What are things on your self service K12

[technicholas]

What are things on your self service? We are starting to use Self Service more. Our users consist of Freshman to Seniors they are on MacBook Pro 13 in.

Thanks

[tkimpton]

Adobe Air Updater
Apple Updates
Export Entourage Notes
Fix my Mac (big red button)
Reset Firefox
Reset FontExplorer
Run Onyx
Ticket Viewer
Flash reinstall
Reset Photoshop (point to a dedicated scratch disk)
Reset Illustrator (point to a dedicated scratch disk)
Allow Appstore( only me lol)
various url resource links

[rob_potvin]

What are you looking for? Applications available or the categories that we have set.

Thanks

[jacob_salmela]

I have taken the approach of putting lots of small tasks on Self Service that teachers can run to fix small problems. Here is a list of the things in Self Service with how I am running them posted below:

• Clear Font Cache Advanced tab of Casper Remote
• Clear User Cache Advanced tab of Casper Remote
• Clear System Cache Advanced tab of Casper Remote
• Reset printing system Custom script
• Disable Dashboard Custom script
• Empty trash with force Custom script
• Enable/disable 2D/3D Dock Custom script
• Force eject CD/DVD Custom script
• Install all Software Updates From the Packages tab
• Purge memory purge command run from Advanced tab
• Rebuild Spotlight index Custom script
• Refresh connection with management servers Run Recon
• Remove all login items except district apps Custom script
• Remove guest network from list of preferred networks Custom script
• Repair disk permissions From the Advanced tab
• Reset menu bar Custom script
• Restart CrashPlan Custom script
• Set screenshot location to Desktop Custom script
• Update Flash plugin From the Packages tab
• Update Flip4Mac plugin From the Packages tab
• Update Java From the Packages tab
• Update Silverlight From the Packages tab
• Update Shockwave From the Packages tab
• Install Printer(s) From the Printers tab. Each printer is available as a separate install

In addition to those, I have more on the way. I have asked Staff and the Building Techs for ideas to add into Self Service.

I take the approach that if it is easily scriptable, I make a policy for it and put it on Self Service so users can quickly solve minor problems and I can focus on larger, more complicated issues. Instead of running across the school to eject a CD from a computer, I can just have the user run the Self Service job.

My particular favorite is the ```
purge
``` command. It is a one line command that is incredibly powerful! Open Activity Monitor and run this command and watch how much memory you can regain.

[damienbarrett]

Some of the things I've put in our Self Service:

• Lion Tamer -- turns off the Time Machine local snapshots feature introduced in Lion, that is incompatible with Sophos.
• Terminator! -- turns off automatic Application termination
• Purge My Memory -- runs the "purge" command to free up system memory, to assist the very broken memory manager in Lion.
• Nuke SMARTBoard! -- will delete all traces of SMART board software so that the latest version can be installed. Upgrading from some older versions has caused all kinds of problems for us.

[jacob_salmela]

I am glad to see you also chose to run the purge command!

I also think your names are a lot more fun than mine...

[Sandy]

I image my staff computers with a generic image and all our curricular software is in Self Service, by Department.

I have Self Service restricted on student computers, but have white listed building tech accounts so they can use tools to troubleshoot or fix stuff
I have a section for my building techs where they can recon or just update ip in the JSS
manually run startup, login and every15 policies, as well as flush all polices (if instructed to do so)

I also have a "Fixes for some Common Issues" for staff as we uncovered tweaks needed:
set dvd regions
Disable Saved State silliness
Add Serial number to ActivInpsire

Run Software Updates
Update App Store Apps (any installed by Casper)

Printers, of course, and scoped by subnet so staff can install printer if at another building for meeting.

On my Home Printers section where staff can install third party printer drivers, they can also get instructions on adding a home printer which goes to Shared with iCon in the Dock
I also have webclips to Apple Videos, our gmail landing page, and our own tech page

Now will add purge
and have been thinking of Fix My Mac that just restarts the computer :)

[spowell01]

anyone have anything else to add? its nice to see how others in the K12 environments are using self service since its so empowering to the teachers/staff. Two unique ones i have added to self service for our environment are

Printer Kerberos Fix- runs a script that checks for a valid kerb ticket, gives the user a nice gui prompt for their password if none exists.

Mount H: Drive- Each user has a network share that should get mounted automatically on login. Various connectivity issues could prevent that share from mounting on login, so we have a script here that mounts the currently logged in users network share.

[Sandy]

I've added just a couple:

We have a few copiers that do not like Google Chrome's Print Preview,
so I have a fix that disables it and restores the OSX print window:
defaults write com.google.Chrome DisablePrintPreview -boolean true

I have a script that changes screenshots from .png to jpeg

Reset Printing System: a script that deletes all existing printers