All of the teachers and administrators in both of my schools were recently issued brand new (or gently used) laptops for use at school. This is amazing in and of itself, and we’re all very grateful to our school division for making this happen!

There are still several user specific settings that need to be taken care of on an individual basis when you are logged in as yourself.

Adding a Network Printer

Using Files from Your “H” Drive from Home

Using a Projector

Removing the SmartBoard Toolbar

Changing the Power Settings

Qwizdom Settings

Touchpad Software

Internet Explorer Settings

Adding Software

Adding a Network Printer

Here are the directions in a previous post. This only applies to printers on the school network, not to printers connected directly to your computer.

To change your default printer, click on Start, then select Printers and Faxes. Right click on the printer that you will use most often and select Set as Default Printer.

Using Your H Drive Away from School

Some of you asked about being able to work on documents in your H drive from home using your school laptop. Since your H drive is part of the school system network, you can’t actually access it from home, but there is a work-around.

• From school, open My Computer.
• Right click on your H drive.
• Select “Make Available Offline.”
• Go ahead and take all defaults in the offline wizard that opens. Notice that the wizard provides an option to create a shortcut to offline files on your desktop.

When you shut down your computer at the end of the school day, it will sync your H drive contents, copying the contents of this drive onto your computer. Then from home, you’ll just open My Computer and should be able to work with your H drive materials. When you log back in at school, it will sync again.

You can change these offline settings by going to the Control Panel on your computer, then Folder Options, and finally select the Offline tab.

Usage with a Projector

If your computer does not detect the projector and you have double checked all of the connections, try this:

On the Dells, hold down the Fn key and press the F8 key until the image shows both places. On the Gateways, hold down the Fn key and press F4.

SmartBoard Toolbar

The new SmartBoard software has lots of cool features, but it also creates a toolbar that always sits on the left side of the screen. You can click the arrow and it will slide off the screen, but it leaves the tab there. I prefer to make it go away completely. If you find it annoying, try this:

• Log in as yourself
• Click Start and then Run
• Type in msconfig and press OK
• Click the Startup tab
• Scroll down and uncheck anything that says SmartBoard tools
• Click OK

The new settings will take place when you restart your computer. The first time you restart, you’ll see a message saying that a configuration utility has run. Click in the checkbox that says do not run configuration setup or show this message again, and click OK.

Power Settings

To change the power settings so your laptop does not go to sleep on you,

• Right click on the desktop
• Select Properties.
• Click on the Screensaver tab
• Click the Power button.
• Change the monitor and hard drive settings to meet your own preferences and click OK.

You might want to select different settings when the computer is plugged in and when it is running on batteries.

Qwizdom

Before you use Qwizdom for the first time with these computers, please check all connections a couple of days ahead of time. If you get a message saying you need to install more software, you’ll need the cd, so give me a call. Here are some other things to check:

Remotes don’t respond:

Click on the Remotes tab and look at the type of remotes listed.
Click the Change button if necessary.
South Salem should say Q3 blue with 19 buttons.
West Salem should say Q4 red.
Clicking the Test button is a simple way to make sure that all batteries are working.

Only 15 numbers at the bottom of the screen:

Click on the Students tab
Select Class from the Menu bar
Select Edit Teachers
Select Sample Teacher
Click Delete
In the same window, click Add New
Enter your information as desired
Click Update and Done

Then click Class again and select New Class
You should see your name beside Teacher
Add a Class Name
Beside Type, select Normal
Click Done

Your class will now always be the default when you use the remotes.

Touchpad Settings

The touchpad software was not updated on some of your computers, and you will not be able to scroll by sliding your finger up the right side of the touchpad. Here are the directions for correcting this problem:

• Open My Computer
• Go to the P drive
• Select the Drivers folder
• Select Laptops
• Select Dell
• Select Dell830
• Double click touchpad
• Take all defaults.

Internet Explorer Settings

If you’re asked about the Phishing Filter, select Turn it On.

Home Page

• Go to the page that you would like to set as your home page (the one that will show up when you first begin Internet Explorer)
• If you don’t see the Menu Bar at the top of the screen, click on Tools on the right and check Show Menu Bar
• Click on Tools at the top of the screen
• Select Internet Options
• At the top of this window, in the home page box, click Select Current.
• Click OK

Search
This version of Internet Explorer has a small search text box in the top right corner.
To set this to Google, or another search engine:

• Click Tools and Internet Options again
• Beside Search, click Settings
• Click the Find More Providers link
• Click Google or another search engine name
• In the next window, check Make this my default search provider
• Click Add Provider

The next time you open Internet Explorer, your new search engine will show up in the top right corner.

Tabs
To open a new tab, click on the partial tab that extends to the right of the open tab at the top of the screen.
Navigate to any site you wish.
You can open links in a new tab by right clicking on the link and selecting Open in New Tab
You can also set up more than one home page by opening multiple pages in tabs, and then follow the previous directions for setting your home page.

Making Software Changes

Please do not uninstall programs from these computers. It’s fine to rearrange or even delete shortcuts from your desktop, but as these are school computers, the programs should stay basically the same. If you need a new program installed, I’ll be happy to help you with that.

We were using Starfall, one of our very favorite reading sites. Mrs. Gauck had printed the URL on sentence strips and had each student type in the web address themselves. She had previously talked about using the keyboard and showed them where the “dot” was, and of course we had a help a few, but the majority of the children typed in the address correctly. Honestly, I really don’t give these young children credit for doing as much as they are capable of doing for themselves! Hmm, we showed them how to press Ctrl-Alt-Delete, so maybe we’ll have them type in the passwords for themselves next time!

It is always fun to watch the kids once they actually start watching the videos and playing the games in Starfall. Their faces light up, they giggle, they help each other find games, and they stay completely engaged.

As the children were leaving yesterday, several indicated that they didn’t want to go home yet! They were so excited and felt like “the big kids.” Hopefully, all of our young children will have more opportunities to use the laptops as the year continues, and I will be more than happy to come in and teach or to lend an extra set of hands.

Children are just amazing!

To reserve the laptop cart, open up your email account in Kerio. Browse to the bottom of the folder list, and expand the Public Folder if necessary. Find either South Technology Scheduler or West Technology Scheduler. You will find instructions there. Go ahead and click on the + sign if you do not see the laptop carts listed. Click on the laptop cart or other item you would like to reserve. Then double click the date(s) you need and enter your name and time. Click Save and Close and you’re done!