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Turns out that it is a protected system folder. Question is, how do I change it to a normal folder? And why did it become a system folder in the first place?! I've set admin permissions on the folder, and tried to make it not-read only, but it still looks like a system folder (the icon is lighter and almost see through). Thanks for your help.

All I wanted to do was copy the contents of a usb drive to a pc hd for a backup. I used the following batch file, so that I didn't have to use Windows GUI which takes ages: Now, the folder c:\freecom_backup can be browsed via the command line, but simply isn't visable in Windows Explorer. I have set "View Files and Folders" in the tools-->folder options-->view tab to be visible (see attached), so it should be working and visible in Explorer. Also, I was able to set the folder as a shared folder, but it can't be viewed on the network either. Attached is a photo of proof: the folder can't be seen in Explorer, but can via command prompt. Note that this photo is showing the folder as a mapped folder, as the screen shot was taken from a different computer. Same thing shown on actual computer though! Any thoughts on why I can't see the folder?

With software that isn't msi and that have switches available to install silently, then I try and package it into an msi. I use the free software by Installer2Go (version 4.2.4). You basically make a blank project, add the exe file as a Custom Action (right click --> add run exe --> attached to installation). It gives you a text field where you add the command line switches (e.g. /quiet or /s etc). Build it as an msi, and then deploy through GPO (after testing!). Only issues are when there are no switches available to make it silent, or there are drivers to install due to hardware installs.

Just to say thanks for the help on resizing my Fog server. An extra Storage node wasn't an option, as it requires another PC. Adding a new hard disk would be tricky, as FOG itself isn't very flexible with where images are stored (it seems you can change the directory, but not the disk). In the end, I used Clonezilla to take an image of the 40gb drive (which has Ubuntu and FOG), installed the new 250gb hd, and then reimaged the larger drive. Had to use gparted to resize the partition on the new drive, to gain all the extra space. Worked a treat. I tried to use some partitioning utilities from UBCD for Windows, but wouldn't allow resizing this disk for some reason. However gparted wasn't fussed and did it very quickly.

I agree with the positive comments about FOG- an awesome piece of software, extemely useful, easy to use and quick. I'm not a unix natural, but was able to set it up pretty quick. However, I stupidly installed the Ubuntu OS and FOG software on an HD with 40GB . You can guess where this is going.... Put 4 or 5 images onto it, and now no HD space left. I purchased a new HD with plenty of space, but wondered what the best way to perform an upgrade is? I.E. How can I get FOG to use a different disk for storing images? Or do I need to take an image of the Ubuntu machine using something like CloneZilla, then put that image onto the new HD? Will this cause issues with Ubuntu? And does CloneZilla cope with imaging onto larger hard disks, not losing valuable space? Thanks for your help.

From Working with Wireless GPO Settings from XP SP2: Anyone know if this will work with a Win2k server? I.E. if I get these files from a 2003 server, and copy them into a winxp pro machine, and follow the instructions, will it still work? I can access GPO editor and AD from my XP Pro machines, and it works fine. Assuming that it will be legal to copy these files from Server 2003 and put them on xp pro machine (which it probably isn't....).

Thanks Michael. I suppose the confusion arises over the naming of FileFormatConverters and Office Compatability Pack, which apparently do the same thing. The OCP SP2 has a release date of 2 days after the FileFormatConverters which also doesn't help! As suggested, I'll install both, FileFormatConverters first, then the service Pack 2.

Thanks for your replies. I think the answer to my question is that you should have both the FileFormatConverter.exe and the Compat Pack SP2 installed (in that order). Although I can't tell the difference, it won't hurt to install both. OpenOffice, though great, is not an option at the moment. Thanks for all your help.

Further to my original post, I've been investigating the use of the hosts file in c:\windows\system32\drivers\etc\. This is one way to set blocked sites on a local machine. I like this method as it should be quick and is easy to update. The idea would be to have a master hosts file on the server, and then update the remote machines hosts file on startup. However, I've read that the proxy server takes first pick for DNS, so the hosts file will not get a look in. Anyway know a way around this? Want the host file to take presidence over the proxy. Thanks.

We've been thinking about making the power management decent and effective for all of our pcs. Just wondering what others use- Standby, Hibernation, or neither? What about staff desktops that control IWBs? ICT Suite computers? We have the EZGPO system, as well as using a power setting in the startup and login script, but it more the actual values of monitor/hd/standby times etc. Thanks.

So does anyone know the difference between FileFormatConverters.exe and Office Compatability Pack SP2 (or SP1)? Seems strange as I have installed teh FileFormatConverters pack, and am able to load 2007 documents (docx) into 2003. So what is the compatability pack for? Thanks.

THanks- but doesn't that get you an MSP file, not a MSI file? As far as I know, an MSP can't be deployed through GPO. Could be completely wrong though! Thanks.

Thanks for that. Do you know where I can get the msi from for the compatability pack? Does it need additonal files, or just the msi? THanks.

Hi, I am looking to install the office FileFormatConverters.exe so that we can view 2007 documents in our Office 2003 system. I've used the extract method, and have got the msi ok. Whilst searching on the net, I came across the "Microsoft Office Compatibility Pack Service Pack 2". Do I need this? Does it replace FileFormatConverters? Can I simply deploy the FileFormatConvertere msi across the network, and ingore the Compatability Pack SP2? The Compat. Pack also looks like a small download, then a big download based on needs. Is there an msi for this? Thanks for your help.

