Lyndale Secondary College BYO device setup instructions Version 1.0 23/11/2015
Introduction Using technology and systems provided by the Department of Education and Microsoft, Lyndale Secondary College is fully implementing the final stage of the BYO device concept for 2016. The concept being introduced has been worked on by the Department for more than five years but as far as the school is aware, it the first secondary school anywhere in Victoria to fully embrace its design, its connectivity and its resources. Students now have complete freedom of choice when it comes to selecting a device for use at school, and can use as many different devices* as desired. Windows, Mac, Android… laptops, tablets and phones are all supported and permitted as long as the device supports the school’s wireless network. The amount of resources accessible to students is huge. Using the Department’s ‘EduStar cloud’ software and resources catalogue, students can access a huge array of downloadable software titles for most school subjects and, using their individually allocated EduPass username and password can activate (license) almost any Microsoft product. Installing Microsoft Office, activating it and using the Outlook email product is the focus of this document to get students up running quickly. Students are strongly advised to use this guide to get up and running quickly. All email communication to students will be sent to these new email addresses and teachers will be expecting students to have a basic familiarity with web sites or products shown in this guide. Now go to the next pages and complete the checklist to get going! *Students may configure as many devices as desired for use at school, but may only connect one device at any time to the wireless network. So if a student has a tablet and a laptop configured for school wireless, either the laptop or the tablet may be connected; never both simultaneously. This restriction is purely a network capacity and available bandwidth limitation.
Important EduPass password information Your EduPass login ID and password gives you access to the school’s wireless, the EduStar software catalogue, Microsoft software products activation, Department email, the Department’s and Microsoft’s OneDrive ‘cloud’ file storage system, it is your email ID and password and it gives you access to other systems like Yammer. Changing your password to something only you know is super important and must be done BEFORE you access any of the systems and sites above. If other students become aware of your password it could be really bad for you. Emails could be sent that look like you sent them, your files could be deleted or stolen from the cloud, other students could try to connect to the school’s wireless as you (which will lock YOU out!) and EduStar software titles allocated to you could be taken by others. CHANGE YOUR PASSWORD! REMEMBER YOUR PASSWORD! KEEP YOUR PASSWORD SECRET! DON’T LET OTHERS TALK YOU IN TO REVEALING IT! Keeping your password secret is as important as only you knowing your phone’s unlock code, your ATM pin code or your Facebook password. If you forget your password, only the IT staff can reset it and that reset can take up to TWO DAYS to get aligned. Seriously, remember and keep secret your EduPass password!
Getting up and running checklist 1. Been to the school IT Office to get your EduPass login ID and password 2. Read the dire warnings (previous page) about your EduPass password 3. Change your EduStar password is very important. Go to https://edupass.education.vic.gov.au/MyAccount and login using your new EduPass ID and provided password as shown
4. Once logged in, find and review the selections down the left side.
5. ‘Profile’ is fairly useless. The Terms of Service are the same as those printed in your 2016 Student Diary. If you would like to be able to reset your password yourself, you may update your secret questions. To change your password to something ONLY YOU KNOW, click Change Password and follow the prompts. Passwords MUST have an Upper Case letter, lower case letters and numb3rs and must be AT LEAST seven characters long. Your password cannot contain your name.
6. Now you have changed your EduPass password, you will find your wireless connection will stop working. Not instantly, but it WILL stop working. 7. At that point, you will need to “forget” the EduStar wireless network (Windows) or delete the EduStar wireless network (minus symbol – Mac). Other systems like Android have different combinations of forgetting a network. 8. Once the EduStar wireless network is forgotten or deleted, click on it as an Available Network and enter your EduPass ID and your new secret password. After a few seconds, it should successfully connect. Hooray! You’ve done the most important part. Chosen a secret password and successfully reconnected. Now the fun really begins! Don’t stop now! It’s time for Internet proxy configuration, Microsoft Office, Outlook and the school’s ‘cloud’! Important Windows 7 notice. Attempting to connect a Windows 7 laptop or device running the Windows 7 operating system to the EduSTAR wireless network will not work. Windows 7 does not correctly support the EduSTAR wireless security parameters. Students wanting to use Windows 7 devices with the EduSTAR network must attend the IT Office to have the correct security parameters configured.
