ICTNUT

Geoff, After a heck of alot of digging I have found that the computer description is held in the registry. I have used Ric's script as a basis and added a registry lookup to get the computer description (ours are set as Room XX - PC XX, and PC names are all unique as per the counties naming convention). Anyhow as we are only reading a reg key no special permissions are required so finally (after about 3 weeks of hunting) I can get the printers sorted ;-)

@Kingswood: I belive that the VLAN route would be the best option for you and seeing as you have invested in Layer 3 switches I see no reason why you should not use them as they should be. Configuring the VLAN's should be a doddle howver the tagging and if used backbone trunking is where the nightmare could rear it's head.

Gecko, NFS is my little baby which will not be open source however will remain freeware for the forseeable future. The group project that has been talked about on this forum is for an open source application that will be a colaboration of users on this forum with a view to providing an application that will be of benefit to all. The uptake has been slow but we will press on nevertheless. Depending on how things go I am may allow intergration of NFS into the application but who knows.

Thanks RobC, I really need to learn to search....

Hello All, Does anyone have any scripts that set printers based on room location. My Scenario: We have 6 IT Suites in each one a colour laser and mono laser, when a person (does not matter who) logs onto a machine in that room the printers in the will be mapped and made available. All printers are network'd. Ideally I would like to set the printers via GPO but have not yet found a way to do this but given time...... ;-) Any pointers would be cool. Oh Yeah, each machine have a unique name and the computer description has the following "Room XX - PC XX"

@Andrew: Attached is an Excel Spreadsheet of all GPO's available under Windows 2003 and is broken down into easy to search sections this should help you find what you need. I would concentrate on the following areas: User Configuration -> Administrative Templates -> Start Menu & Task Bar User Configuration -> Administrative Templates -> Desktop This will control all aspects of the desktop itself and the task bar / start menu. You will need to go a stage further and hit the following: User Configuration -> Administrative Templates -> Windows Components -> Windows Explorer This will allow you to control local drive access, and remove all non essential options from the menus i.e. map network drive, remove windows hot keys etc... Hope it helps File Can Be Found Here

We have done the same as ninjabeaver there is no real reason for them to have them and all new PC's that will be purchased from here on in will not have CD'd or floppies in them. As we RIS and GPO install software theres no need for it and make s the PC just that little bit more cheaper. If however we need to manually install simply attach that nice new sparkly CD drive that you have in your office and away you go. To date i have yet to fond anywhere where you can get the bands and I don't think there is a standard either.

@ Kingswood: This indeed can work and does as this is the way that I do it and allows for DHCP failover I have one server dishing out 192.168.0.1 -> 192.168.2.254 and the other doing 192.168.3.1 -> 192.168.4.254 this way we do not get any conflicts. I am not sure how you have done your image for RIS but we do complete clean installs and have done this summer on over 500 machines, each machine when it hit the GUI protion of the install found either DHCP 1 or DHCP 2 and grabbed an IP and continued without issue. Not one of the 500 PC's failed to get on the network and continue the install. I am however running 1 domain, 2 Windows 2003 DC's both of the set as GC's with DC 1 being the FSMO role holder and schema master. The domian is split into 2 ASync VLANs and controlled at switch level this is how I split the Admin and Curriculum networks but this is just extra in my case. If you need any further help shout me ;-)

@Gecko: Sorry for the late reply mate but been busy with the start of term ;-) The original NFS was knocked together using VB6 however the new version that I will be releasing the second week of Sept 05 will be in .Net (VB.Net)

Hi Andrew, There have been a few threads on Profiles and all pretty much say the same, NO PROFILES Although it is a matter of taste and how many users you have but in our case we have 1600 + users and if you use mandatory profiles info is being carried across the network at logon will slow down that network to a crawl yes this was happening when I took over. I have basically setup the following: 1 - Using an unattended XP install which has been slimmed down (from 568Mb to 234Mb) and slipstreamed with SP2 + Hotfixes. Slimming down the source of XP is good on two counts it makes the install faster as there are very few files to copy and it also removes the programs that cause the problems in the first place, for example MSN, MEssanger, Games, etc. 2 - Logon script removes all unwanted shortcuts from the menus for both all users and the logged on user. 3 - Using GPO to restrict everything else. Result: A completelt locked down desktop that when a stundent logs in all they have is Start > LogOff & Start > Programs with only the software that they can use visible. Software is deployed view GPO at machine startup so no user actually needs to be logged in for the install to take place. Right click context menus have been removed from everywhere, no access to local drives at all just the network share for thier personal folder and trhe assignments folder, students cannot install software nor can they run certain files from pen drives/memory sticks. All this and not a profile in site.....

Tosca925 is correct there is a GPO setting that allows for either profiles to be deleted at logoff or not to be stored at all. For the life of me I can not remember where it is but i'll also take a look on Wednesday.

