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.

After successful testing with the various test groups we have released Chrome 30.0.1599.101 to MD7 workstations in order to resolve critical flaws with previous versions and to provide new functionality.

The update is being distributed in a phased roll out so it will take a few days to be applied to MD7 Lab and Office workstations and will only install when the workstation is at the ctrl+alt+del screen.

MD7 Lab machines are currently being updated and the update will start being applied to Office machines from next week.

In order to test the version of Chrome that is installed on your workstation, start Chrome and check the version number.

The Software List has been updated to display the locations where software is available within SHU for MD2013/14.

The list is searchable and can either display all the software available in a specific lab, or the locations where a piece of software is available across the University.

The Software List

The project for updating MD2012 workstations to MD2013 has been completed as the patches to update existing MD2012 workstations to MD2013 have been distributed and applied to the vast majority of workstations within the University.

There are a few workstations left that are not MD2013 at present which are mainly laptops that either have not connected to the SHU wired network since the update was released or have not been in a position to install the update.

Any machine that is not MD2013 will either install the update in the future automatically or will be updated manually if there is an issue that needs resolving.

Google has just announced that with the release of IE11, which is part of Windows 8.1, it will remove support of IE9, which was expected as Google have a policy of not supporting browsers other than the most current version and the previous version.
What is surprising is the speed of this given that IE11 has only been released for a few weeks, and especially considering that it isn’t even available for Windows 7 yet.
Update: IE11 has now been released for Windows 7

Warning message about using an out of date browser
When using Googleapps, such as Gmail, with IE9 the user will be presented with a warning message stating that the browser being used is out date and should be updated.

IE9 default browser within MD7 Managed Desktop
At present the University has IE9 installed within the Managed Desktop as the default browser due to some corporate applications not being compatible or supported with IE10.

The University did consider using IE10 for the current version of MD7 this year, but this was not done as it was considered that there was not enough assurance that it wouldn’t adversely affect our Corporate Applications or Teaching and Learning applications.

Future of IE9 within the University
We are actively considering our usage of IE9 within the University and have requested that is confirmed that all Corporate applications and Teaching & Learning applications will be supported if IE10 is installed, whilst considering solutions for the few applications we know are not supported.
At present the applications that are known to have issues with IE10 are just used by staff members.

For further info see:
Google drops Internet Explorer 9 support in Google Apps less than three weeks after IE11′s release

After successful testing with the various test groups we have released MD2012 workstation Patch 09, which is the fifth patch for MD2012.
This is the second patch in a series of three for updating MD2012 workstations to MD2013.
The 3rd updated mentioned to make MD2012 workstations MD2013 is Java 1.6 JRE Update 45 which is currently being distributed to SHU workstations.

This update needs to be applied to workstations whilst it is at the ctrl-alt-del screen.
The patch takes a few minutes to run and ideally requires a reboot to occur in order the complete the updates, so initially we have set the update to only run at night and then automatically start any workstations that are switched off allowing them to install the updates, reboot and then switch off at the end of the process.
This means of course that the update will only apply to MD2012 workstations that are not left logged in overnight.

Any laptops will need to be using the wired network as WOL doesn’t work on wireless.

Any machine that doesn’t install the patch using this method will get the update in the future when we revert to the standard rollout method. This is just being done now to try and minimise disruption and cause less issues with the update, such as users rebooting the machine whilst software is being installed.

The update is being distributed in a phased roll out so it will take a few days to be applied to all MD2012 workstations, starting with the remaining MD2012 Lab machines to try and ensure all Lab machines are MD2013 before teaching commences.

Obviously this patch will not be applied to any machine that is using the MD2013 image that was released in July.

Patch-09 includes the following:

• RealPlayer Enterprise 2.1.10
• QuickTime 7.7.4
• vWorkspace client 7.6
• Windows Management Framework 3.0 (Inc. PowerShell 3.0)
• Sassafras K2 Keyserver Client 7.0
• Re-run file association reg files to re-association correct associations
• Set _PATCH = 9
• Set _VERSION = MD2013
• Set _MENVER = MD2013

Once the update has completed the workstation will be an MD2013 workstation.

After successful testing with the various test groups we have released MD2012 workstation Patch 08, which is the fourth patch for MD2012.
This is the first patch in a series of three for updating MD2012 workstations to MD2013.

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 being distributed in a phased roll out so it will take a few days to be applied to all MD2012 workstations, starting with the remaining MD2012 Lab machines to try and ensure all Lab machines are MD2013 before teaching commences.

Obviously this patch will not be applied to any machine that is using the MD2013 image that was released in July.

Patch-08 includes the following:

• Copy updated PRF files to C:\SHU\Settings\Office2010\PRF to use Outlook.shu.ac.uk as contact server
• Create C:\SHU\Images folder
• Copy LeftUSB.ps1 to C:\SHU\Scripts
• Copy LeftUSB.jpg to C:\SHU\Images
• Add Registry entry to stop IE10 form showing in Windows Update
• Set _PATCH environment variable to ‘8’

To test if Patch 8 has installed, _PATCH will be 8