DavR

Eeep. Thanks for that....

After an extended period of fiddling with G Suite (it's not difficult, but I wanted to get it 'just so'), I released Chromebooks to our Year 5 classes on Monday, and they love them! I was concerned that giving every child an individual logon could be an issue (our Windows machine just have a single student logon) by apparently it hasn't been. We haven't got any apps yet, purely using them as Internet devices, I don't know if we'll go much beyond that. We bought Dell Chromebook 3189s for £250 a piece, plus £19 each for management licenses. Cheaper models are available, but we liked this one.

Glad to hear it @cygnes, happy 'crafting!

I've got Java 8 Update 51 installed, which is the last version of Java before you run into graphics card difficulties I think. From there, it's just a custom shortcut for the Minecraft client. The string we're using is: "C:\Program Files (x86)\Java\jre1.8.0_51\bin\javaw.exe" -jar "C:\ProgramData\minecraftedu\startlauncher.jar" C:\ProgramData\minecraftedu is where I chose to deploy our MinecraftEdu files, your scenario may be different.

It's very fussy MinecraftEdu. I got it working in the end by forcing it to use a specific Java version, and even then will not work on certain graphics chipsets. It's working, but we are looking into the updated Minecraft Education Edition. It's something like $5 per user per annum, but I've been told that this is concurrent, so if I wanted to only ever use this with one class at a time, I only need 30 x student users.

Well, I can only speak for myself, but I got about the same quality of install from the half price AV Partsmaster install as I've had from other AV suppliers. They were no frills, but they got the job done, a respectable 8/10.

Yeah, I got that far, as it will block all the built in apps if you don't list them explicitly using that setting. Luckily this is our first set of Chromebooks, and we've added no additional apps yet, so should be relatively simple to draw up the list.

Ah, I think I've finally got my head round it. I was using 'Block all except those I allow', but that wasn't working until I added some allowed apps into my allow list. If I have that set, it will still allow me to go to the Web Store and attempt to install apps, but they fail. It's a pity you can't just disallow adding new apps and extensions, instead of having to create deny / allow lists. I'm not sure which solution I prefer, 'deny all except (list every app)' or just blocking the web store URL, both are a bit clumsy. It can be done at least though!

What have other people been doing about locking down the chrome web store on Chromebooks? Ideally I want to prevent users installing apps / extensions from the web store, but none of the settings I've tried thus far actually prevents this. I've got the Chrome Web Store app turned off under Admin Console | Apps for these users. I've played around with 'Allowed Apps and Extensions' under Device Management | Chrome | User Settings, but that only seems to affect whether an app will open / is visible, not whether you can install it. I could block the Web Store URL I suppose, but that feels a bit drastic / clumsy. Any ideas?

Righto! Between the two of you it will be good to see these go to a good home

@zag, are you still after these? About to replace 20 Dell laptop batteries - let me know! North London pickup.

Update for anyone still facing or is concerned about this problem.... I've just spent the last day or so trying to work out why, again, our clients were going to Windows Update as well as our WSUS server for updates, despite our policies telling it not to. As mentioned by @psydii, this was Dual Scan. Dual Scan is a fun little feature that MS introduced without asking where, under some configs, Windows Update client by design checks both online and local WSUS for updates. Anyway, a good potted summary of Dual Scan and how to combat it here - https://batchpatch.com/dual-scan-difficulties-with-windows-update-on-windows-10-versions-1607-anniversary-update-and-1703-creators-update and also here https://blogs.technet.microsoft.com/ausoemteam/2017/08/07/updates-to-wsuswu-dual-scan-on-windows-10-1607/. It's worth noting, as well as the two WUfB settings mentioned causing Dual Scan to enable, the setting "Do not include drivers with Windows Updates" has also been cited as a culprit. The good news is however, if you update your Admin Templates to the latest, you should get a new Windows Update setting "Do not allow update deferral policies to cause scans against Windows Update" that should turn Dual Scan off, dead. I'm not 100% convinced it works, but definitely worth enabling. Another wonderful "feature" from Microsoft that no-one asked for, and does the opposite of what most people want!

