Julian

Please look at "File Server Resource Manger", on the server where the students work is stored. It has a file filter feature, (and storage quotas). It can be set to delete all executables. Students will find it impossible to run a file, that is deleted, the moment the system sees it as executable.

Our VM are in groups (based on the VMware groups), Veeam backup with 1 backup job per group, daily, reverse incremental, with second job set to start when the first job finishes. As the Backup jobs are for groups of Virtual servers, when a new server is added, it automatically is included in the backup.

I believe that your batch file failed as Cmd.exe does not like UNC's! However Powershell can process UNC's After a Google search I have used the following PowerShell script, to Uninstall Office 2019, and install Office 2021, This is a computer start-up script. #Check for Office 2021 installation $officeInstall = Get-ItemPropertyValue 'HKLM:\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Office\ClickToRun\Configuration' 'ProductReleaseIds' if($officeInstall -eq "ProPlus2021Volume"){ Exit } if($officeInstall -eq "ProPlus2019Volume"){ #Uninstall 2019 $now = Get-Date -format "dd-MMM-yyy HH:mm:ss" Write-Output $now "Office 2019 found, uninstalling" >> c:\Office2021.log \\joa-app01\Repository\Office2019\setup.exe /configure \\joa-app01\Repository\Office2019\Remove2019.xml } #install office 2021 $now = Get-Date -format "dd-MMM-yyy HH:mm:ss" Write-Output $now "Installing Office 2021" >> c:\Office2021.log \\joa-app01\Repository\Office2021\setup.exe /configure \\joa-app01\Repository\Office2021\Config2021.xml

We are a secodary school using Bromcom, hosted in the cloud, and have used it now for over 5 years. Service uptime is pretty good, and they take care of all updates. Being web based makes working from home easy, and of corse it will work on PC, Chromebooks, Macs, and mobile phones (Fire Drill, out in the tennis courts).

Please see https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/troubleshoot/windows-client/group-policy/use-settings-app-group-policy For full details

What printers are you using, and do they have a "version 4" driver avalable? (see https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-hardware/drivers/print/v4-printer-driver)

Re; Do either of you know if they have a Technician Console that IT can use to view all the IT rooms and computers? We have a rebadged Netsupport (RM Tutor) but being told there's no such thing, yet a quick Google search shows otherwise? For impero, yes I can see all the computers, whilst the teachers computer in our IT rooms can only see/ control the computers in that room.

Veeam for backup, and also Veeam to make a copy of the backup to a physically separate building, and finally QNAP backup to make a offline copy onto portable USB drive.

If you have a proxy server you do need to inform PIP of the proxy details, to get PIP to install Python modules. Please find below the script that I used to install Python, Pycharm, and some modules. rem silent install of python, and PyCharm, and some Python modules net use y: \\joa-app01\Repository Y: cd python cd python python-3.10.3-amd64.exe /passive /InstallAllUsers Cd .. cd pycharm pycharm-community-2021.3.3.exe /S /config=silent.config c: cd c:\progra~1 cd python rem set python proxy set http_proxy=wf2.thegrid.org.uk:80 set https_proxy=wf2.thegrid.org.uk:80 pip install wheel pip install Pygame pip install numpy pip install pyopengl net use y: /delete exit

As it is all in one file, you can only download the entire .zip file, including the bits you do not want.

Not yet. When the end of life of Windows 10 was announced (Oct 14 2025), I looked the the hardware requirement, and then infomed our buisness manamager that the school would require 100 new computers / year for 3 years, to get the school off windows 10, before it was no longer supported. Whilst our buisness manager was less that happy with the cost, she could put into her budget planning as a necessary expected expence.

Are you using a proxy server? If so please check your proxy bypass rules, to make sure that traffic to the RDS gateway in not being sent to your proxy server.

You will need to look very carefully at the agreement between the school and the parents covering the laptops, who is responsible for maintaining / updating the laptop? I would also check about the insurance on the laptops, the insurance company might require that the laptops are kept up to date (or the insurance is void). When I updated the school computers (1903 > 1909 > 20H1 > 20H2 > 21H1 > 21H2), they did not get back the UWP apps that I had removed, so that should be ok for you. (Weather, skype, movies Video, maps. Solitaire, office Hub, 3d print, phone, Getting Started, 3D view, Alarms, Wallet, Connect, Messenger, people, Camera, Communications, Feedback Hub, X-box (6 bits), Store, store purchase) Best of Luck

Please find a SENCO template settings, from our Bromcom, you will need to review the many different setting, but I hope it gives you a starting point.RoleExport_SEN Administrator_20220420144554.xml

As Microsoft will stop supporting Windows 10 on October 14, 2025, I have informed the business manager that the school will require 100 new computers / year for 3 years to meet the hardware requirements. I will do a test build, and then upgrade 1 room to Window 11, as a test platform, and when I am happy with how it works, then the rest of the school as hardware permits.

Please try the following Powershell to intrativly list and then selectivly remove UWP apps. OS image apps Get-AppxProvisionedPackage -online | Out-GridView -passthru | Remove-AppxProvisionedPackage -online Provisioned apps Get-AppxPackage -allusers | Out-GridView -passthru | Remove-AppxPackage -allusers Note, only apps instlled in Program files can be removed.

SpaceInvader83, you may wish to add that the use of Applocker to restrict executables is regarded as best practice NCSC (UK National Cyber Security Centre), and as such not testing such a configuration is disappointing!

Thank you for this information, this is causing lots of grief.

I had Sage 200C working, now Sage have done an update, and it has stopped working! Group Policy (Applocker) on the user profile is a pain.

Most WOL software, can address the magic packet, to an ip address, as well as a mac address, with a ip address the magic packet will be routed to the correct vlan. I wrote a powershell script to use the DHCP lease database, as a auto updating source of mac and ip addresses.

VLC in .msi format for both 64 bit and 32 bit versions can be downloaded from "http://download.videolan.org/pub/videolan/vlc/3.0.3/".

Googling on WMI filters, shows that the general recomendatiom is to avoid if possible, as they can slow logons. For computers a new OU, (block inhertance) can solve the issue. For users, WMI filters are necessary, but some filters are slower than others. Please see links below about speed of WMI filtres https://helgeklein.com/blog/2016/01/how-group-policy-impacts-logon-performance-3-wmi-filters-ilt/ https://deploywindows.com/2016/02/15/using-group-policy-wmi-filters-computers-booting-slow/

To do Vlans, you require managed switches, your central swith must be a layer 3 managed switch, in order to route the data between vlans, all your other switch need only be layer 2. Each vlan will be a power of 2-2 in size (30, 62, 126, 252), so you may require a larger ip range. For static vlans, I would say there are two types, one covering a area (1 computer room, 1 school block, all computers connected to 1 network cabinet), The other type of vlan is all devices similar (CCTV, Telephones), that sprawl over most of the school. I would recomend a good network diagram, and forethouht about how you wish to split up your network. If you have having issues with loopback, a number of smaller vlans will reult in less disruption. Layer 2 vlans are easy, create vlan name, ID, and assign each port on the switch to a vlan (untagged), with the uplink port being (tagged) for multiple vlans (if necessary). Layer 3 is more complex, For HP switches you have to use the command line, for some of the details. We paid an expert to set up our vlan, and it took him a couple of hours to set up the routing table. Sorry I can not give any more advise.

I have also been doing a start menu, I found that I need to look at the XML, and make sure that path contains "%ALLUSERSPROFILE%, otherwise that icon will not show on another computer.

Two questions, How many users do you have? How fast is your internet connection?