AngryTechnician

First thing: have you installed any GPP hotfixes?

We just use Wordpad in Windows 7. Almost everything else is disabled by GPO, and the little buggers are watched like hawks (or so I'm told).

YES PLEASE! Washable PC Keyboard K310 http://i3.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/newsfeed/000/264/241/9e9.gif (Hopefully when these make it into the channel they will be a bit cheaper than the £34.99 RRP, because I am sorely tempted to put these in our labs right now.)

You would need a third-party app such as FileBrowser (not tested myself but have see it recommended) - there is no native support for connecting to a network share. Then you will also need something that can at least view the file format the minutes are in (presumably Office). Hopefully someone else can chime in with a decent one. Personally I'd tell them to just use the computers they already have and stop wasting money solving a problem that doesn't exist, but perhaps I'm just old-fashioned.

You'll also have that sodding EU Browser Choice 'update' on all your machine before you know it, which might be an issue depending on your setup. If you're dead set on going down this route, make sure to deploy settings to block that update before modifying your Group Policy to remove the WSUS settings.

Curious. I'd still wager it is something to do with the filtering. Are you able to bypass it temporarily to test that?

What happens if they click Open? Does it go to the page as normal or does something else happen? (We had an issue with all sponsored links being blocked as advertising on our filtering, which didn't cause this symptom, but did cause other oddities.)

If you can't connect to the web interface due to a bad gateway, ssh won't work either, since they both rely on the network settings being correct. Two options: a) Configure a workstation with an IP in the same subnet (i.e. 192.168.1.x, where x is a number not in use by other devices) as then it won't matter if the gateway is wrong. b) Log on to the local console. Plugin a screen and keyboard and call Smoothwall support; they will walk you through it. I've done something similar before and they had it fixed in a few minutes. (FWIW, you can't have a gateway of 192.168.1.0 as that isn't a usable IP address.)

When Office 365 was launched I was told by a Microsoft rep that there would be preferential pricing for EES customers. We don't have a paid plan, so I don't know if that actually is the case, but hopefully someone else can verify.

Indeed, we do actually qualify it by saying that significant personal use is a taxable benefit, rather than any (which is what I carelessly wrote above).

Yep. User Configuration/Policies/Administrative Templates/Windows Components/Internet Explorer/Security Features/Add-on Management: Add-on List The setting contains a help description telling you exactly how to use it.

At my current school, they are covered. My last school didn't cover them. As you point out, if you aren't required to give them for home use, they aren't required to take them home. If they don't like the terms offered, they can suck it. If anyone tried to take it to their union they wouldn't have a leg to stand on, so feel free to call their bluff if anyone tries to press the point. Our signature form also asks staff to sign that they understand that any personal use at home counts as a taxable benefit, and that staff must declare this to HMRC themselves; the school assumes the equipment will only be used for work so does not declare it on their behalf. If you don't have that on your form, add that one too and it might put some more off taking them home.

Microsoft have quietly issued about half a dozen hotfixes for GPP even since SP1 - and they really are hotfixes, as in they aren't in WU at all. The most recent one I have deployed is KB2561285, which officially has nothing to do with printers, but don't be fooled - the GPP hotfixes are cumulative as all GPP functions run out of the single Gpprefcl.dll file. There have certainly been published fixes for printers in earlier hotfixes, and I've noticed various parts of GPP that worked more reliably since deploying the above hotfix in February. (With apologies for threadjacking.)

Have you applied any hotfixes? Mine worked much better after applying some of the more recent GPP hotifxes, even the ones that didn't officially have printer fixes!

They are in the Microsoft directory: https://www.msregrefurb.com/RRPSite/OnlineDirectoryDetails.aspx More on what that means here: Microsoft Registered Refurbisher

Yep. (At least in theory!) Computer Configuration > Policies > Windows Settings > Security Settings > System Services Find Print Spooler in the list, define the setting and set to Automatic startup, then click Edit Security, add your Pupils group, and tick Start, stop and pause. As always, try it on a test machine before making the change on your production GPOs. For what it's worth, I suspect this may cause more problems than it will solve. Just off the top of my head, nuisance pupils will stop the service and leave it that way for the next person. You may want to add a logon script that starts the service to avoid this. Ultimately, as I'm sure you are aware, fixing the printer problems must be the long term solution.

My money's on 'No'. When you do call them back, ask the maintenance company to send someone who isn't a total numpty.

Mrs AT has dual British and American citizenship. Like others have said, she takes both passports with her when we travel, then uses the British passport at British passport control and the US passport at US passport control. She has never had any issues.

I doubt they will have a problem - they want the returned drive as proof it is an actual replacement and that you aren't just fleecing the warranty for extra drives. Can you discreetly unscrew the casing and do something nasty to the platters while leaving the casing undamaged?

What version of IEP writer do you have? We are running it here on Windows 7 without any serious issues (other than it being generally a bit rubbish).

This looks like it might be the right spec? Height is 0.1mm off but that could be down to a bad imperial to metric conversion. ML-614S/ZTN Panasonic - BSG | P006-ND | DigiKey

The Dell Latitude E6430 ATG is pretty tough, but you're looking at over a grand to buy one. Honestly not sure you'll find anything that isn't nailed down that will withstand a proper chuck though, plus the tougher it is the more it will hurt the person it's thrown at.

We have had Lexia for a while now too, after Learning Support kept insisting that they used Comic Sans because it was better for dyslexia (it's really no better than Arial, and the b and d are still mirror images of each other which is unhelpful for dyslexia). We also have Tiresias (free versions) which is designed for visually-impaired readers, and Sassoon (not free). Always good to have another option though! (Further reading: Typefaces for dyslexia | BDA Technology)

We're too small to have reprographics staff here, but at my last school I had a custom ASP.NET web form that basically emulated the paper forms they used before, and also allowed documents to be uploaded and attached to each request. Reprographics got email notifications with the full form submission plus links to the uploaded files on our server. When it was done, the reprographics staff could mark it as complete online and the requester would get an email saying their copying was ready for collection. They kept the paper forms for jobs that needed to be done from hardcopy, but most staff took to the web form very quickly. The reprographics staff were also very pleased when I was was able to produce a graph from the database showing how quick their average turnaround time was when it was time for their performance reviews. Of course, this could backfire if your reprographics staff aren't as awesome as ours were.

Better than expected. I actually bought one myself for my flat (which is admittedly small) and get excellent performance throughout the interior, and working coverage through exterior walls for about 10-15m. Basically, you'll get good performance in the room its in and rooms immediately adjacent (providing the rooms aren't huge and the walls are thin), but anything beyond that will be a push. One thing to consider: although it's an N radio, the uplink is only 100Mbps, so you wouldn't want many more than your 5 users on it simultaneously.