--- Forwarded Message from Andrea Curry <[log in to unmask]> ---

>Date: Tue, 30 Sep 2003 13:11:31 -0500
>Subject: Re: #7269 Mac vs. Windows
>From: Andrea Curry <[log in to unmask]>
>To: Language Learning and Technology International Information Forum    <[log in to unmask]>
>In-Reply-To: <[log in to unmask]>

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In order to get the machines uniform in terms of updates to Windows, 
you need to run Windows Update (windowsupdate.microsoft.com).  As for 
having all the machines exactly uniform in terms of programs, there are 
imaging/ghosting programs you can run to "reset" the machines to a 
certain image.  Do not forget that if you do this, you will lose your 
security updates as well as any other changes that have been made!

I hope you're on Windows XP... you don't want a system like 98 out 
there in front of students.  I've seen that before in other labs on my 
campus, and it's a pretty scary sight -- computer games, spyware, and 
all other kinds of shady software installed by none other than the 
students themselves.

If the computers are crashing because you're running the same thing on 
all machines, your network may be to blame.  Make sure you're on a 
100Mbps network before even attempting such a bandwidth-consuming 
thing. :)  You may need to update your networking equipment and cabling.

I hope I understood your message correctly, and that I am of some help.

Andrea Allen, SMU

On Tuesday, September 30, 2003, at 12:51 PM, LLTI-Editor wrote:
>
> ------------------
> DO those of you with Windows labs have any advice for us?  This campus 
> is
> usually Macintosh only, but it looks like we will have to use a Windows
> lab for language teaching because of the paucity of Mac software.  The 
> one
> demo we did on Windows machines froze halfway through, enough to 
> convince
> our faculty that it was not something they wished to pursue.  I have 
> heard
> that the freezing is caused by some of the machines in the lab having
> slightly different updates on them, so that all are not "on the same
> page".  Doesn't running RevRDist or something equivalent on them before
> the class starts get them to be uniform?  If classes are contiguous, 
> is it
> likely that individual machines will get messed up enough not to work 
> for
> the second class?  What have your experiences been?
> Betty Woerner
> Media Librarian
> Reed College
> Portland, OR