|
|
|
What is the so-called "Meadow" problem we are having with some new Windows XP machines?
I will try not to be too "tech-geeky" in my answer to this question. Windows XP operates in a very different way than Windows 98 did on our old workstations. On the old Windows 98 machine, the computer was "wide-open" where anybody could start them up and use them, including students if a room was left unlocked after school.
With the new Windows XP machines, they are not "wide-open" for anyone to use. They require user accounts and passwords. If you do not have an authorized account and do not know the password, you cannot access any information on that Windows XP machine. In fact, Windows XP machines allow you to have several different accounts on the same machine. So Bob can have an account and George can have a separate account, but they are kept separate from each other. So Bob cannot see any of George's email or documents and George is blocked from viewing any of Bob's stuff, even though they are on the same computer.
Now comes the problem. Once in a while when someone is logging into their machine that computer may not "recognize" the user. There are some techy reasons why this may be occurring and you can find a bunch of them at Microsoft's Tech Support site at: http://support.microsoft.com Since the computer does not "recognize" the user who is logging in, Windows XP creates a new account which is why you see the "Meadow" because the "Meadow" is the default background for new accounts. But the new account does not let you get back to all of your old stuff, that goes back to the previous paragraph about Bob not being able to access George's stuff on the same computer. The computer now has two accounts for you. Your old account you can not get to that has all of your "stuff" and the new account it created for you that has none of your "stuff".
A computer tech can come by and "restore" your old account so you can get back to all of your stuff, but that is only eliminating the symptom and that does not solve the core problem of why the computer created the new account in the first place.
The problem seems to be very random. Some machines have never had the Meadow problem. Some machines have had the Meadow problem twice a week since the start of school. Some machines had the Meadow problem once and never had it again. But we are looking at finding a cure to this problem.
SOLUTION: We do have a possible solution we are testing on about 25 machines in the district as of late August. While this "Meadow" problem is annoying, it could be worse. To date, we have not lost anyone's data or documents because of this problem (knock on wood). If this problem wiped out all documents and email every time the Meadow appeared, this would be a HUGE problem. That is why we tested our possible solution first on some computers back in the Tech Center to see what would happen. Then when that test was successful we expanded to a small sample group of teacher workstations out in the district where we checked on them everyday for two weeks. We do not want to make this annoying problem into a HUGE problem.
So far, the tests look good and the machines that have had "The Cure" have not gone back to the dreaded Meadow. We will continue to monitor "The Cure" that we have placed on our small sample group. Eventually we will expand the number of machines with "The Cure" as we become more confident it is a good solution to our problem.
If you have any questions, please feel free to contact the Tech Department.
| SCS Corporation Main Page | High School | Middle School | Hendricks | Coulston | Loper | School Board |