sfawcett2

Thanks Phillyrovers, I will collect the serial numbers (do I need to take the board of the wall to do this) and contact promethean support. Cheers Steve

Hi Plexter I have looked for links to firmware but failed Could you send me a link please.

ActiveInspire is slow to start up . It takes 40 seconds with board connected and 5 if disconnected. We are using windows 7 64 bit . tried latest driver but had troubles connecting at all on serial but ok on usb . version 5.9.16 is better and serial and usb work. board firmware is V3.47 build 1 serial V5.537.1 ID=1 The newer the firmware the faster it seems... (we have around 40 boards of varying age) But I cant get newer firmware as our boards are old (8years) and we have no support. Anything else I can try ? Thanks

We have to let students use visual basic and they compile and create .exe . Our gpo's dont let students run exe. We therefore use the same as Rob Fuller I think using local virtual machine (win7) made into non-persistant drive (changes lost on restart) with no networking. This is run by using VMplayer vers 5. Student logs on to outside physical machine... then starts up virtual windows 7 , they are full admin over this VM, they use visual basic , run the .exe or any other .exe they choose to copy inside this VM , but is safe as no network and if it destroys the virtual machine , just stop and start it and its back as new. The visual basic projects can be drag dropped from VM to physical (their my documents) for safe keeping. But its time consuming to create the VM, copy to each physical machine and setup. What I want is a server solution ( i have failed here, cant drag drop files without network being on) or sand box to run the .exe in. Ideas please ?

Can I use SSCM in a basic way fairly quickly or will it take Months to learn it ? ok just seen your 2nd post will try that first.

Hi Gatt, Ok bit slower than Ghost. we generally ghost 32 pc's at a time using around 12 different images (windows XP) I'm hoping we can reduce that with Win 7. "I dont use image based installs favouring clean installs of windows and applications" what does that mean ?.... clean image of Win 7 followed by packages sent via AD ( msi) ? Is this because more flexible in package changes ? Should I start small say with WDS or just jump straight in with SCCM (not used either before) ?

WE moved from RM CC3 to Vanilla around 6 years ago. No regrets. We are on XP pro and Office 2003 with 500 machines. Having just bought into EES volume licensing for around £3,500 a year we can now update all machines to Windows 7 and Office 2010, possibly Forefront antivirus. I'm going to add System Center Configuration manager on (I think) as the CALs are included just need to get server licence (guessing £200). This is (EES) another major upgrade since leaving RM... don't know where to start at the moment , but should be fun in a geek way! My advise is that if you have decided to move from RM then go Slowly, run another domain in parallel . Do room by room testing as you go, just don't switch RM off until your confident. I have built my own management tools (visual basic) for PC/User monitoring. VNC is good for remote help. Use wake on Lan, pstools to shutdown and get inventories. Logon scripts to allocate printers and record whose logged on where. AB tutor a paid for software is good for teachers to view student pc's. like RM tutor. Active directory policies can control student desktops e.g they cant see the C: drive and Run command removed. AD can also allocate software (msi's) and printers. Cheers Steve

Hi All, We have just bought into EES agreement with MS, desktop and core std. I have given myself lots of work , updating windows XP to Windows 7 and office 2003 to Office 2010 on around 500 computers & laptops around the school. I have used Ghost 2.5 and sysprep in the past while booting from a USB stick into PXE. SCCM cal are included in the agreement while the SSCM server licence probably costs less than £200 inc SQL . so is reachable in cost. Although I haven't got hardware to put in on. What's the min spec ? I have got workstations I could use as servers e.g. DEll GX745 dual core machines 2Gb ram. I can use either 2003 or 2008 server. Good enough ? So where shall I start? SCCM or WDS or stay with Ghost? We also deploy packages (msi) via AD and MS updates via SWUS also AV via McAfee , I think Forefront may be included in EES. My current deployment XP pro with office etc image via ghost takes 40 mins ... boot to usb stick, load sysprepped image, when done just name machine and its joined to the domain. How quick is SCCM? Does it put the win 7 key in , allow naming and join to domain ? Any comments thanks.