MD2014 Beta 1 is available for testing within the University.
This is the first release on the 2014/15 desktop for testing and we will require testing to have been completed and signed off before we can release the desktop.

This will be particularly important for Corporate Systems and other University-wide software due to the updates that have been included for 2014/15, which include Java 1.7 and IE11.

We have included Java 1.7 as Java 1.6 is now not supported by Oracle and is not receiving any security updates, but contains critical security flaws that are being actively exploited.
In addition to this, there are now teaching applications that require Java 1.7 to be installed.
We know there are some services that still require Java 1.6 as they don’t work with 1.7.

IE11 has been included due to the necessity to update from IE9 due to the issue of Google not supporting IE9 to access Google Apps which is affecting students accessing their gmail, and also because IE10 or IE11 will be required for teaching and learning for 2014/15.

The Beta has been made available in order to allow extensive testing to occur of both Java 1.7 and IE11.
Any issues with applications that require Java 1.6 or IE9 will need raising and possible solutions discussed and implemented.

ITS are aware of how to image a machine with the 2014 Beta 1 image so if you require a physical test workstation re-imaging please contact ITS or myself.
This should only be installed on test workstations as the jobs will wipe the disk completely, and new versions of the Beta will be released periodically until the final release version.
For HBP, we have two Beta 1 machines in the Desktop Test Area that are clearly labelled as Beta 1 test workstations.

There a some MD2014 Beta 1 VDI virtual machines available for testing within vWorkspace. Initially these are for IS&T staff to test.

Anyone wishing to test specific applications that need installing should use a physical test machine and request the software to be installed.

MD2014/15 includes the following updates:

•  Internet Explorer 11 x64 and x86
• Java 1.7 Update 51 x86 & x64 JRE – Note no JDK now in master image as only used for teaching and often different version to what we install. Might want JDK 8 for teaching in 2014/15
• UE-V x64 agent 2.0
• .NET Framework 4.5.1
• Windows Powershell 4.0
• Symantic Enterprise Vault Outlook Add-In 10.0.4
• Apple QuickTime 7.7.5
• RealPlayer Enterprise 2.1.11
• Dell vWorkspace Connector for Windows 8.0 MR1
• Sassafras Keyserver Client 7.1

Following successful wide scale testing, the settings to improve startup and login times as described in this article have now been distributed to all MD7 workstations, with one slight alteration in that user profiles on Lab workstations are now deleted after 8 days rather than 5.
This has been done so that users who use the same machine for a weekly lecture will retain their profile for each session, so get a faster login.

As also previously mentioned, another major alteration that we did lately was re-do the startup and loginscripts to remove a lot of unnecessary actions due to the move from SAMBA and Novell file store to just Windows File store.

The move of the file store to Windows is one of the major reasons why the improvements can now be made to both login scripts and settings as Windows 7 is built to use Windows file store. Homespace is now mapped by the AD during login to the Windows file store rather than using scripts to either Novell of SAMBA and so the desktop can be set to display quicker if a profile already exists.

Also, as part of the move to Windows file store all drive mappings have been simplified as before users mapped lots of different drives to various locations, and each one involved a check to see if the user was a member of an AD group or not. All these check have now been removed as users just use N: and Q: for shared data.

After successful testing with the various test groups we have released MD2013 workstation Patch 11.

This update has been successfully tested with the UAT Phase 02 and 03 workstations and the update will be applied to the workstation at any time it is on, whether at the ctrl+alt+del screen or with a user logged in.

The update is a very small update and is being distributed in a phased roll out so it will take a few days to be applied to all MD2013 workstations.

Patch-11 includes the following:

• Copy updated LeftUSB.ps1 to C:\SHU\Scripts
• Copy updated LeftUSB.jpg to C:\SHU\Images
• Add Registry entry to stop IE11 from showing in Windows Update
• Set _PATCH environment variable to ’11’

The latest version of Java, that was released yesterday, causes users that are trying to connect to the Staff Remote Desktop, to be unable to do so. The issue can be resolved by changing the Security settings in the Java control panel.

For information on how to change the Java security settings see the information on the Staff Remote Desktop connection page.

we are looking at how we can improve startup and login times, and in order to do this we have altered a some settings on a few workstations where we are monitoring login times to try and determine if they have led to an improvement.

The major improvement provided by these settings will actually be to startup rather than login, and is not something we can currently monitor unfortunately but which should dramatically improve startup times.

The settings that have been altered are:

• Disabling IPv6 on the workstation
• Setting workstations to not wait for the network before displaying the ctrl+alt+del screen
• Running startup scripts asynchronously rather than synchronously
• Running Login scripts asynchronously rather than synchronously
• Deleting user profiles after 5 days of inactivity rather than one day

For those that are interested, a bit more detail about these settings:

Continue reading →

We have implemented some new loginscripts that should hopefully improve the login experience.
The original scripts contained a large number of routines for different users due to us having three different types of file store, these being Novell, SAMBA and Windows, and then additional routines were added during the move from Novell or SAMBA to Windows.
Now that all users have Windows file store all these additional routines can be removed, some of which were quite complicated and required the scripts to read attributes for the user from their AD object and group membership.

As well as now only having one file store, we have amalgamated shared drives for staff and students to just two drive mappings, these being N: and Q: which means most of the old routines for mapping drives based on faculty or group membership have also been removed.

There are still a number of routines that happen during login that make the desktop more usable / friendly but that will affect login times, such as updating menus and icons, changing the ‘My Computer’ to the computer name, altering settings such a IE homepage etc and running other scripts that will be considered to see if they are necessary.

Please report any issues to IT Help.