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Forgot to say i've not tested this on the latest OS X yet, as we always stay 1 year behind. So i only know it works for sure on 10.9 and 10.10

Its a long post, no idea how skilled you are with OS X/Unix so tried to make it as simple as possible, and i hopefully have not missed anything out. So the general experience this makes is user logs in and gets a defined desktop layout and config by me and the user folders are redirected to their home folder. When the Mac is restarted it deletes all the local user profiles to stop the hard disk getting full, and checks for any changes to the desktop layout and modifies them on the local default user template. User logs in and gets a fresh clean experience again but with user data still there. I made a folder in /System called Scripts. This is where i keep all my scripts. I also made a local user called profile this is the user i customise how i want for the user experience. The root account i have enabled for doing most of this in. You can enable it in the Directory Utility under the edit menu (Turn it back off before finishing your Mac image) Each Mac has 'Force local home directory on startupdisk' and 'Use UNC path from Active Directory to derive network home location' ticked This is all done on a fresh image that i will then use deploy studio to deploy. Putting all this manually on lots of Macs would not be a fun job. So first script is the deleting of local user profiles. I called this one delprof.sh . So its /System/Scripts/delprof.sh I nabbed this from https://jamfnation.jamfsoftware.com/discussion.html?id=9522 as it did a better job that my original script #!/bin/shusername1="localadmin" username2="profile" username3="student" username4="temp" RESULT="" for U in /Users/*; do if [ -d "$U" ]; then if [ "$U" == "/Users/Shared" ] || [ "$U" == "/Users/Guest" ]; then /bin/echo "Found $U, ignored" USERNAME=`/bin/echo $U | tr '/' ' ' | awk '{print $NF}'` RESULT=`echo "$RESULT$USERNAME-IGNORED "` else /bin/echo "Found $U, continuing..." USERNAME=`/bin/echo $U | tr '/' ' ' | awk '{print $NF}'` /bin/echo "Parsed username as: $USERNAME" ADMINCHECK=`/usr/bin/dsmemberutil checkmembership -U $USERNAME -G admin | awk '{print $3}'` if [ "$ADMINCHECK" == "not" ]; then if [ "$USERNAME" == "$username1" ] || [ "$USERNAME" == "$username2" ] || [ "$USERNAME" == "$username3" ] || [ "$USERNAME" == "$username4" ]; then /bin/echo "$USERNAME is on the exempt list, ignoring..." RESULT=`echo "$RESULT$USERNAME-EXEMPT "` else /bin/echo "$USERNAME not an Admin nor exempt, taking action..." RESULT=`echo "$RESULT$USERNAME-Action Taken "` /bin/echo "Forcing the removal of $U" && /bin/rm -rf $U fi else /bin/echo "$USERNAME was found to be a Local Admin, ignoring" RESULT=`echo "$RESULT$USERNAME-ADMIN "` fi fi fi done echo "" echo "============================================================" echo "Summary: $RESULT" echo "============================================================" Need to make this executable so from the terminal chmod +x /System/Scripts/delprof.sh Next we need to make this script launch automatically when the Mac boots so it needs to be a launchd job. So the following is code is saved in /Library/LaunchDaemons/com.delprof.plist Label com.delprof ProgramArguments sh /System/Scripts/delprof.sh RunAtLoad So thats the tidy process sorted. Next its the customising the default user profile. So if you have made a user account called profile login as it and make all the modifications you want to how all the apps and desktop feels. Then logout and go back in as root . Then go to /Users/Library/Keychains and delete all the files in that folder . THAT BIT IS VERY IMPORTANT. It will be hidden in which case you need to show all files so from terminal type defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles true (press enter) then killall Finder (press enter) On my server called munki i created a share called Templates. I then have a folder for each suite of PCs, i.e. ICT , Music , Technology . Within that folder i have another one for each version of Mac OS we may have i.e. 10.9 or 10.10 . So the profile will end up kept in the example below /ICT/10.9 . You just need to modify the username ,password, server and folder structure to what ever you are going to use. I then use the following script to upload it to one of my servers. I called it updateprof.sh in /System/Scripts and made it executable with chmod +x /System/Scripts/updateprof.sh I then run the following command from terminal sh /System/Scripts/updateprof.sh mkdir /Volumes/Templatesmount -t smbfs smb://username:password@munki/Templates /Volumes/Templates rsync -a /Users/profile/ /Volumes/Templates/ICT/10.9 --delete-during umount /Volumes/Templates rm -rf /Volumes/Templates So that should be the nice profile uploaded to the server. So next we need a script to on boot to sync that network template with the local default user template . So this one i called profsync.sh in /System/Scripts again make it executable so from terminal sh /System/Scripts/profsync.sh sleep 30mkdir /Volumes/Templates mount -t smbfs smb://username:password@munki/Templates /Volumes/Templates rsync -a /Volumes/Templates/ICT/10.9/ /System/Library/User\ Template/English.lproj --delete-during umount /Volumes/Templates rm -rf /Volumes/Templates It waits 30 seconds to make sure the network is up and connected. Again you need to modify this to match your server and login details. This one is for our IT Suite image hence called ICT, but if it was for the Music suite i would change ICT to Music so i can have a different profile for that room. Next this needs to be told to run at the login screen with launchd so copy the following and save as /Library/LaunchDaemons/com.profsync.plist Label com.profsync ProgramArguments sh /System/Scripts/profsync.sh RunAtLoad Next is the redirecting of user folders. This one i do slightly differently. I use a program called platypus that makes a script into an app. Platypus | Sveinbjorn Thordarson Then i copy that app to /Applications/Utilities and tell Profile Manager to run the App at user login. The script i make first is this chmod -R -N ~/Documentschmod -R -N ~/Desktop chmod -R -N ~/Movies chmod -R -N ~/Music chmod -R -N ~/Pictures rm -rf ~/Documents rm -rf ~/Desktop rm -rf ~/Movies rm -rf ~/Music rm -rf ~/Pictures mkdir "/Volumes/Homes/$USER/My Documents" ln -s "/Volumes/Homes/$USER/My Documents" ~/Documents mkdir "/Volumes/Homes/$USER/Desktop" ln -s "/Volumes/Homes/$USER/Desktop" ~/Desktop mkdir "/Volumes/Homes/$USER/My Documents/My Music" ln -s "/Volumes/Homes/$USER/My Documents/My Music" ~/Music mkdir "/Volumes/Homes/$USER/My Documents/My Pictures" ln -s "/Volumes/Homes/$USER/My Documents/My Pictures" ~/Pictures mkdir "/Volumes/Homes/$USER/My Documents/My Videos" ln -s "/Volumes/Homes/$USER/My Documents/My Videos" ~/Movies killall Finder osascript -e "set Volume 0" The first part changes the permissions (chmod) so the users local folders can be deleted. Next it deletes them (rm -rf) Then for each folder it tries to make the folder just incase its the users first time ever logging in (mkdir). Then it creates the symlink to it (ln -s). After that it kills Finder or the desktop redirection does not work for the user then the final one just mutes the sound on the Mac. You may have to do a bit of tweaking on the user profile redirect with the /Volumes/Homes part as the share is always called Homes for us, we have 1 server per year group so its SMB://UFS-2012/Homes , SMB://UFS-2013/Homes, or SMB://UFS-Staff/Homes . If you have 1 share with sub folders for each year group that script as is won't work. Thats it!

