Fazza

I had an issue with Windows PE when imaging via SCCM (I was on the latest ADK) so I uninstalled the latest ADK and used the one previous to it as it still supported W11 25h2 and that seemed to resolve the issues of drivers in the Windows PE SCCM was using so maybe that might be something you need to do?

Your Data Retention should be decided in writing by you School/Academy and should be in a policy somewhere stating how long and why you keep certain data so as long as you abide by that policy you are OK. If you can easily recover the files from you backup then I'd do it and help a former student - you never know they might start working in a School and could one day be your boss, or worse, a Teacher who till get their own back (if you don't give them their work) and log jobs complaining all the time!! It's a small world! Seriously though, if you can easily locate/recover their work then for me the only issue is confirming they are who they say they are, maybe talk to their former form teacher to confirm etc.

Given the word of the week, I'd say this is not safe for Schools and should in fact be added to everyone's blocked list to prevent bullying and racism.

When you say, not supported, what makes them so please as we have a few of these and just starting to push out W11 25h2 - or by not supported do you mean W11 itself goes on OK but you're having problems with WiFi? As long as the CPU, amount of RAM and SSD size (along with TPM chip) is OK then it should be support I thought? If you've tried updating via drivers available from HP and even the chip manufacturers website and still no luck with WiFi then try using Snappy Driver to update your WiFi drivers and then try again.

SCCM is still going to be supported though and that actually uses MDT so it's a bit odd really.

We purchased them as refurbished so they all have the silver peeling off them!! 🤣🤣

We've got just under two dozen 5000 series laptops around the same age and the silver paint is coming off of most of them!

Ativion (formerly known as Impero) now offer a different/better solution than their Impero software so worth getting in touch with them for a demo of their new product. https://www.ativion.com/

Thanks for that! I think people were worried that it might stop computers from working the day after the certificate expires.

Turn off Secure Boot in the BIOS - Bit-Locker keys may need to be re-entered when this is done. It's a manual process to change the BIOS settings.

But the old certificate hasn't expired yet, we have that to come in a few months. If the certificate expires and a system that is still looking for the old certificate still boots and loads Windows, what's the point in the certificate?

From experience of over 30ish years of Tech Support I've seen less than a handful of machines die due to a BIOS update and most of those were on unbranded Desktops from 25 years ago. The only 'issue' that you may have after a BIOS update (on some Lenovo laptops for example) is the bit-locker key may need re-entering, as long as you have it store in Active Directory Users and Computers you should be fine.

A BIOS update is required to update the certificate details on your computer. If the manufacturer does not provide a BIOS update then it's likely that we will have to turn off secure boot for the device to boot and load Windows.

I guess it depends on how you transferred it to the school. If you transferred the contract then that's one thing but if it was just the payment method then that's another. My advice would get in touch with the Citizens Advice https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/ and see what they say.

Perhaps that's a test?!

A new battery should solve your problem. When the battery dies and doesn't work it wont let you power on the laptop, yet if you remove the 'faulty' battery then no error exists so it will let you power them on! A genuine replacement from Dell is around £21+VAT. What I would do is take a battery out of a working laptop, put it in the ones that wont turn on when the battery is connected and if that works then I'd order some replacement batteries at that price and get a few more years usage out of them.

When I was learning TV repair at college it always made me nervous when doing that! The CRT tube is normally coated with aquadag which I think should be earthed but it's been a good many years since I learnt all that!

If you do manage to get one, please remember there can be between 10,000V - 25,000V in stored electrical charge on the CRT tube itself which can give you a very nasty shock! If it's been sat in a cupboard for years and not been powered on then the voltage will have dissipated but if it has recently been turned on then there there may still be some voltage stored on the neck of the tube.

SnipeIT all the way! You can easily add custom fields so we've added things on like IMEI numbers for the mobile phone category and Last Time PAT Tested Date on other equipment etc. Easy to use and it's Open Source! There is a cloud based version you can pay for that comes with support.

As others have said already, OBS will allow you to record both the screens at the same time.

We use Mutiny (www.mutiny.com) - as it has something to do with a University (Oxford I believe) Educational discount is around 90% off the business price. You can buy a physical appliance (at a much bigger cost) or just install it on a PC or VM. I think it's free for 10 nodes so you can see what it can do.

I believe it's done so it's impossible/harder to find details/emails so when a SAR request comes in asking for emails etc. from/to John Smith you have to do exactly what has been requested in the SAR so unless they specifically mention to search for the initials (and even then if you have multiple people with those initials it's therefore impossible to give them the info they require) then you have to search for John Smith and if that brings back no emails etc. then that's what you say. How legal this is is up to a lawyer, but this is my (basic) understanding of why some SLT are doing this. Must have been a course they've all been on telling them this or maybe Union advice in a newsletter.

My favourite response from an account manager was the other day when I asked how they were getting on sourcing a part and I got a two word response: "tough luck"

500+ NVMe on all our computers. When a typical solid state drive goes over 50% capacity it starts to slow down so we find with a 512GB SSD/NVMe we get the best size and the best speed.