Adjusting your device’s Internet proxy configuration Now you’re connected to the school’s EduStar wireless network, you need to adjust your device’s Internet proxy configuration so your device knows how to “get” to the Internet. Internal sites like the EduStar catalogue and Compass don’t need a proxy configuration but external sites like Google do. On a Windows 7 computer, go to the Control Panel and find Internet Options. Click it, and then click the Connections tab. On a Windows 8 or Windows 10 computer, press the Windows Logo key and X at the same time. A menu will pop up and from there select “Control Panel”. Find Internet Options and click the Connections tab. Follow the instructions below.
Once in Connections, click the LAN settings button (red circle).
Ensure the TOP TWO check boxes are checked. Automatically detect settings and Use automatic configuration script must be ticked, and the web address
http://eduproxy/proxy.pac is entered in to the text box as shown.
Once those two settings are correctly configured, any browser running on Windows 7, 8 or 10 such as Internet Explorer, Google Chrome or Firefox will be able to get to the Internet.
On an Apple Mac computer, click the wireless symbol up next to the clock
and then select “Open Network Preferences…” Once there, click Advanced…
Find the “Proxies” tab across the top. Click it and ensure you have these settings as shown. Auto Proxy Discovery and Automatic Proxy Configuration are both ticked. In the Proxy Configuration File box, enter http://eduproxy/proxy.pac
Your Apple Mac should now be able to access Internet web sites while connected to the school’s wireless network.
For an iPad or iPhone things are more difficult. Tap the Settings icon (red box)
Once in Settings, tap Wi‐Fi.
If you are not already connected to the school’s wireless network, tap “EduSTAR” to start connecting.
You will get a username and password box. Enter your provided EduPass ID and secret password as shown.
After you have tapped “Join” and your Username and Password are correct, you must “Trust” the security certificate required to be installed for you to connect.
Tap “Trust” and your connection will be established (blue tick).
Nearly there! Now you must tap the blue “i” to the right of the eduSTAR network and modify the HTTP Proxy settings for the eduSTAR network.
Tap “Auto” and enter http://eduproxy/proxy.pac as shown.
Your iPhone or iPad should now be able to access Internet resources while connected to the school’s wireless network.
Android network settings vary so widely in configuration between devices it is simply not practical to show any particular settings here. Also, earlier versions of Android devices OS would not accept a proxy server configuration and ABSOLUTELY CANNOT be made to work. That said, here are general settings that seem to work for most Android devices the school’s IT department has encountered. On the opening screen, choose the “Apps” icon. Find the “Settings”sprocket icon. Ensure Wi‐Fi is on. From the list of Wi‐Fi networks shown, tap “eduSTAR” to start connecting. From the network parameters list that appears, select these:‐ EAP Method: PEAP Phase 2 Authentication: (Either) “Automatic” or “MSCHAPv2” Server CA Certificate: “Do not check” Identity: “@schools.vic.edu.au” Password: “” Anonymous identity: If there is a wireless symbol at the bottom right of the screen, tap it and select Connected to eduSTAR -> tap Proxy -> Enter 'eduproxy' port '8080'
Installing Microsoft Office 2016 on Windows computers The Department’s arrangement with Microsoft allows you to install Microsoft Office on up to five systems. Any combination of Windows or Mac computers is permitted. All installations will be registered against your EduPass ID. You may “un‐license” any of the installations at any time. You can do this procedure at school or at home. This process covers installing Office from scratch. You will be downloading the full Office product over your Internet connection. If you already have an installation of Office installed on your laptop or home computer and simply need to “activate” it, see the end of this section. If you want to upgrade from earlier versions of Office, like Office 2010 or Office 2013 you must uninstall (remove) those versions first. Go to this web site: http://cloud.lyndale.vic.edu.au Login with your EduPass ID and secret password.