Ouch. Same place quoted me £150 with 3 year warranty a couple of years ago!

What sort of numbers are you looking at? We're retiring four this Feb half term. Only problem is logistics, we're down in London.

Thanks for spelling that bit out @Koldov, I hadn't realised I needed to do that bit on my servers. I've stuck the reg keys into a policy to deploy, they'll get a full reboot when I do the BIOS updates on the servers. Luckily I'm not running anything very intensive on any of my servers, so I'm not too worried about the performance hit, fingers crossed. The only server I am a little concerned about is my SCCM / WSUS server, but only I'll notice that.

Just a heads up for anyone using Outlook 2016, the KB4011626 patch which came out last week is a minor feature-breaker. https://support.microsoft.com/en-gb/help/4011626/descriptionofthesecurityupdateforoutlook2016january9-2018 After installing this patch, when forwarding a plain text email with attachments, attachments are removed, only text remains. This is a problem for us, as our photocopiers scan-to-email, sending the scan as an attachment to a plain text email. You can of course save the attachment then re-add, but for now I'm declining and removing this update.

I use 'Auto Apply Drivers' in my Windows 10 TS, but limited to specific driver packages as I also have Windows 7 driver packages. Every damn time when I get a new model, I put all the new drivers into SCCM, but then forget to tick the box to allow my TS to use that driver package! But sounds like you've already covered that one. Another one that can sometimes trip you up (well, has tripped me up) is making sure the driver you want to use is enabled for the OS you're deploying. Right click properties on the driver, Applicability tab, and check the box is ticked for your OS.

I caught a few of my laptops (1703) attempting to install the 1709 the other day, and nipped that in the bud, hopefully it hasn't hit anywhere else. We're running our updates through WSUS, and the 1709 update is not in our WSUS, so I don't know how or why they've fetched it, presumably direct from Microsoft Windows update, bypassing my WSUS server. I've just applied the "Do not connect to any Windows Update Internet Locations" policy mentioned above on top of having the other policies already set, hopefully that'll put pay to it. Need to find a way to survey our workstations and see if any 1709 has snuck in, trying an SCCM collection but it keeps falling over It's so frustrating, why do Microsoft (and it must be said, other vendors) insist on making it so hard to stop major updates from installing without approval! See also, the half a dozen different settings you need to use to stop drivers coming through Windows Update....

We've been using, and have just ordered some more, iiYama Prolite 65s. No frills, good picture, nice and bright, does the job. They have bundled androids in, but as has been said by a previous poster, you don't have to use or connect this. If you act quickly, these were going for around £1400 + VAT due to a special offer. That's expired, but some suppliers do still have the cheaper stock in.

Hmmm, well that's not very encouraging. I've got an installer who I've used before trying to beat their price, so we'll see how that goes.

Interesting - how long ago was your bad experience @_queeg500?

You've not seen the state of my flat have you...

We had eight of this model installed in the summer, and I'm just looking for four more in the new year. Can't complain at all, they're fabulous for the price. No frills, just does the job. There is an inbuilt android PC that runs notebook applications, but not everyone has been using them. We had one duff one on delivery, but they sent two guys out to deinstall / reinstall before start of term. We also had a free demo / training session from one of their reps which was very helpful (and answered the question of where the freeze button was) so service has been good. There has been a promotion on recently that's been putting them out for about £1300-400 a piece I think, so that's why the prices have been so good. I believe that ended on Friday, but canny suppliers will have stocked up.

I've spoken to these guys about buying refurbs before, although I've not actually used them - Refurbished ICT Store -. They've got SB660s for £360 with 3yr warranty.

Hi all, Just lining up a project to get another four whiteboards replacing with touchscreens (WOOO!). Has anyone ever used AV Partsmaster for whiteboard / screen installs? I've bought from them loads when it comes to projectors and bulbs etc, but I've never used their installation service. I wouldn't otherwise doubt them, but their quoted labour costs for these installations are something like a third of the price of competitors. Not that I mind a bargain, but when their price comes in at a fraction of the others, you have to ask really... Thanks!