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Yes, it's possible. It's all in the Home layout tab, you can then add folders / drag apps around the home screen and add web links.

Hi All, Our main site has quite a few Surface Pro 5 and 6 devices still in use, all running pretty well still. But all have a BIOS password that wasn't provided at handover. All the research I had done suggested that it wasn't possible to clear the UEFI password without disassembly and flashing a chip. Turns out you can actually, it's rather convoluted but is possible. The process I found leverages the SEMM mode and the Surface UEFI Configurator application. Configurator can be downloaded from here: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/surface/surface-enterprise-management-mode First you have to generate a certificate, I found a self signed cert to work fine. Powershell script is in the link above, and password protects the certificate with the password 12345678 Once that's complete run the configurator from the start menu, and select Configuration Package. It asks for the Cert and Password. The UEFI password leave blank. The next settings I don't believe matter much, I chose to make it as least restrictive just in case. Then save the package as an MSI. You then can run the MSI (have to run from msiexec.exe for some reason) Reboot. When the surface reboots a red box appears and asks for 2 characters from the certificate and the UEFI password we don't know. I just entered rubbish until it closed and booted back into windows. When you shut down next and enter the UEFI you will now have access but everything will say managed by your organisation. Take down the serial number for later. Boot back into windows and run the configuration tool, but select the reset package and enter the serial number. Now save and run this, again with msiexec /i Now the UEFI should be clear of both the password and SEMM stuff. Hopefully that helps someone one day.

I worked at a school that used Turnitin a while back, not sure if that would sort it or how expensive it would be.

Totally agree with the above, this could end up being a sticky situation for all involved. Individual google accounts are one way forward, definitely not 'personal' google accounts, these need to be managed in GSuite / Workspace. Might be worth looking at Chrome OS Flex, turning those windows machines into basically Chromebooks, as you don't have local group policy available with win 10 home. Having said all of this does the school have appropriate web filtering in place? if not the whole thing should just be a no go.

As far as I am aware these are just a Storage Spaces Direct cluster (S2D) Have a look at this: extend-volumes

Just setup Home Assistant this weekend, so far so good. Using a Sonoff USB dongle with some of the IKEA Zigbee stuff, all seems to be working. £15 for each plug seems reasonable.

Promethean would be my preferred option of the two for the flat panels, for the old projector based ones I had the opposite view. Currently our main customer has 50 odd ActivPanel Titaniums which on the whole seem pretty good, we have had a lot of issues with them not picking up HDMI inputs reliably, but now believe that it's possibly something to do with the desktops they are connected to rather than the boards themselves, although it has been a real headache to definitively prove. Having said all that BenQ and Viewsonic I think are better value options and we've also had some really good experiences with HiSense lately which were much cheaper than all the above. The main thing I find is that none of our customers tend to use the built in OS stuff, so long as it's got a freeze button and a HDMI input they're happy. Digital clock function that the Promethean has is great for exams.

Correct me if I'm wrong, is SIMS connected just a fancy name for SIMS on a hosted RDS instance? In which case that is what one of our customers has and it's pretty pants. Believe it's still running on Server 2012 for them(I may be wrong on that) Admittingly we don't have to get involved with it very often, so make of that what you will.

On the Smoothie, under Services, Authentication, User activity it gives you the Username and IP of the device.

We've been very happy with Sophos Central for the last few years.

Same here with one of our schools.

Yes, you can have PaperCut on it's own without leases e.t.c which is what I put in at a previous school. You would just need a PaperCut license on each MFD.

When I'm quoting I'll always try to use existing, if what is already fitted is up to scratch. Ultimately if we don't need to add additional kit into the job and achieve the same result it brings the quote down and helps our chance of getting the work in the first place. For those who came more from the alarm / security side rather than the IT side I can kind of understand why you'd want to put your own network in if you don't have that understanding of VLANs e.t.c. We do uncover a lot of really bad work in the CCTV and access control areas through, the number of installers that still haven't managed to work out how to crimp RJ45s properly scares me. When I did work directly for a school I did all this in house, but often you do find getting hold of the kit to be harder and pricing is significantly more expensive than most installers can get it with trade accounts.

