I work at a UK secondary school and we have 800 PC's (desktops and laptops) connected to the network - wired and wirelesslyThese devices take an eternity to log on (Especially the wireless laptops) - and I see the reason why - every application is installed on every PC so was wondering if there was some way of controlling the applications loaded at a particular time ?This would need to be customisable by the teacher running the class (a tick box menu ?)Plus - this would have to be set across the network - rather than locating 800 PC's and changing some software. This would stop the students from messing around on the web as they currently do (since the teacher could, in effect, choose to allow or dissallow the kids from accessing it)The desktop would be customised to provide simply the icons that they are supposed (allowed) to access.Perhaps providing Word and Excel as default - adding Access must slow them down dramatically and Access is rarely used (perhaps 5% of students)The whole system could be controlled by IT Support and would speed up login times dramatically .....1 person needs an answerI do too

I work at a UK secondary school and we have 800 PC's (desktops and laptops) connected to the network - wired and wirelesslyThese devices take an eternity to log on (Especially the wireless laptops) - and I see the reason why - every application is installed on every PC so was wondering if there was some way of controlling the applications loaded at a particular time ?This would need to be customisable by the teacher running the class (a tick box menu ?)Plus - this would have to be set across the network - rather than locating 800 PC's and changing some software. This would stop the students from messing around on the web as they currently do (since the teacher could, in effect, choose to allow or dissallow the kids from accessing it)The desktop would be customised to provide simply the icons that they are supposed (allowed) to access.Perhaps providing Word and Excel as default - adding Access must slow them down dramatically and Access is rarely used (perhaps 5% of students)The whole system could be controlled by IT Support and would speed up login times dramatically .....Do you mean log on in the sense of "connect to the network" or in the sense of "boot to a usable desktop"?The number of applications installed on a computer has nothing to do with how many applications are started when the computer initially starts. For example, if a computer has Microsoft Office Professonal installed, which (for Office 2010) includes Word, Excel, Outlook, Access, Powerpoint, OneNote, and Publisher, there is absolutely no reason thatany of those applications should open when the computer is turned on.If the computers in your school are configured to start Office applications at boot time, that is easily rectified. That change, and the implementation of policies and/or software that would restrict what students can do with their computers, should be within the competence of the IT department.

I work at a UK secondary school and we have 800 PC's (desktops and laptops) connected to the network - wired and wirelesslyThese devices take an eternity to log on (Especially the wireless laptops) - and I see the reason why - every application is installed on every PC so was wondering if there was some way of controlling the applications loaded at a particular time ?This would need to be customisable by the teacher running the class (a tick box menu ?)Plus - this would have to be set across the network - rather than locating 800 PC's and changing some software. This would stop the students from messing around on the web as they currently do (since the teacher could, in effect, choose to allow or dissallow the kids from accessing it)The desktop would be customised to provide simply the icons that they are supposed (allowed) to access.Perhaps providing Word and Excel as default - adding Access must slow them down dramatically and Access is rarely used (perhaps 5% of students)The whole system could be controlled by IT Support and would speed up login times dramatically .....Do you mean log on in the sense of "connect to the network" or in the sense of "boot to a usable desktop"?The number of applications installed on a computer has nothing to do with how many applications are started when the computer initially starts. For example, if a computer has Microsoft Office Professonal installed, which (for Office 2010) includes Word, Excel, Outlook, Access, Powerpoint, OneNote, and Publisher, there is absolutely no reason thatanyof those applications should open when the computer is turned on.If the computers in your school are configured to start Office applications at boot time, that is easily rectified. That change, and the implementation of policies and/or software that would restrict what students can do with their computers, should be within the competence of the IT department. Both - it takes up to 20 minutes to actually boot up to a useable desktop (especially the (2 core) laptops (due to the amount that is being asked of them ?)Nothing is started by default - they are ALL loaded with Office 2007 pro, graphics programs (CS3 etc) and numerous other applications - nobody uses them all (Access is never used)Plus another 10 minutes to connect to the network