Thanks for the responses guys ;-) Firstly there were no AUP's however I have put them in place and from September will be binding. @Ric_: I am going to have a look this morning to see if I can access the disk with all the mailboxes on them if this can be done then I can use the Migration wizard to move them over to the new Excahnge server I will set up. The good thing is with Excahnge 2003 you no longer need to have the mailbox store on the same server as EX2003 now support remote storage so all mailboxes can go onto our NAS server where it is all backed up centrally. I'll let you know how I get on.

Right Guys, Need help here, Exchange 2000 server has gone up in smoke over the weekend and it also turns out that no backups have been performed since 1999 <-- Yeah I Know (I only joined the school 2 months ago after the last guy walked) Anyhow, I can not access the server to recover anything of it i.e mailboxes I have another server I am going to use and will put Exchange 2003 on but is there a way to backup the users mailboxes locally i.e. on thier desktop. This is the only way that I will be able to recovery the more important mailboxes. Any help or advice really welcomed on this !

Hmmm Macro in default template now that's something I really need to look into. We don't have a great problem with kids printing stuff it's the teachers that print like there is no tomorrow. They all have flexicards for the copiers which they have to pay for credit but they have sussed that if they have a word doc they can just use the printers without paying for it. Then they go and leave half of it lying round...... Item no 159 on todays job list: Must look into macro for .......

I have only come into education ICT in the last 3 months having previously worked for Ford Motor Co and Compuware. I did my certification while working for them and had to substitue 50% but heyt £2k is better than £4k right. What I don't understand though is we now work in an "education" environment ( I place great emphasis on the education bit) and all I keep hearing is we can't get educated becouse we have no budget (this is the same in our place). A - Where is our training budget gone - RussDev £2k per year is not on is it B - How are we supposed to keep up with emerging technologies and concepts if we can get decent training, long term the school will suffer do they not see this......

It has not yet been tested on NT4 as overall support for it is no longer, but if anyone would like to give it ago... At your own risk of course ;-) A PM from GrumblDook GrumbleDook, I'll look into the DFS issue today and post an update shortly. Version 2 of NFS will contain a GUI report where certain files will be able to be viewed directly i.e. images and other media MP3's etc... I agree an archive option would be great and will be included in version 2, version 1.x missed out on a lot of features as I wanted to concentrate on speed but that is not really an issue anymore given the flexability that people want.

Post removed by ICTNUT due to change of direction ;-)

Nope, I'm running a 256Mb ATI Radeon chipset (personal machine) without any probs, have also installed it school wide over varying types of graphics chipsets without any issues so far.

I think we (edugeek admins and users) need to be careful here as it could all end up right where we don't need it and ruin the great reputation this site has built itself. I for one would hate to see that happen regardless of who got there first... I echo RobC in this - " These views are my own and my own only and don't represent any other body aprt from my own !"

RussDev, As per my PM I am offering myself to you, hmmmm maybe not the best phrase to use, to fill one of the Project Managers posts.

@Russdev, Cheers for the pointer mate, will zip over and take a look.

OK guys, heres my 2 pence worth, Before we start doing any specs or deciding what should be in it or how it looks we need to decide on a common language. There is no use going any further before we get to that. The following questions I have: 1) What Language (c#.net / vb.net) 2) Do we have a definate set of people who are going to be working on the project. 3) Project managers do we have them? 4) Central file/project store (cvs / source safe) that all members can get at. Given the potentail scope of the project people need to be sure that they can commit the time to the project before they commit to joining. I have seen it before where people are full of the joys of spring when something is new but then it hits home just how much time and effort is involved. Just my 2 pence ;-)

I agree it does need to be a single exe that was one of the reasons behind keeping NFS 2005 as a single exe, to keep it portable and small, but it does ultimately come down to what people want in it. Some things may well require some kind of dependant. Most of the stuff I put together uses the registry to store settings but I suppose an ini or a dat file would be better. I do think though all changes should be made from within the app itself and not edit the config files directly just incase of corruption etc.. I am working on a user interface based loosing around the look and feel of M$ Antispyware tool will post up a screen shot soon. If anyone else has any UI suggestions let me know.

Hi All, After releasing the Administrators Nasty File Search I have decided to look into creating an "All In One" Admin Toolbox. A kind of one stop app for all (User creation, folder sharing with permissions, Active directory manipulation, printers, etc, etc) But I need your help, what do you want to see in it. I will look at each suggestion in turn and based on it's merits i.e. is it going to be of benefit to all to have it in there we will shortlist for the initial release. I will be making it modular so you would need to down load the base install and then depending on what you require simply download and install that particular module. So come on guys this is your big moment to get a tool that your have provided input for and one that could save us all a huge amount of time. I look forward to your replies.

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