DESC-IT

Awesome! Problem fixed. Case closed. Thanks to all!

Right - sorted! More or less... DVD Styler works. Changing the default encoder from ffmpeg to internal prevents access to the command prompt! Except... It seems to be set on a per-user basis so all users have to set that themselves. Any idea how it could be applied as a global setting? Thanks again!

Thank you all for your suggestions. Our technician will look at them after half term. I'll post back when I have a definitive answer! Unfortuantely, the music, ICT and drama departments still need DVD's to send to exam board moderators - USB sticks aren't allowed!

Right, testing results in! DVD Styler works well but the portable version has the same problem as the installed version - it wants access to command line and opens up local and network drives. DVD Flick works in a network environment but has one of the nastiest interfaces known. Default burning mode is ISO so you have to remember to change that every time. There's no obvious order to press buttons - you have to work it out! Anyone know of anything else, free or paid for that would fit the bill? I can't be the only one having these problems! Many thanks.

Is that the sound of tumble weed I hear? Has no one else come up against this problem?!

SLT and Admin often print enormous amounts outside of departments... Do yo have any Macs? They circumvent PaperCut. Publicity officer? It's been the season of open evenings!

Have you checked the logs to find out which stage of handshaking is taking so long? Windows 10 has issues with IP allocation. I know it sounds pointless because you are uninstalling and reinstalling the same piece of software, but I'd try reinstalling the wireless driver. I didn't beilieve it until I saw it with my own eyes!

Windows 10 has issues with a lot of things in a network environment, not least of which is wireless. Check that the driver is correct for Windows 10. Try connecting a cable when logging in for the first time after building. Once successfully logged in, remove it, check that the wireless is working fine and restart to see if that cures it. If not, try loging in as admin and uninstalling and reinstalling the driver. That cured our issues - we are a split site school and laptops built on one site and taken to the other cannot connect wirelessly without the driver being reinstalled. Very strange. It has absorbed enormous amounts of time trying to fix it. So now all laptops have to be built, taken to our other site and individually tweaked. Thanks Microsoft...

Does anyone know of a DVD burning app for Windows 10 that makes menus, converts video to an appropriate format and, most importnantly, works in a network environment? For example, DVDStyler works great on a standalone with Admin rights but refuses to function on the network because it needs access to the command line. Oh and it opens up the C drive and every other hidden network drive! The other freebies I've seen burn data but don't create menus or are a pig to use. I'm prepared to pay a little if absolutely necessary as making DVD's is both a staff and student requirement. Many thanks!

If OfSTED walk into your class, they need context to know that what they are seeing is planned, meeting pupil needs and that progress is being made. Teachers would normally use spreadsheets or tick lists to track and analyse this but OfSTED don't spend long enough in a classroom to go through all of that. Pieces of paper clearly displaying information are the fastest way to communicate a snapshot of what an inspector is seeing. The increase in printing costs is not teachers doing things they wouldn't normally do, it's down to teachers demonstrating what normally happens via non paper-based methods. We had an OfSTED a couple of weeks ago and I watched my printing budget decrease. However, I wouldn't complain about the increased printing costs when OfSTED walks through the door - be thankful that your school doesn't require staff to produce that for every day!

Hi All, Thank you all for your thoughts. We don't have a full-time technician (I'm the IT teacher who also manages the kit!) so after looking at some of the pitfalls, I'll probably stick with RM as it currently works how we want it to and if something did go wrong with a vanilla network, there's no-one to instantly fix it. The repercussions for the school could be significant. After further digging, I think I should be able to save some money on the servers - even if it means that the commissioning is carried out by a different company. With budgetry constraints next year, the Head should be pleased if I can save a couple of grand. Thank you all again, Steve

Thanks for the info, chaps. Clearly further investigations are required!

Hi all, Some advice please for someone with enough knowledge to be dangerous but not enough experience of the heavy stuff to know what to do! I need 2 new servers for our split-site Education Support Centre. Currently everything is on separate RM servers and we need to virtualise CC4, CC4Anywhere, SIMS, Print etc onto one Big Daddy. We've had a quote from our Tech Support company but I've been told to get 3 more and some second opinions due to the cost. So, 3 questions (sorry!)... 1. What is the collective opinion on sticking with RM? We've spent 6 years getting it all working smoothly and while I'm not RM's biggest fan, I'm loathed to recommend abandoning CC4 as the cost and problems of making an alternative work as well would be massive. I have been asked to investigate alternatives and be able to justify my decision! 2. What's Hypervisor and why do we need it? 2. We've been quoted £14K for 2 servers (1 Dual Xeon 2.6GHz/32Gb RAM/4x1Tb HDD and 1 Single Xeon 2.6GHz/16Gb RAM/3x1Tb HDD), 2 NAS's and complete comissioning to virtualise and transfer all of our current data. RM Licences extra of course. I have absolutely no idea if this is good, bad or otherwise. Any feedback would be very much appreciated. Thank you in advance for your opinions! Steve