Category Archives: Bench

Bench

Bench Printer Driver Repository

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By now everyone should be aware that all printers need to be installed using the model specific PCL 6 drivers. We are no longer using universal print drivers unless they are the only option.

To help make printer installation more efficient I have put together a printer driver repository at:

\\tss-softstore\Utilities\_Bench Printer Drivers

Whenever you install a printer’s drivers, check there first. If you do not see the drivers for your printer model there, please add them in.

Hopefully this will make our lives easier in the long run. Thanks!

All Groups, Base, Bench, Community Network, SSG

Policy Change – OSU Secure

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On Tuesday, February 3rd at 5pm, a TSS domain-wide policy for OSU_Secure wireless will be deployed. What this does is create a wireless profile for OSU_Secure, sets it as the default profile and makes it available prior to Windows logon. Users will have the option to switch to OSU_Access if needed. OSU Extension has been excluded from this change due to potential issues with older access points. Additionally, Microsoft Surface tablets will be excluded from this change due to issues with wireless drivers that do notproperly support Cisco PEAP authentication.

See the link for documentation and troubleshooting details: OSU_Secure GPO Information

All Groups, Base, Bench

Policy Change – WIMs on Computers

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The Bench team is no longer placing the entire WIM on the user’s computer. The reasons for this are as follows:

  • Space – WIM files get excessively huge and take up a considerable amount of hard drive space.
  • SCEP – SCEP has issues and will commonly break/fail/time out when it tries to scan the WIM file.
  • Time – We can save an incredible amount of time by not copying the file over.
  • Access – With our new DISM based capture process, a user needs the beta version of 7z to access the WIM. Since this is not a standard application on the machine, having a WIM on a computer that can’t access it makes no sense.

So what will be in CN Backup?

  • User Profile(s) associated with whom the machine is for.
  • Non-standard folders located on the root of C:\
  • Data Warehouse files when they are identified.

What happens if a computer is placed and there are additional files that are needed?

  • Call the Bench and have them place the file(s) in a location to transfer them to the user.

As a final reminder, we keep all backups for 30 days after the ticket is closed out. Once a month, on average, I go through or stored backups and clean them up.

If for some reason a backup needs to be held onto for an extended period of time, please let a Bench time member know this so that they can tag the backup as “Keep”.  All backups marked this way are then held onto for 9 months, at which time they are reviewed to determine if they need to be kept longer.