Why does it take so long to get a new laptop to a staff member?
Most of the time, it doesn’t take a long time to replace a computer. Most of it depends on the difference in age between their old computer and the new one. Going from OS 10.2 to 10.4 isn’t much of a problem. Going from XP to Vista has some quirks. But sometimes there is a big enough change that everything has to be reinstalled, tested, upgraded, and tested again.
With so many computers and so many different versions of the operating system, I use a lot of checklists to keep track of what I have to do. The current upgrade to Intel MacBooks and the Leopard operating system, the list to make new golden image for teacher’s laptops was huge. Take a look.
New System Checklist
Start up & register w/Apple
Fully charge battery
Rest in charged state 2 hours
Fully drain battery
Rest in discharged state 5 hours
Recharge battery & reset Power Option
Computer Name
Register device w/downtown & cow wireless
Turn Bluetooth off
Set proxys for Airport & Ethernet
Set time to ntp.lane.edu
Add Screen Resolution icon
ARD settings
Set up printers
Adjust Finder settings
Adjust Safari settings
Anti-virus
Install Firefox
Remove trial software
Adobe Shockwave
Adobe Flash Player
Adobe Reader
Flip for Mac
iWork
Real Player
Smartboard Software
Stuffit
Install Oaks
Kid Pix
Kidspiration
ATRT
Math Facts
Accelerated Reader
Read Naturally
Comic Life
MS Office Update
Add Servers to Dock
Clean up Dock
Open all programs in each account
Apple Software update
Create Master Image
Transfer files from old system
In addition, with a new operating system, there were lots of glitches, false starts, and waiting for companies to update their software. For example, the software to run the Smartboards with Leopard was not available until early January.
Thank goodness this doesn’t happen too often! Once the master image is created, I can skip most of the steps above.
