Stuart_C

The title say's it all really. Today my Google-fu is weak and apparently it's important I come up with an answer...

Virtual PC also works well for "Play" networks

Yep it's SQL server based...

I would tend to Echo TonyJF's comments. We have about 2.5 times your users and computers. I'm running two domain controllers, one file/print/dhcp and the other Intranet/Proxy/E-mail (though not exchange). I've also got a seperate server for SIMS .net. The SIMS server is a member server NOT a domain controller. Having had SIMS.net on the proxy server I know it's not a very good situation. For a server you want to play with I'd probably suggest NOT having it as a domain controller. I'd also suggets that you get some kind of server imaging software so that if you make a mistake it's easy to restore the server. Also through by being frugal with my budgets I've managed to squeeze in a 4th server. This again in a member server and is there for me to "play" with, provide a bit of extra storage, and most importantly allow me to install all the "lovely" edicational applications that "Have to be installed on a server" that I don't want to install on my DC and break it.

Interesting.... I'll have a look

I was wondering if there was a way to export the whole of a GPO. I know that if you open up a GPO and click on a folder you can right click and export but it only export's the contents of that folder. e.g right click on "Administrative Templates" and it will export a list of every setting, not as it will do, export a list of the subfolder, "windows components", "desktop" etc". Something like "Dir /s" It would make it a bit easier for me to track down a setting in one GPO that allows a bit of software work for users in that OU but not for users in another OU It would also help in the compilation of my "If I was hit by a bus, this is how my network is confugured" document (working title)

This idea made me chuckle... Seriously though it's somehting I have wondered. I have thought about deleting a large section of one of the shared network areas (backed up obviously!)from a machine I have found left on then providing the logs to prove that teacher did it. My second, only marginally more constructive idea was if I found anyone to change their login script to automatically log them out after 40 minutes (1 lesson) using the shutdown command. The problem with thigns like that is that whislt it sounds like a good idea there are always problems. For example if they put on an hour DVD and the computer logs them out half way through as the computer has been "inactive". Also the exampes sited by Jamman960 are fairly likely in any school. Perhaps allowing staff to lock their machines might be the best compromise. It lets them secure machine without them having to wait for a login/logout. Sorry it's not that helpfull and answer.

Back on topic slightly One of our students has just had this problem. Siezing on the opportunity I hijack their computer. I printed the document to both the big laser's I have, HPLJ 5200 and 5550, and on both it comes out as garabge. I then stop the Print Manager Plus Service (and I wait until windows has it listed and not running as opposed to "stopping") and then try printing. Document is still garbage. So I printed it from my machine which prints direct to the printers using the PCL6 driver and it comes out fine.

For the last one or all of the above?

OK Currently I am having three printer issues and I was wondering if anyone could provide me with some advice. First off, I'm using HP Laserjet 5200n and HP Laserjet 5550n win 2K3 Server with Software Shelf's Print Manager Plus (almost the latest version, there is a new update that I've yet to apply). XP computers with Office 2007. I was getting a number of PCL XL errors randomly, google told me that this could be due to communicatin errors and that changing the driver from PCL6 to PCL5 could fix the problem. I tried this (downloaded the latest drivers from HP)and whilst it seems to have solved one problem it has generated a new one. 9 out of 10 times the dcuments print fine, then at random it will print one document off with all the characters swapped for rubbish. Normally formatted correctly but with the text as random characters and punctuation. I can't see a pattern or reason too yet it happens on both printers. Any ideas? Second now I've changed driver for the HP Laserjet 5550n when someone tries to print multiple copies of a document it prints them and then occasionally prints an extra page saying "Unable to store job at printer, Printer does not support collation at printer, turn off Mopier Enabled in oyur printer driver". Fine except I have already turned off Mopier enabled and the hard disk in the printer driver. Thirdly I have a problem with an HP Laserjet 1020 and 1022. The printers work fine if you print text only. If you print a picture with the text it prints a vertical black line on the end of every line in the right hand margin. Again I've already taken the latest drivers from HP and I've tried both the host based driver and the full feature install.

I'm having a bit of an issue with Inspiration (mind mapping software) at the minute. For some reason on a computer it hangs at the splash screen when logged in as a standard user. Works OK for an admin user. I also get a VCMD error when I log off. Not sure if this is related. I'm trying to avoid the un-install/re-install option as the machine is old and a bit of a mess (Lots of out of date Learning Support software on it that they can't be bothered to upgrade so it actually works on XP). I'm wondering if anyone had any similar issues with it or any suggested solutions.

Does that mean you shouldn't do that?

