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Volume 2, Issue 4
March 2010
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Points of Interest in this Issue:
HP/Windows 7 Implementation (click here for pdf format)
By George Sullivan
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 Most everyone has heard the news: Palm Beach State College is replacing the Dell computers with Hewlett Packard computers and moving from the Windows XP operating system to the Windows 7 operating system. Student, faculty and staff machines have already been replaced on the second and third floors of the Lake Worth campus library. Yours will be replaced, too, in the near future.
Questions and comments tend to fall into one of two categories:
1. It's about time!
2. Why are you replacing my computer? It's only a year old.
In the fall of 2008, Hewlett Packard approached the technology department of Palm Beach Community College with a proposal to replace all campus computers with new HP computers. This school, as most educational institutions in the state of Florida, had been a Dell customer for many years. Since computers are a vital tool in the operations of the college, and saving money is always a good idea, discussions began in earnest in the spring of 2009.
Why Windows 7:
The change to the Windows 7 operating system was added to this project as it become obvious that Windows XP would be phased out and would no longer be a supported Microsoft system. The college took a proactive approach by staying as current with technology as possible. All parties agreed that the prudent course of action was to change the operating system when the computers themselves were changed. By late summer 2009 all parties agreed in principle to proceed. Then the real work began.
Hewlett Packard presented the college with a very attractive price to replace all existing non-grant funded Dell computers with new HP computers. The terms of the deal required trading the Dell computers to HP to offset the cost of installing the new HP computers. This meant the college would be freed from selling surplus computers and it meant that none of the old computers would be available for purchase by college employees. It guaranteed an exceptional price for business class computers for Palm Beach State College to upgrade to better technology.
Issues and Resolutions:
As work began on the HP/Windows 7 rollout plan, several issues surfaced. They all seemed to fall into one of two categories: software or printers. Because Windows 7 enforces a much tighter security protocol on programs than Windows XP did, software compatibility became an issue. One of the first tasks was to discover what software exists on the nearly 4,000 college computers, which versions and which of these programs will work with Windows 7.
With the help of Microsoft, IT staff determined that over 5,000 software programs are installed on college computers. Many of these represented various versions of the same software, e.g. there were eight versions of QuickBooks. After many hours of assessment and consolidation, the list was whittled down to approximately 500 unique software titles. With no central software distribution center for software and a rather loose installation policy in Windows XP, this number represents an estimate only.
The migration to Windows 7 has prompted a change in software distribution and management to allow IT to better serve the software needs of faculty and staff. By delivering all software from a central location (System Center), IT staff will be able to help departments stay current with software and manage users more efficiently. Palm Beach State is also moving to deliver software virtually, thereby allowing you to have access to all of your software on any computer, a huge step forward for faculty and staff. One piece of this change is the recent desktop consolidation. These changes help keep the college at the forefront of computer technology, providing your faculty and staff with the latest and finest tools.
With the move to Windows 7, printers, too, became an issue. Older printers may not be compatible with the new operating system. Printers connected with parallel cables will not work with Windows 7. As with software, the college does not have a good method to determine what, where and how many printers exist. By physically examining all printers in the college, IT has determined that most current printers will work with the new operating system. For the few that will not, users will be connected to a networked printer, if feasible, or the printer will be replaced, if that makes more sense.
Determining a schedule for computer deployment has provided several challenges. Because of software requirements, faculty, student and classroom machines need to be replaced together. Staff machines, though spread more widely and thinly, can be changed in smaller groups without disturbing the work flow. The current plan is to change most of the 1,000 staff computers during spring break. If your computer is scheduled to be changed, you will be notified with instructions on how to prepare. When you return from the break, your new computer will be connected and your old computer will stay beside the new for a few weeks in case there are questions that need to be resolved.
 Value:
These changes and others continue to position Palm Beach State College at the vanguard of computer technology and services. They provide our faculty and staff the best tools for teaching today's students and equipping them with the necessary knowledge to compete in the global market. The improvements we make today will confer multiplied benefits in the future through greater efficiencies and more effective teaching and working.
We appreciate your continued support and value your opinions and suggestions knowing you have only the highest regard for our students and Palm Beach State College.
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New College Name and Its Impact on the IT Department
By Mike Merker
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 As everyone knows by now, we're Palm Beach State College. The new name is in recognition of significant changes at the College. Significant College changes lead to significant IT changes to support the new College identity.
We have already changed everyone's email addresses to "@palmbeachstate.edu". That change went well and most everyone ought to have their distribution lists updated by now. To keep things simple for our faculty, staff and students, we want to change all references to "pbcc.edu" to now be "palmbeachstate.edu." For example, you still log into various systems at the College with username@pbcc.edu. We want to remove all confusion and have your log in name match your email address. Easier said than done, as it turns out.
All of our user and computer system identities rely on our network being called pbcc.edu. As we change IT systems over to the new name, there will be a cascading effect that will cause systems that depend on other systems to behave erratically or stop working until those dependent systems are updated. IT is carefully planning the name changes to minimize any disruption, and it's a larger project than you might think. That's why we're working through all the possible ways to get the names changed so we can find the sequence that has the least impact on faculty, staff and students.
If we believe that users will be impacted, we will provide plenty of notice so you are not inconvenienced any more than necessary. The changes will be gradual and, if we plan well, you won't notice while most of the changes are taking place.
