Heads up on FHC image now shipping

Issues related to the use and operation of Family History Centers
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aclawson
Senior Member
Posts: 760
Joined: Fri Jan 19, 2007 6:28 pm

Heads up on FHC image now shipping

#1

Post by aclawson »

Six FHC computers unboxed and installed. A few things the stating instructions failed to mention:

Windows does not come activated. Minor issue, two clicks activates Windows over the internet and a third click to close the confirmation window. A minor issue, but I've been doing PC deployments and refreshes for years and this type really needs to be mentioned in the staging script.

The script should remind people to set the correct time zone, but doesn't.

On all six machines I had to run the portal config utility - the script says that this only needs to be done "if" it doesn't work automatically.

One machine failed the phone home configuration. Again, easy fix - located the phone home app which is in a temp folder (bad place for it to be by the way), executed it and all worked well. Again, this should be listed as a troubleshooting tip in the script.

There is a premium app - ArkivDigital Online - that is installed from the premium portal. The staging script should mention this and take the stager through the install. Simple, basic, there is no reason why this shouldn't be done automatically at deployment.

Due to the Microsoft silliness of removing the "install updates and restart" option that existed up until XP (and Vista? Don't remember) you have to shut down the system to install the updates, then restart. This should be mentioned in the deployment script as well.
drepouille
Senior Member
Posts: 2859
Joined: Sun Jul 01, 2007 6:06 pm
Location: Plattsmouth, NE

Re: Heads up on FHC image now shipping

#2

Post by drepouille »

FamilySearch Support is nearly ready to ship a new Windows 7 image DVD for FHC computers. It will include all recent Windows updates, and it will not ask you to enter the product key during installation. Although the cost for each Windows 7 license is now only $7.00, FamilySearch will pay that amount, and ship memory upgrades as needed, as long as you provide all the details on the Hardware and Software Order Form. They need to know how many licenses we are using at each FHC.
Dana Repouille, Plattsmouth, Nebraska
drepouille
Senior Member
Posts: 2859
Joined: Sun Jul 01, 2007 6:06 pm
Location: Plattsmouth, NE

Re: Heads up on FHC image now shipping

#3

Post by drepouille »

We received and installed four cascaded Dell OptiPlex 780 computers yesterday. They still had the old FHC image on them, so I experienced the same problems as aclawson. The one-page instructions appeared to be totally unrelated to the image installed on these computers.

When I first booted the computers, they took many minutes to recognize the keyboard and mouse and load the appropriate drivers. (I had connected them to the USB ports on the back of the monitor.) When I logged in as Administrator, I had to deal with the Windows activation issue, which required two tries on most of the computers.

The network connection seemed to be dog slow. I really hate the silent install of TEM. You can never tell what the computer is doing. There were flashes of network activity, and occasional flashes of hard drive activity, but the computer appeared to be totally idle in the performance monitor and network monitor. I finally just left the computers on all last night, and let them do whatever they needed to do without me.

It didn't help that I installed those computers on Microsoft Update Tuesday!
Dana Repouille, Plattsmouth, Nebraska
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