Any sentence that starts with the words "I'm in Excel/Word/Powerpoint/Oultook, how do I" and includes the phrase "I thought it would be quicker to get you to do it than look in the Help and Google" really get on my nerves.

If you've got local profiles on the machine then do a search for "NTUSER.dat" (It's hidden, and not NTUSER.DAT.Log) in documents and settings. It will tell you the last time a user logged out of that machine.

None. Though if that's the problem why does it allow me to connect to shares on the DC's without prompting for passwords but not other machines?

At work we use two seperate domains connected through a router (ISA box). In each domain the users have the same username and password (there are bout 20 users on our Finance network who connect into the accademic network for internet access/E-mail etc) though obviously the domain differs, e.g. username: domain1\administrator Password: Password and Username: domain2\administrator Password: Password When I log into a machine and try and access a share in the other domain it will work perfectly if the share is on a Domain Controller, type in the share and away I go. If the share is on any other machine I am prompted for a username and password and I have to enter my username/password for the other domain with the other domian prefix. This includes workstations and member servers (all win 2K3) which is a major problem when I need to put in shares to the member servers. Any idea why it does this and how I stop it? It is causing problems with a login script as I have to use.

I have a budget for toner. Most of the departmental printers here are simply plugged into machines and that makes it easy to bill for toner, I buy toner, I give them the bill! The network printers are my responsibility. I have a budget allocated to me for toner and I use that to pay for it. We don't charge the students. We mearly use the limits enforcalbe by PMP to stop them printing absoultely everything in colour. They get an allowance every week that accumulates throughtout the year. We encourage them to use the Mono printers and save their budget and print out their coursework, once, in colour. Also we encourage them to think about printing ONLY the pages with colour on the colour printer. Works most of the time but there is always one or two who have printed out too many car pictures!

We currently us Print Manager Plus here. I have a budget allocated to me for toners and I use that to feed the printers. The Mono pronters are "free" to use however the colour ones have limits (beacuse of the expense). Basically I allow the staff to print what they want but at the end of the year I present them with a bill (and list of what they have printed) and then they either pay them selves or charge it to their departments as apporpiate. There are a couple of exceptions where high usage department (art and DT) have their own printers and monitoring is done by the Head of Dept (ususally with a print out from me as to what's gone through the printer). Toner is paid for by those departments.

OK, ignore me just found it, User Config/Admin Templates/Start menu and task bar/Do not keep history of recent documents overrides the word settings! Nice and obvious!

Any one got any idea how to disable the "Recent Documents" list in Office 2007? It's not it the policy where you set the number of recent documents. I perhaps should own up to the fact that I don't actually want to disable the list. The porblem is that I seem to have done something that disables the list in the past (another GP key) and don't know how to endalbe it!

Having done a bit of googling I fear that the answer to my question is "You can't do that" but I'm going to ask anyway... I am trying to encourage people to make more use of Outlook (2007) and would like to get the meeting requests. We use Shared Calendars at the College that are hosted from the server. The people most likely to use this feature are the Headmaster and the Bursar who use these exclusivly for their diary. The problem is that Outlook really only wants to use the Default Calendar for meeting requests. You can schedule a meeting from the shared calendars but the user tallying doesn't work and Outlook brings up an error when you get a response (Because the meeting isnt' in the default calendar). Also if you are sent a meeing request it goes into the default calendar, you can't choose which to add it into. Is there anyway to change the "Default Canendar" or to specify that you want meetings to be added to another calendar?

I never really found a solution but the teacher in question stopped bugging me so in a way... Seriously though I did come accross this the other day by accident. I've not had chance to try it yet but given some of the earlier suggestions then it's a possibility.

First up I'd like to say that I acknowledge my own stupidity in this area and admit that yes I am asking you for an answer that will save me time. So here we go... I have been setting up my GP for Office 2007. At some point I seem to have disabled the new "New document" dialogue box. When I open a document in any Office 2007 app it flicks straight to the Office 2003 style one. I wish to make it stop this and display the more polished Office 2007 version. I have tried disabling my GPO's so I know the problem's in my Office 2007 one. I've tried "Not configuring", "Disabling" and then for an laugh "enabling" the "Use Office 2003 New Dialogue box" setting under Admin templates ==> Office 2007 System ==> Misc. so I don't think it's that. Any one have any ideas? I could delete the GPO and start from scratch but I've set up quite a bit and I don't want to waste time setting it up again.

OK, Here you go, I've taken the document and using my copy of 2007 (Sp1 on Vista) i've saved it as a .doc file and and .docx just for fun. For the sake of example I've included a working image, the black square should contain some blue warning signs about wearing protective clothing. ProblemImages.zip

I'm afraid no joy on the properties as it's been removed from 2k7 and a no on the RTF also.