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Microsoft Office Live Meeting
By Mike Merker 
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What is it? Live Meeting is a software application you can use to have interactive meetings with other computer users, both at the College and with most computer users anywhere in the world. The various components of Live Meeting are:
You can get a PC camera and have a videoconference from your office computer using Live Meeting. Instead of trying to gather people from various campuses to one location, each meeting attendee can be at their desk with an inexpensive PC camera and all be on a Live Meeting videoconference. While on the videoconference, documents can be displayed from various participant's computers and even worked on by the meeting attendees. Entire programs can be run from a participant's computer by multiple meeting attendees, so the attendees can collaborate on ideas or help each other learn a new piece of software. The PC camera is only required if the meeting attendees want to see each other.
Any computer that runs Windows version XP or newer can participate in a Live Meeting, even if the computer is outside of the College network. The meeting organizer can schedule the meeting using the "Schedule a Live Meeting" button in Outlook, which creates an Outlook calendar appointment and other people can be added to the appointment. The attendees simply open the appointment and click a link to join the meeting. If the attendees don't have the Live Meeting software installed, they will be directed to a Microsoft download site to get the software and install it. Installation typically takes about five minutes. All College-managed computers already have the Live Meeting software installed.
Meetings can be interactive, by computer, or can be voice only. Using the "Schedule a Conference Call" button in Outlook will generate a meeting request for an audio conference with dial-in numbers. This takes the place of our audio bridge and is available to users who have the Outlook button installed. Meetings can be mixed with voice only participants and interactive computer-based participants and the meeting invitation tells users how to access the meeting by using their computer or by using a telephone.
The IT Assistance Center created links on their Tutorial page, at http://www.palmbeachstate.edu/ITtutorials.xml, for you to access a Quick Reference Card, a recorded tour of the Live Meeting system features, and a Live Meeting demo. These are great resources and worth the time to watch before using the Live Meeting system.
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Microsoft System Center
By Edith Robinson-Johnson
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"WOW! That was fast!"
These are the words the IT Support Team is hearing as we begin to rollout new HP computers with Windows 7. Users are already experiencing the benefits of the new technology we're using. You ask, "How are we doing it?" We are using Microsoft System Center Configuration Manager (SCCM) and software virtualization.
How are we using SCCM and Virtualization?
SCCM and software virtualization are tools we're using to deploy the Windows 7 Operating System and software applications to multiple computers concurrently. Additionally, these tools are being used to continuously provide operating system updates, software upgrades, anti-virus updates, manage IT assets and to assist in remotely troubleshooting desktop problems.
How does SCCM and Virtualization help you?
Virtualization complements the desktop standardization initiative by enabling faculty and staff to login to other computers on the network and still get access to almost all the same software. Virtual applications can follow you to any college computer that is managed by SCCM. Only applications that are either too large to be virtualized or cannot be virtualized will be packaged and installed to the local hard drive. Virtual applications are not actually installed and exist only when you are logged in. SCCM helps the IT Support Team to manage software versioning by allowing us to update and deploy software from one central location.
Advertised Software
 Once your current college computer is replaced with a new HP computer with Windows 7, virtualized and packaged software is made available to you via the "PantherApps" icon located on the computer desktop. When you double-click on the "PantherApps" icon a list will pop up. 
Each item in this list of software is called an advertisement. If you require software that is not advertised, you can contact the iTAC Helpdesk and begin the standard process for obtaining additional software.
SCCM and virtualization simplifies the management of the college software and desktop environments. Our goal is to provide a better and more consistent environment for our customers - the students, faculty, and staff of Palm Beach State.
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iTAC Tips & Tricks
By Laura Feldman
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Create a signature in Outlook and add the new Palm Beach State logo:
(You cannot resize a picture after inserting it in your signature so the best way to do this is to design the signature in an e-mail message body first and then copy and paste it. Because the Outlook editor is based on Microsoft Word, many of the formatting features available in Word are available in Outlook).
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Open Outlook.
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Open a new e-mail message.
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Type a signature and specify the design elements of the text (font, font size and color).
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Position the cursor where you want to insert the logo.
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Click on the Insert tab and select Picture. Find the logo in your Pictures folder and click the Insert button.
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Re-size the picture by holding the Shift key down (constrains proportions) and drag the corner handle (double arrow) to the size you want.
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Press Ctrl + A to highlight the entire signature.
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Press Ctrl + C to copy the signature. Minimize or close this window.
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Now click Tools in the main Outlook menu.
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Click Options.
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Click the Mail Format tab.
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Click the Signatures button.
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Click the New button, type a name for the signature and click OK.
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Click to place the cursor in the Edit signature area of the window.
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Press Ctrl + V to paste the signature.
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If this is the first signature you created, Outlook will set it to be your default signature and apply it to all new messages automatically. To place it in reply and forwarded messages, select it in the Replies/forwards box in the top right corner of the window.
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Click OK.
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Click OK again to close the Options window.
 Tip: If you have custom signatures for different types of audiences (i.e. "Business simple," "Business all contact info") you can quickly change between signatures by right clicking on the signature in the message body and choosing one from the list that appears.
Note: Keep in mind that all recipients may not see your signature the same way. Some recipients may read e-mail in plain text format and not see the colors, logo or fancy effects, or they may not have the font that you used in your signature.
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Famous Quote:
"I think there is a world market for maybe five computers."
--Thomas Watson, chairman of IBM, 1943
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Information Technology's Mission
In Support of Palm Beach State College's mission and the Business Services unit, the mission of Information Technology (IT) is to provide the college community with technology solutions, management, infrastructure and vision designed to enhance our students, faculty, research, public and administrative customers' experience.
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