Don't see any problem arising legally, If it stays manageable at 5 songs then just a cheap MP3 player.

I think Hanwha (South Korean) is probably the closest match for a non Chinese system, however its more expensive by quite some margin and in my opinion the image quality of the Hikvision for comparable cameras was far superior. I would say the interface is OK at best. Unifi Protect I think would be suitable for smaller installs, but I wouldn't have the confidence in it for a larger roll out after what happened with Unifi video. Supply of cameras can also be quite iffy at times. Paxton 10 may be an option however the cameras are Hikvision running their own firmware, also this system only records on motion which may fall short. I don't think a ban is looming at the moment for education e.t.c and I think doing so would be a big blow for education, unfortunately I don't really think anyone has a product that is quite as robust for the price. That said I believe steps should be taken on the network to reduce the risk i.e. VLANS, ACLs, Firewall Rules. Really I see no reason why this shouldn't be done for any system, if cameras don't need internet access then they shouldn't have it.

We've got a couple of the surface USB adapters kicking about for imaging. Work well as you'd expect.

We love the Mikrotik routers, the switches are a little odd to use for the first time. I would avoid most of them if you require L3 routing as they are a little weak when it comes to that performance wise, but as L2 switches there OK especially if you need really high speed ports on a tight budget.

Veeam is my go to, as it just works. I've used Altaro before in a few schools but found it a bit unreliable, the support from them was OK it just didn't seem to play ball with Hyper-V all the time.

Sounds like a great idea

I like the X32 personally, there's a couple of variations of models out there now.

So far I'm trying to avoid it as long as possible. I bought a Surface Pro 7+ this Christmas and spent the first hour or so installing Win10 on it. I found the memory utilisation at idle dropped by 10 to 20% straight away, and it just felt snappier. Maybe in another year or so I'll change tactics, but so far I don't really see the benefit. I've had a couple trial it at work as well, don't think they were all that fond of it. Keen to see what other experiences people have had with it.

Can't say for Shure but they do pick up well on the Sennheiser packs I've used. They are delicate though, on a week long production I wouldn't be surprised if one gets broken, sometimes the connection is repairable other times it just isn't. Usually it's by the connector that fails.

is it something you want to hire or buy? If its hire I'd suggest contacting BH Event Services, I've worked with them in the past on some theatre stuff, really know their stuff. Also probably a good idea to try kit before buying, there's no point spending a load on ch70 kit if outside interference is going to stop it working well. I would stick to Sennheiser really for the kit, because it works! I've had no end of problems with other lower cost brands. On a recent production we had a mix of Sennheiser and 'other' mics, the Sennheiser worked flawlessly every show, the others just gave issues every show ranging from crackles, intermittent dropouts, to mics just stopping working completely. Then followed by another show with someone else just using a different brand where all radio mics just stopped working altogether one after the other. Only catch is for new Sennheiser you can be looking at anywhere from £600 to £1200 quite easily per mic. Which is why a lot of the theatre groups end up just hiring them in.

The events company I work with on the side uses these: https://www.thomann.de/gb/the_t.bone_headmike_d_ew.htm With Sennheiser EW100 body packs on a mix of CH70 and 38. Have to say the cheaper options are almost a complete waste of time in my experience, provided that the batteries are fresh in the Sennheisers they just work fine, whereas we just have issues with the cheaper ones. Might get away with it for a school assembly, but for performances the cheap ones are a nightmare with dropouts, interference. Whichever you go with will chew through batteries, and the rechargeable ones tend to get about half the runtime in our experience than a set of Duracells.

Also would agree with this, NET2 is pretty much bulletproof. Paxton 10 is the newer shiny version but does require you to buy a server (intel NUC effectively) from them. I don't have the confidence that after 5 years Ubiquiti won't discontinue access, somewhat like they did with unifi Video. A lot of their products last for a set number of years and then stop receiving updates, whereas Paxton are still supporting hardware that's 15+ years old.