runs a seperate network install and just install the driver.

Yep had that problem Imaged the machine 4 times before I figured it out. Use the miniset up and the updates sysprep and there problem... well I would say "goes away" but that makes it sound like a fix Maybe I'll settle for "is bypassed".

7 years 51 weeks!