We use AD joined Macs with forced local homes, then use sym links to redirect the documents, desktop, movies, pictures folder to their network home drive. We also have some scripts load using launchd that give the user the desktop config we want after every reboot and settings are all reset. I can try and post them tomorrow if you want.

We have 12 photocopiers and 20 printers on lease with Ricoh and have done for over 5 years. Great service, raise a fault and most days they are out same day to us. Toner is auto ordered when changed.

When we had Windows 7 Clients i had this turned on everywhere (on our XP ones too). I hated the endless 'Please wait' with a spinning circle, not actually saying what its doing. Not got round to doing anything with Windows 10 yet, but some of these boot and login times are horrific. We are mainly Mac and our IT Suites are 11 seconds boot, 12 second from login screen to desktop loaded. When we get round to Windows 10 at some of our other sites they are the kind of times we will be aiming for. Anything more than 30 seconds from a cold boot is painful.

No its called market saturation. Most people who want a smart phone now have one and they have hit that point where they are not advancing at the rate they were so new versions are very small incremental upgrades. Result = people keep mobiles for longer Its hitting them all not just Apple. Slowing smartphone sales hit Samsung profits - BBC News

What insurance? why would we have insurance? If a screen cracks we just replace the screen, done 15 in 2 years. Also £175 for iPad mini 2 is not that much different to a chromebook price wise. We also don't complain about budgets, we are doing very well here.

