jamesb

Okay, could you try renaming the SIMS .net folder to something else (.old, anything'll do) and then re-running SIMSApplicationSetup.exe from your S drive?

What are the rights on that file? Anything set up on your TS to restrict users from seeing the C drive?

Just as a test, try copying the contents of the S:\SIMS connect.ini to the local one.

What's the contents of that connect.ini? I'm wondering if its redirecting to a path which the non-admin account can't access.

Which .ini file is it saying is incorrect?

Anything that'll work when a class of 30 students try to save their documents with huge images included simultaneously at the end of the class? Might need to stress-test your internet line a little before opting for this route.

As a country I expect we will ride it out and be fine. That's not the same as saying that as an individual you or I will necessarily be fine, or any other specific individual. I don't necessarily have an answer but I do see some things about to happen. The death of all these larger businesses, which have been relying on credit and year-on-year sales growth to balance that credit, is going to be opening up huge gaps in the market. If the government gets their act together and starts making more provisions for small, entrepreneurial businesses then there's lots of opportunity for these to slip into the cracks. How many independent shops have these massive chains put out of business? Sure, smaller businesses aren't as efficient and eventually the chains'll return, but once start-up loans are available again I suspect we'll see lots of independent shops popping up where the giants used to be. It looks like, one way or another, state-owned banking is going to happen as well. I'm not exactly an economist, so couldn't say if this is a good or a bad thing. I'm holding out hope that it'll work, but we'll see when the time comes. The other thing that I'm semi-expecting is that, if the economy crashes enough, all those call-centre and service jobs that have been moved overseas might gradually start creeping back. If labour costs become cheap enough over here it'll no longer be worth having the infrastructure in place to route all calls abroad, and deal with the customer relations nightmare it causes. Whatever happens though, its not going to be a smooth ride. Time to just grab on to whatever you've got and hold tight.

1 x Phone with headset 1 x Pair of scissors 1 x Mouse 1 x Keyboard 1 x 20 inch widescreen monitor 1 x Document holder with various system architecture and design documents 1 x Blue post-it note 1/2 x Cup of cold coffee 1 x Bottle of flavoured water 1 x Fourtain pen 1 x ParcelBox 5 x Sample bottles of single malt whiskey 1 x Map of distilleries in Scotland 1 x Thank you card

If you have a known good backup then as people have said that's the best course. You should be able to take off the SIMS database, and any others you may have on there, and reattach them once the backup is restored to prevent data loss. Since the virus (supposedly) infects .scr and .exe files the data itself should be safe, but I'd recommend doing a scan on each of the data files before reattaching them.

Since you're using Sophos this might help: Sophos: Disinfecting PE executables

Its actually for a less technical friend of mine who does Sales. I'm hoping either to build something fairly crude using rough calculations, or find one already written.

While I think its unlikely that this exists, given the huge variety in hardware requirements for different environments, I was wondering if anyone has or knows of a calculator which can give estimated server specifications depending on predicted load?

Is CC3 setting machine policies in GPOs applied to the users, then enforcing them? That's what it sounds like to me at least, particularly if your clean users work fine on the machines, then the RM ones pull down GPs.

Computer account in AD looks to be corrupted, Microsoft's recommended fix is to remove it from the network, delete the account in AD and add it again.

...doing what with parents?

I'm not sure if that really counts as a job... I'm also not sure whether that says more about him, or his parents.

He's not a professional until he's actually got a job. Until then he's just a kid.

If its an MSI then you can just deploy it through group policy, otherwise a startup script, or a remote one should work find. For remotely running stuff have a look for psExec.

If you can talk to a secondary school and persuade them to go with Frog, then work with their other feeder schools then this would probably be a good option. Would be worth talking to the LA as well though, with the various targets being set for information access for parents. They may have something in the pipeline already which they just haven't announced.

Might be worth contacting your local Game or someone directly and asking for their advice. I don't know if Nintendo deal directly for small quantities like 60, but again an e-mail to them might point you in the right direction.

I've seen it in place, and it can be done quite easily though it does require some customisation to the standard tool, purchased seperately.

Looks like a missing .NET control.

Most likely an external access connector to provide for all users who are not members of the school. Best bet is to discuss this with whoever provides your licensing if you use Volume Licensing. External hosting means much less technical overhead for your side of things. Internal hosting means that you will be able to have the SLG accounts created on your own Active Directory rather than a remote one, but does add a large workload. One of the big advantages of internal hosting is that it would mean you have a SharePoint server for any other purposes that you may be able to put it to, and a lot more control over the way it appears and acts. With external hosting it does nothing to your own AD, though you can still decide username format. Internal hosting by default it will create users in a single OU with group memberships as defined by you (usually Parents, Staff, Students, Teachers, Admins, students can also be given memberships of groups by year and class). For more powerful setups you can buy customisation. I have seen the provisioning service used to create an entire AD structure including OUs by class, creating shared areas for accounts, and setting up Exchange accounts for users. This is an extra service which needs to be purchased however, and does add to the administrative overhead when running upgrades to the provisioning service. If you have any other experiences of it that you would like to share that would be great. Thanks Edd

I've seen this happen before, so you're not the first tech I've seen having to interview his own NM. As to questions I might ask: - Sketch out a suitable AD structure for a school with x years, x staff, x students in each year (shows that he understands AD, doesn't need to show where each individual one lies but a general structure so that policies can be applied effectively) - Basic knowledge of system administration, does he know about remote desktop, how to use command line and so on. - Project management and proposals. How might he implement a particular system, or go about proposing it? - An appreciation for different operating systems and their uses, and a willingness to learn and expand his knowledge. - A big one, how would he seek help if he doesn't understand something? I've known some NMs who will refuse to look to their technicians for help, for whatever reason, if he's coming in from industry then he is going to need to ask you how things work so you need to make sure that he's willing to look to you, and other sources of information.

Volunteer work, if I remember correctly, does not harm your status as regards receiving the dole. Not only that but working often means your living expenses are lower. You do not need to heat the house during the day for one thing, people tend to smoke less while they're working as they have to take smoking breaks rather than lighting up, and there are other benefits. Also, again if I remember correctly, there's a certain number of hours of paid work per week which won't affect your status. I could be completely wrong on this, as its been a long time since I looked into it.