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Still playing with it. :)

IE crashes in NetSupport School client

There was a problem encountered while using Net Support School. NetSupport School is basically a software that helps to connect, monitor and keep control on the client(student) machines. Once you use "NetSupport School tutor" and block a few restricted sites to the student machines...the IE automatically crashes as you lunch it in client machines. The problem seems to be that if any student tries to visit any restricted site then IE crashes with no warnings or errors. This becomes a big problem when the default homepage for IE (which is generally a Microsoft pointed LinkId) is set up and once anyone launch the IE..(poof) it goes off.
I was looking around the internet for the solution of this problem and could not find one. If anybody has encountered such a problem and has the solution for it...please let me know. The temporary solution for this seems to be to set up the default homepage of IE in every client machine to one of the approved sites and train student not to visit the restricted sites.

If any questions, please leave comments I will reply as soon as possible.
Thanks

Using "sysprep" for Windows Vista Imaging

sysprep is the program that helps to remove computer specific and user specific settings while imaging. It is always wise to run sysperp before pulling off an image of any windows installation. I have tried this thing specifically in windows vista business, so all of the things mentioned below are tested in that platfrom.
Prerequisites for this task will be two machines one the master one (whose image you want to create) and the next one where you will do some stuffs to create answer file.

-->As we are pulling off the image from a vista machine. we are supposed to run sysprep in this machine.
-->sysprep has got different options to run with and all these options are useful in different context.
-->My context is that I want to create an image so that I can clone the same image in large number of computers (lab computers). For this I used the option of creating answer file so that once the image is cloned and the system is rebooted all the computer specific instructions are read by that answer file rather then entering it manually. For that the first task will be to create an answer file.
--> To create this answer file you will need Window Toolkit installed in your system. This toolkit comes with SIM. (At this point I don't know where can I find one....but if anyone needs a copy of the answer file I can send it...I guess you can edit it manually as it is an XML file)
-->I did this with the help of Windows Vista Beta 2 Deployment Step-by-Step Guide. You can find it here: http://technet2.microsoft.com/WindowsVista/en/library/88f80cb7-d44f-47f7-a10d-e23dd53bc3fa1033.mspx?mfr=true
-->Follow the step2 of this guide step by step. If everything goes well you will be with your answer file.
(NOTE: In product key setting you need to enter the product key of that windows)
-->Copy this file in a flash or floppy drive.
-->Take this file to the machine whose image you want to create.

-->Open a command window and Run this command :
c:\windows\system32\sysprep\sysprep /generalize /oobe /shutdown /unattend:scriptfile
(For details check: http://www.minasi.com/newsletters/nws0702a.htm)
-->Sysprep will run, do some processing and then shutdown. Now you are ready to take the image of this machine. Take image with your favorite imaging software ( I use Ghost Cast Server 11.0).
-->Now you are ready to go. You can use this image and clone as many computers as you want and don't have to worry about configuring each computer.

Hope this works. If any questions leave your comments, I will try to reply as soon as possible.

Thanks

Imaging Windows Vista with Ghost Cast Server 11.0

Hey guys..I was trying to image a windows vista business machine with Ghost Cast Server 11.0 and found a problem that every time I finished the cloning session and boot the client there's an error message called "winload.exe is missing or corrupt".
After a bit research in this problem I found that its a compatibility problem between Ghost Server and Windows Vista due to the new way of booting windows vista (presence of boot database rather then boot.ini file). I am still working on this problem and trying to fix it fully. I tried this and it worked...hope it works with you guys also...
How To??
Before pulling off the image from the client machine...
--> Open a command prompt window in the client
--> Enter these commands sequentially
1) bcdedit /set {bootmgr} device boot
2) bcdedit /set {default} device boot
3) bcdedit /set {default} osdevice boot

NOTE: These commands should be entered in a command window with administrator priviliges. For this --Go to Accessories, Go to command prompt, Right click on command prompt and click on Run as administrator.
-->Connect this client to the Ghost Cast Server
-->Now pull the image off this machine (Guess you know this...)
Now clone your clients with this new image. Hope everything should go well and you don't see the error you saw before.
All the credit for this solution goes to : http://blogs.dirteam.com/blogs/sanderberkouwer/archive/2006/11/21/Deploying-Windows-Vista-centrally.aspx

If any question, leave comments. I will reply as soon as possible.
Thanks