Having used both Ghost, Fog and Clonezilla, my vote would be for FOG. Am a big fan of it now, particularly having to reimage a lot of pcs at the moment (end of year clean up). If you have a spare PC with avg specs, then the solution is free. Download and install Ubuntu desktop (pretty easy), install fog (pretty easy), and make a machine PXE boot (requires small modification on windows server). It's all well documented on the fogproject website. I found ghost to be a pain with network drivers, and it was expensive (more clients = more money). Took a while for the license and activation to come through, too. However, Clonezilla is a good option as well. Clonezilla has 2 modes; single pc mode, where you are dealing with copying 1 HD onto another, and a full blown server/client mode, which works much like FOG or GHost. Having said that, before I found out about FOG, I had 48 laptops to reimage, and did it using Clonezilla single pc mode, using 2 usb hds which had the correct image, and 2 at a time imaging the target pcs. It took about 20mins a pc, but a lot of manual labour! Wife not too happy... Nice thing about using a FOG system is that when it is setup, it works very nicely and quickly, without being labour intensive.

Thanks for your replies everyone. Galway, what do you mean by: How do you do this on a win2k server xp client network? Brpilot99 & SteveG- I have phone RM who sent me to SEGFL who sent me to the LEA IT people, who logged a call and still haven't got back to me. Seems like a good way to go, if we can get a username and password sorted out... Thanks.

You may like to look at this thread: http://www.edugeek.net/forums/windows/35900-imaging-windows-vlk.html Started by me, as I have an issue with a single computer not going through the MS licensing successfully. It does have SP3, however I have plenty other PCs that activated fine with SP3. Just 1 odd one! Am going to leave it for a month, then reimage, and try again. Time is a healer... Sounds like you have a working Ghost system though. Well done!

Initially when we had 48 laptops across 2 trolleys, I used Ghost. Couldn't get the thing to work, and when it did seem to work, it took forever. Multicasting wasn't an option. Eventually took out each hard disk and used GNU to copy the HDs, 20mins each. Now I know better. I have now set up a FOG server on an old PC (on UBuntu, free), and managed to get all the laptops reimaged within a few days (bar a few minor setup issues, sorted out by edugeek). Granted, I'm a full time teacher, not an netwok manager, so I learn on the job, but I'm very happy now with the FOG server & system

Hi, there are a few sites that children use which we're not too keen on, but the county proxy lets them through ok. They aren't dodgy, but are pretty much social networking stuff, and we are keen to disallow these site (causing exlcusion/inclusion issues). Is there any way that I can set up an intermediate proxy? Some simple free software would be great that means I change the IE proxy settings to point to that machine, and then the proxy software on that machine checks against an editable list, and either disallows or forwards on to the county proxy? I'm not hugely knowledgeable in *nix, but will have a go. We have a ubuntu machine hosting FOG, which isn't in constant use ( it's P4 2.8Ghz though). Also, will this have a huge hit on performance, and will I need a really high powered spec machine? Many thanks.

Awesome, thanks Arthur. A good site which I hadn't thought of using. Cheers

No, unfortunately the Softpedia site download link simply points to the link in my previous post (penguinbyte). Thanks though. I did a trawl of google results, but all seem to link to the same download, which is now unavailable. I was hoping that someone had it locally on a PC or server, and could upload it to this site. Thanks.

Hi, I was wondering if anyone has a copy of EZ-execute, a gui for psexec. The site for download was http://www.penguinbyte.com/software/ezexecute/ but isn't working. It's a free app. It's not a large file, so if anyone has a copy and could post it here, that would be great. Many thanks.

Just to follow up and close this thread. The issue didn't appear to be the fdeploy.dll SP3 issue, although it could have solved it as I updated this dll before I managed to solve the problem. This issue was with permissions on the folder which was being copied. It was too restrictive, so that the computer account couldn't read it. The batch file that runs on startup copies across files locally (logon utils, startmenu and desktop icons for students), so that at each logon, the script can run quickly and free up network bandwidth. The script checks if a local version of the files are available, and if not, uses the version in the netlogon folder. Obviously the issue remains that updates are only done when a computer restarts, but the next step is to write a script that pushes out changes to pcs that are on. If they are not on, they will get updated on next startup anyway. Thanks again for everyone's help.

According to Clonezilla FAQ you can mount and read an NTFS drive, although I really didn't understand the instructions... http://drbl.sourceforge.net/faq/fine-print.php?path=./2_System/43_read_ntfsimg_content.faq#43_read_ntfsimg_content.faq

babagee: Thanks for the info, very useful. I've been into school this morning, and looked at the problem again. rsop showed that the redirections were in place, I checked that the folders were on the local machine, and they were. However, there were no icons in the local shortcut desktop folder! Previously I had only seen the folder was there and assumed (my mistake!) that the icons would be there. Hence why the My docs redirect was working, but not the others. It seems that the redirect was a pointer to the real problem. The batch file that I run to copy icons from the server to the local machine doesn't seem to work. It's under the Computer section of a gpo, set as a startup script, which I believe has elevated privilages. Simply uses robocopy to grab the icons if changed. The script runs if I log in as admin and then run it from the net logon folder, but not as a startup script. Any ideas? Jist of script is: Thanks.