garethEds

Will DM if that is ok? Writing it now.

Hi, Any AutoPilot experts out there I can chat with either via email/dm or phone? Many thanks Gareth

I have been using AI for a while in my department. It provides a great starting point for certain things. I now pay for the 4.5 version of ChatGPT - some of the plugins are great. I was asked to write a policy - so I used GPT to get the initial ideas. This is were I find it works best - getting those initial ideas. Using a PDF GPT I was able to create mock exam paper based on the notes I provide the pupils (on PDF). For a bit of fun, I'm in the middle of writing a python book (In Welsh) using GPT for initial ideas and then editing. Dall-E3 has been used to generate some images. Way from finishing, but the process is interesting. I'll put it on Amazon KDP when finished for 99p. There are a lot of plugins - too many to mention. There is definately a place for it in the running of the school. I found this amusingly interesting: AI headteacher appointed at UK boarding school - CBBC Newsround Gareth

Afternoon All, Not quite sure where to put this, but we want to create a new level of user called 'Network Technician' but we don't want to give access to everything that the Doman Admin has. So at the start, our apprentice is on a Teacher's account setting. I want to add to this. So... does anyone have a list of GPO settings they put in place that give a reduced level of access to an Apprentice level techie? Many thanks Gareth

Well - turns out, I've fixed it. A missing driver. A driver that on the Lenovo page for this model. How annoying. Hopefully fixed for another school as well in the local area. Thanks everyone. Gareth

Done that. Still failing at points in the build.

With the issues I'm currently having with MDT and Windows 11 22H2, and with MDT now not supported for Windows 11 I'm re-looking at SmartDeploy. I will try fixing MDT first of course, but it it's going to be a pain in the future I wonder if it's worth changing. We are nowhere near InTune deployment. Gareth

We use MDT to deploy our machines and then PDQDeploy to push out applications depending on where the machine is based and which Task Sequence we have built from. Works lovely. We've just renewed our subscription to PDQ. We looked at PDQConnect but it was too expensive. Gareth

MY son wants a PS5 so I've been looking at those deals but have been tempted to wait until the new version arrives. I'm sure it will arrive the week after Black Friday. Should I wait of buy a BF deal original version? Gareth

At what point did your machines fail the build? Bit annoying if this is the case as they have network ports built in to the devices. These are the machines we purchased from the WAG EdTech catalogue. Gareth

Argh - just found this: Download and install the Windows ADK | Microsoft Learn

Hi All, Is there a newer version of MDT for deploying 2011 22H2? My deployment works fine but the machines are not naming themselves based on the information I have in the Database. My version of MDT is: 6.3.8456.1000 I am trying to deploy Lenovo M75q Gen 2 devices. Cheers Gareth

Hi @6Foot2 - Yes it's only SIMS that is affected.

Yes - I have done that and set single side. GJE

Morning All, Can anyone tell me where the print settings are in SIMS? We keep having stuff come out double sided and our SIMS manager wants them single sided. I've changed the printer driver to be single sided only but it's not made a difference. I feel I'm missing something obvious. Cheers Gareth

Good mornigng all, I'm looking at our deployment again as we move to Windows 11. Our application deployment is handled by PDQDeploy so I have quite a few different ones. However, I'm wondering.... does a computer need all the Visual C++ libraries or to they supercede each other? For example I have the following: 2010 Runtime SP1 10.0.40219.325 2012 Runtime 11.0.61030 2013 Runtime Update 5 2015 - 2022 Runtime 14.36.32532.0 Edit Again: I see PDQ have stopped with the 2010 - 2013 runtimes. Only the 2015-2022 is there for use. So does this mean I can ditch the first lot? The same with .NET. I have 3.5.1 4.5.2 4.8 Do I need to deploy them all? Just seen .NET 4.8.1, 6 and 7 Frameworks - should they be deployed? WHat do you guys do? Cheers Gareth

So the C++ dependancies are the only 'extra' default things you put on as the default? Have you no default apps like VLC etc that go on every machine regardless of location?

Hi All, It's been a while since I looked at out deployment here at school. MDT/WDS have just worked with driver selection policies in place. The database names machines without issues once they are put into the MDT database. Everything is good. Every 6 months or so I replace the base Windows installation with whatever is downloaded from the MS volume site (or from the new site). Then depending on type/location etc PDQ Deploy kicks in and adds software. It is here that am reviewing this week. It's that old question - what default apps are people putting on their deployments? I've attached a picture of our install steps. I'm not bothered about what main software you put on (like Office/Adobe CC etc) - but the other like the Visual C++ libraries. Am I missing anything? I remember the days when Flash, Shockwave, Real Audio, Java, Quicktime all had to go on. **Edit ** - I will point out that we do have other software going onto the machines. This is just the base deployment ** Thanks all. Gareth

Thanks everyone

Has anyone ever made a daily announcement board that they run internally - before I start researcning my own using Wordpress? I need an admin screen so teachers can put in their announcements and tag which year groups it's for. Then a screen that lists and sorts/hides according to year group. If not - I'll add it to my list of things to do. Cheers Gareth

We have found it working well recently. However it's not granular enough for us. There needs to be a way of excluding certain profiles - which DelProf2 offered us. Otherwise it works well. We have it set for 30 days. Gareth

I'm looking at CapCut today after a teacher asked for it to be installed. It goes fine through PDQDeploy but installs to a profile path. Any ideas on how to change the installation path as an install parameter?

Damn it - I could not remember that term at all. But yes I guess it is.

Good morning, We have our two HyperV servers running nicely. All virtual machines are stored on our aging SAN and can be accessed from anywhere. What I'm after is the ability to get my desktop PC to boot into a stored Windows 11 or Windows 10 machine (depends on how I feel). So when I boot my PC it gives me the choice to boot to either of them. Nothing stored on my local machine. I'm sure it can be done. Usually just boot into my local OS and then remote desktop my virtual machine. Cheers Gareth

Hi All, Our LEA have changed MFD provider from KM to Kyocera. We are due to receive several Kyocera machines soon to replace some of the KMs. This means two types of provider. Apparently we have been told PaperCut cannot deal with this and we would need two installations - one for the legacy KMs and one for the new Kyocera. Staff use a secure queue only to print and at the moment this can be accessed via the KMs. Has anyone come up with a way of getting around this and using the same pull/secure queue over two different systems? I don't really want to force the staff to choose at it would confuse some of them. :-) So - one server, two MFD providers, one secure queue. Can anyone advise? LEA say it cannot be done. Please prove them wrong.... ) Gareth