Once logged in to the Lyndale ‘cloud’ site, look for the sprocket in the top right corner between the bell and the ? symbol. Click it and select the only option, “Office 365 settings”.
From the left side, click Settings and then click Install and manage software.
A new browser tab will open which takes you to the Office installation screen. As of this writing two options are available – Office 2013 (upper screen) and the new Office 2016 – lower part of screen. Office 2016 is compatible with Windows 7 and newer so choose Office 2016. Ensure these settings are in place as shown. Language is English (US), and the 32‐bit installation (recommended) is selected. Now click “Install”.
After a few seconds, you will be offered a file to download and run.
Click “Run”. After some seconds, the file will download and launch. User Account Control will probably dim the screen and ask if you want to run this program. Click Yes. From this point, the Office installer will start the installation process. YOU MUST NOT INTERRUPT IT AND YOU MUST ALLOW THE INSTALLER TO COMPLETE. DO NOT ALLOW YOUR COMPUTER TO GO TO SLEEP. DO NOT CLOSE THE LID OF YOUR LAPTOP WHILE THE INSTALLER IS RUNNING.
Once installed on a Windows 7 or Windows 8 computer you will see the icons for the individual apps across the bottom bar. On a Windows 10 computer, the apps will appear under “All Apps”. At this point you have only installed Office; once you run any of the apps for the first time, you will be required to activate the installation – license it. The simplest and most reliable way to do this activation is to run Word. Once run, you will be shown a selection of different templates to create a document from. WAIT A FEW SECONDS for the “First things first” acceptance box to appear.
Click Accept. The box goes away. Now click “Blank document” from the selection of templates. Top right hand corner click “Sign In” (which is the product activation). Enter your full EduPass ID and click Next.
It will look for an account. Once found, it will ask for your secret EduPass password.
If you have entered your EduPass account details correctly, the product activator will think about things and then disappear. You may think that nothing has really happened, but look to the top right corner of Word (or any other Office app) and your name has appeared! Cool! But that’s not all. If you click the upper left “File” and from there select “Account” you will see many things have been added to Office. (Some information removed from screenshot)
Close the window, and exit out of Word. Microsoft Office for Windows is now activated and licensed. You must now configure the Outlook email client.
Configuring the Outlook email program for Windows Outlook is Microsoft’s email client. It is an incredibly powerful email program, contacts list manager, task manager, and events calendar. Your ability to fully use its features can radically change how you manage your day to day life at school. All emails sent from the school to you will be sent to your EduPass email address, which you can access using Outlook. You can email other students in the school, create and use distribution lists (send one email to many students), and you can use Outlook’s collaboration tools with other students in Lyndale. At some point during 2016, Tasks and Calendar events published by the school will automatically appear in your Outlook program. You should run Outlook continuously all day. It cannot be overstated just how important it is that you use Outlook and be completely familiar with it. All your Outlook data is stored “in the cloud”, so regardless of what device you sign in on, you will see exactly the same information. Find the Outlook icon – the “O” icon – across the bottom in Windows 7 or Windows 8, or find the Outlook 2016 icon in the Windows 10 “All apps” list.
Run Outlook. You will be presented with this screen.
Click Next. Would you like to set up an account? Yes you would.
Click Next.
Enter your EduPass account details similar to that shown below. Enter your First and Last name, your full EduPass email address, and enter your secret EduPass password twice in the boxes provided.
Click Next. Outlook will attempt to connect to the EduPass system and retrieve your account details. You will be prompted again to enter your secret EduPass password. Enter it, and ensure you tick the ‘Remember my credentials’ box.
Click OK. If all goes well, you will be rewarded by this configuration complete screen.
Click Finish, and the Outlook program will start.
Once fully started, you will be rewarded with the Outlook program. Circled in red are the most important parts of Outlook that you will need to come up to speed on.
