Outline of Client Deployment Process in CEE

75% Drop in problems with XP.  2+ year old configurations still working well.  We buy in waves of 4 to 15 computers, typically 10.  My time is limiting factor.

Ghost original disk to image

Settings:

IE: home page, cookies medium high, would like Active X disabled
                (can’t -- pdf problems, I’m stunned at Active X garbage)

                Enable provided firewall

                Desktop settings: background to plain, high-performance.

                Daily NAV and Critical Updates


Install software

                CMU-Login, Mulberry, Corp-Time

                Office: Updates, Check Add-Ins, Use to have Front Page, 
Project, Visio

                Thinking of dropping ACDSee, WinZip, Roxio

                Acrobat: Compatibility Problems

                GoogleBar (no ranking, Pop-Up blocker has problems with printing MSNBC+others)

                Earthlink Bar (spoof-prevention, but requires extra fetch cycles)

                Print Drivers,  HP 4xxx, 9x0, 6122,  okay.  (Xerox and HP Design Jet have problems)

                Ad-aware, SpyBot

Customize for faculty, or staff, or undergraduate cluster, or graduate student.  (See examples).

New problems, for instance CDilla via MathCAD.

STOP GUMMY & PHONE HOME PROCESSES – I AM REALLY STUCK HERE.

This is not easy.  Is the “stop disk” process on TP’s any good? 

Is there usefulness in the IBM-Access processes?  Dell Support processes?

                Hijackthis, pestpatrol, LIUtilities, ZoneAlarm

In a new local account:

Create icons in proper areas (office suite in quick-launch)

set local account settings (i.e.) I.E. explorer settings discussed above

copy local account to ‘default user’

Ghost clone to other systems

Set computer name, NetReg, add to Andrew Domain (or not for laptops)

Educate users about peer-to-peer (run-as is too much)

 

Neat stuff:

-Camera Monitoring of Staff Areas (proven theft prevention)

-Temperature Monitoring

No stuff:

-Better practices rather than ad-hoc ‘feeling’

-Gaps, oversights

-Software and Asset management

-Automatic and easy software deployment

-Password management

-Linux, Blade, Cluster Computing, IM?

-Dreamweaver?

-ProCite or EndNote?

-SCARY: travel site, to hotmail account, to ad (flowers)
Hosts, ie settings, processes, svchost, ie registry settings, unprivileged user

I'm going to try to set up an auditing team to criticize / audit CEE's computing practices this summer, for some of the above reasons.  Has anyone else gone through this?  Want to go through this?