manamaga2512

When do you update your servers with windows updates / patches etc? I work from 07:30 to 15:30, school finishes for students at 14:30, this gives me an hour at the end of each day to do updates when required. However, there are staff still in school and complain when certain services are not available because the server is rebooting following an update. Do you update during school time and within your own working hours, or do you do it "out of hours"? Bearing in mind that I don't get paid overtime! LOL Ta very much.

Sorry, forget this post. I've found similar threads which I'm going to read. I did do a search before but it returned no relevant results. Thanks anyway.

Hi all, we are soon to be giving our post 16 students windows laptops. All obviously have asset tags on, which will probably be one of the first things that they try to remove. I'm looking for recommendations on security markings. Something visual but at the same time impossible to remove, if such a thing exists, because the very fact that it is on the laptops is a challenge to some of our students to remove it. Thanks in advance.

It doesn't happen when machines boot up, at least it's not happened so far. Normally when they have been on for a while. We can try booting without the LAN cable in but we won't see anything different.

That does suggest VGA port, but we have removed that from the equation by using the display ports instead, and it still happens :-/

After forcing shutdown it doesn't happen again on reboot, but does happen again later. It could be days later or it could be hours later. Very random and only on 3 or 4 machines (at present)

Hi all, we have around 3 or 4 machines doing this. Hopefully the link I supplied will work. We have just done a whole IT refresh with these machines. We've tried different monitors, VGA cables, display cables, driver updates, windows updates, BIOS updates. We can't think of anything else to try. I've not noticed any particular pattern as to when or what causes this and the only way is to force shutdown and startup again. At first I thought it was because the machines had been left on all night but, one machine started doing this as a student was just browsing the web. Any guesses? https://drive.google.com/a/samuellister.co.uk/file/d/0BziL0k7lYpnOdFBVcWR4X3dCZTQ/view?usp=sharing Ta very much.

The heatmaps I had were embedded into a PDF document and were really too small to see anything. I requested larger version from the contractor and it would appear that their heatmap is correct, because it shows very little coverage in the changing rooms! LOL So the staff are right (I hate that). Looks like someone didn't account for AP's in the changing rooms when the networking was going in.

That's a possibility. Hence me wanting to find out for myself.

Hi all, we are a new build Academy and have brand new networking including Aruba AP's. Our PE dept. are complaining that they cant use their laptops in the changing rooms of the sports centre (for taking regsiters etc.) due to poor wifi. I have the heatmaps supplied by the IT contractors and there looks to be plenty of coverage but I was wandering what would be the best way to 'prove' this to SLT / PE staff. Is there a free Windows tablet app that I could maybe use to show them 'live' as it were? Many thanks.

Hi all, our end clients are running Windows 7, servers are server 2008R2. Screenshot of users Profile settings below. I have denied administrator read permissions on desktop.ini file in each users home folder in an attempt to fix this, but after more digging today I'm beginning to think that this could be a machine based issue. This is affecting a number of students (number not confirmed) but I have been using one particular students account for the purposes of testing my so called fixes, but I've come to a dead end and don't know where to look now. This student, when logging onto a particular PC in an IT Suite gets this error when trying to access his home folder: However, if he logs onto the computer next to him, or in another suite (two other PC's tested so far) he can access his home folder. I have noticed however that on the PC that gives him the error, There is no volume shown under drive name: Sorry if this is about as clear as mud but it makes sense in my head! LOL Many thanks for any advice.

Shit! That might as well be in Spanish :-/ I've never configured switches using command line, I've always gone via the web interface (just the way I was shown). I can get onto the IT company who installed the switches to take a look at this. Does this tackle the cross VLAN issue or the booting multiple machines issue?

@Norphy Yeah, I have access to all switches etc. Our core switch is an Aruba 5400R zl2.

Hi all, I have two issues. Firstly I'm taking a look into why we only seem to be able to PXE boot one machine at a time when imaging. Using WDS, I have had a look into the settings of the server (PXE Response tab) and these are the settings, yet we can only boot one machine at a time: The second issue is that we can only image machines which are on our student VLAN, if we try to image a machine on the staff VLAN, it doesn't PXE boot. I don't know where to even start looking on this one, but I have spoken to the company who installed our infrastructure (we are a brand new building) and they assure me that multicasting is enabled on all of our switches. Any advice would be gratefully received but go easy, I'm only just starting to dabble in this area since the departure of my network manager. Cheers!

Next question. Power management; Scheduled task via GPO or third party software? Just wanted to shut our PC's down in the evening, and have them fire back up in the morning. Ta very much :-)

Computer>Policies>Admin Templates>System>Power Management - Worked perfect, thanks!!

Thanks all. @QuertyMash - Yes, all fine apart from this one. @LeMarchand - I've tried rsop.msc and checked out the policies there but it's not showing. Think I'll try the alternative path as you suggest and feedback tomorrow. I'm not doing overtime for nobody

Hi all, I've created a GPO with the settings detailed in the screenshot below. I've applied the GPO to the respective OU, done a gpupdate but the machines don't seem to be pulling down the policy, and thus are going to sleep all the time. I've tried it at computer level and user level. Server 2008R2 / W7. How do you all control the power settings? I'm considering a third party option for this, and hopefully it might help with the powering on and off, of the machines too.

OK, next part of this question, now that I have created home folders for each user. I need to create a folder within each users home folder and dump some files into it, if possible in bulk rather than one user at a time. Would this be as easy as creating the home folder I wonder?

Hahaha! Perfect! Thanks for that, so easy. Why does it never come up with these easy solutions when you search the net? LOL

Tell me about it! We use Jamf / Casper to manage iMacs and MacBooks, and GAFE is the dogs bo**ocks if you ask me. Google is free for education with unlimited storage and, in the instances where I have had to use it, outstanding customer support. Sadly, we are in the process of due diligence......another Academy (a very big group) is taking us over and it will be a case of "This is what we use and this is what you WILL be using" All Apple kit will go, to be replaced with Windows. So I'm using the value we have in the apple kit to trade in for credit with a supplier, from which we can then purchase PC's. If I don't do it now, we will just loose all the apple kit. I'm essentially doing a whole IT refresh and it's not costing the school anything.

Sounds like the easiest way to me. I didn't realise you could just select all users. I'll give it a bash thanks.

I hope I can explain this correctly. We have been an Apple school for the last 8 years or so, now we are in the process of rolling Windows machines out again. Two years ago all of our users still had access to their home drives but the network manager at the time stopped that access as we moved to GAFE (GSuite). And now we are moving back again!! So my situation is this: I have AD accounts for years 9 to 13 who all have home folders which is mapped in the Local path of their profile. I don't want to reinstate this access as I have another area I want to create fresh new home folders. The students don't need access to their old work. I have AD accounts for years 7 and 8 who don't have home folders, as they joined the school when we were GAFE and didn't require network storage. My question(s) is, what would be the best way to create new home folders for all of our students in the new area I have, and what should the sharing permissions be on the drive, parent folder and each home folder. And then, how would I change that location mapping in the Local path of each of their profiles, to the new location? I really hope that all makes sense. The network manager at the time used to deal with all this, as I was just junior techy. Now 10 years on, he has left and I have been lumbered with the job, but not offered any training, so google, youtube and you guys here have been my lifeline! Happy to provide more info / screenshots if required. Many thanks.

Thanks all! Managed to achieve the desired result by using the admin template posted above :-) Happy days.

Yeah, I did see that post but I was hoping it could be done via GPO? Looking at that post, would we not have to do this manually / local on each machine?