I love my Fortigate. Being using it for filtering in the school for 6 years and its been great. I find the interface fine and logical. It has so many features and has been able to handle everything we want.

£5000ish should get you an Fortinet 200D which is quite a powerful unit , then around £1000 a year for the filtering add on with 8x5 hardware support.

Are Microsoft losing the plot. Less SKU's are need not more. 1 , just 1 for clients! You then turn the features on or off you need. Don't need this Home, Home Premium, Pro, Enterprise, Education, Pro Education silliness. It worked so much better years ago, NT Workstation and NT Server that was it. If you needed NT Workstation to join the domain you went into System control panel and added it, you did not need a 'Pro' version. If you did not need it you never went near that setting.

I cancelled Sky years ago, and i got rid of Netflix 2 years ago. I want a streaming service that can replace my DVDs, so that means not having programs be there 1 week on Netflix then gone a few months later. I got a Plex server setup at home, ripped all my DVD that plus what comes through the ariel and iTunes will do. So if the BBC one will be more permanent in terms of content then i will be happy.

Was 2GB, then staff complained to SLT, SLT told me to give them more, so went to 5GB, few years later staff complained to SLT no space and don't have time to delete emails, i said the server is physically full, they said buy a new server. Bought a new server, few years later again 10GB not enough, so i just moved all the mailboxes to Office 365 and when they get to 50GB it will be tuff.

I take it you have never used NT 4/3.5x or Windows 3.x ?

Had TASC Insight and PARS for years, we had SIMS Learning Gateway first, and you know the saying ' If you don't have anything nice to say, don't say anything at all' . Much MUCH prefer Insight and PARS.

I know you said MS Surface is top of your list, but when going 1:1 deployment with students the iPad + Office 365 is your best situation. iPads might be a pain in shared environments , but 1:1 they really do shine. With DEP you won't even have to touch the iPads, the students could unwrap them and they will get all the settings and apps you define automatically installed on the devices from an MDM. With some MDM's such as light speed you can give the students more freedom when its offsite and more locked down when in school automatically.

App Store Experiencing Widespread Search Issues - Mac Rumors

We had ransomeware at one of our primaries last year on a staff laptop, she admitted that she had been trying to download game of thrones episodes and then it all went wrong. I don't really see virus's much anymore its always malware.

I found the Virgin Super Hub 1 awful. The Super Hub 2 was better but found the 2.4Ghz was dire no matter what channel i picked and would need rebooting every few weeks. In the end i had enough and got a used Ruckus 7363 AP cheap off eBay and coverage and performance around my house is now excellent. The back room in my house AirPlay with Apple TV was bad, always disconnecting with the Virgin Super Hub, with the Ruckus AP its perfect. I don't have any experience in how good the Apple Airports are though.

Been tasked with converting something done currently with endless paper to electronic , so decided an Access Web App should be the easy route as its web based and end user device neutral. Almost got it working , but i cannot figure out how to filter the records. Once they have been 'Completed' and the check box 'Completed' has been ticked i no longer want them to appear on the far left on the screen shot. I can do an onload macro and tried the RequeryRecords with [QR_Students].[Complete]=1 but does not seem to do anything. Any idea on the syntax to filter records against if a tick box is ticked or not? If it was normal Access i think it would be easier, but the Web App version seems to act quite differently.

Could be worse, these poor people had it happen on Live TV. Microsoft's Windows 10 nagware storms live TV weather forecast ? The Register

Anybody know of any free/open source software that does what this does? https://fra.me

QueekyPaint - free browser based drawing and painting tools. ?

Mines called CowJuice.

Puppet maybe ? https://puppet.com/product/open-source-projects

Back in 2009 the Bursar and i went to a company who could sell us a VoIP system to replace our existing. I had never touched VoIP before. On the way back he said now i can i do it cheaper in house? So looked at Asterisk and found Elastix which is a nicely packaged version of it got a couple of SIP phones and went playing. Few weeks later ordered the ISDN line, dedicated server to run it and all the handsets. Been running fine now for 7 years and not missed a beat, thats handling 130 extensions. So if you are thinking Asterisk get the Elastix package of it. Its great.