Those red circled parts are important! To create and send a new email, click the button in the top right hand corner “New email…” Middle left is your email account ID (who you’re signed in as) and below that is your list of system provided folders for organising your emails and other things. Bottom left are the components of Outlook. They are icons representing email, calendar, people (contact lists), tasks and notes (behind the three dots). Folders shows all folders (system created or created by you) and allows you to create, move, and delete folders for organising your stuff. If you get the hang of using Outlook, you will find Outlook can manage and organise your entire school life. You can tie notes to tasks, tie tasks to calendar events, tie events to emails and any combination in between. Bottom right shows you the status of Outlook’s connection and its synchronisation status. It should always be “Connected to: Microsoft Exchange”. If not, check your wireless connection, ensure it’s not asking for a password (“Need password” displayed) or it’s just busted. In any event, restart Outlook. Remember, everything you do in Outlook is stored and remembered in the Department’s ‘cloud’ so if you have multiple computers running Outlook and they’re all using the same account, they will all show exactly the same information! If you log in to Outlook using the “cloud” (web) version of Outlook, again, you will see exactly the same information. Calendar, tasks, emails, notes, folders… all the same. It’s REALLY POWERFUL stuff. Let’s create a new email. Click the “New Email” button or press Ctrl‐N.
You can type in any valid email address, like your own or friends HotMail, Gmail or any other email address you know. The “To…” box is NOT LIMITED to only school email addresses! Since you do not know other student email addresses, click the (red circled) “To…” button. The box that comes up is called the Global Address List (the “GAL”) which lists every student in the school and their email address. As students enrol in the school or leave the school, this list will update all by itself.
By either searching for the person you’d like to send an email to, or scrolling up and down the list, you simply “double‐click” each student’s name to add them to your “To” list. “Cc” stands for “Courtesy Copy”. Recipients in this list will also receive what you send, but know that they are receiving this email as a courtesy. Action is not required by Cc recipients. “Bcc” recipients are “Blind courtesy copy” recipients. Sending emails to Bcc recipients means they will receive the email sent by you which will mask all other recipients. As far as a Bcc recipient knows, they were the ONLY recipient of the email! By clicking in the Address Book you can select the GAL, your own personal Contacts list, you can send an email to staff/teachers and you can send emails to “Resources”. Click OK, enter a subject and the content of the message, and click send. That’s it!
Activating Office you already have installed If you have just bought a Windows laptop, chances are it came with a “trial” version of Microsoft Office 2013 or 2016 pre‐installed. Instead of signing up for a Microsoft subscription (which costs $$$!) you can activate the trial version against your EduPass ID. Naturally, there are limitations. You may only activate “ProPlus” versions of Office against your EduPass ID. There are other versions, like “Student” or just plain old “Pro” which will NOT activate. For these products, you have two options. 1. Uninstall (remove) these versions of Microsoft Office and install the Department provided ProPlus. 2. Sign up for your own copy of Microsoft Office Pro or Student which you pay for. To uninstall an unsupported version of Microsoft Office for Windows, press the Windows Logo Key + X, select Control Panel, then find and select Programs and Features. Within the list that appears, click on Microsoft Office 2013 Student or whatever it’s called, and (at the top) click uninstall. Follow the prompts. No existing documents or work will be deleted. Return to the “Installing Microsoft Office 2016” section to download and install Office. Activating a supported version of Microsoft Office (you must be Internet connected) 1. 2. 3. 4. 5.
6. 7. 8. 9.
Run Word. Click “Blank document” from the templates choices Top left corner – click “File” Down the left, find and click “Account” Check the following product information: a) It is Microsoft Office b) It is the Subscription Product c) It is Microsoft Office 365 ProPlus At the left – middle there is a button “Sign in”. Click it. In the big Sign in box that appears, enter your full @schools.vic.edu.au email address… and click Next. Sign‐in will look for an account. If you have entered your EduPass ID correctly, the heading of the next box will report “sts.education.vic.gov.au”. Enter your secret EduPass password and click Sign in.
Now, when you look at the information for Account, your details (top left) will be filled in, and you will have two connected services. “OneDrive – VIC ‐ …” and “Sites – VIC …” Office is now activated. Now go to the Outlook section to configure your email account.
Storing your stuff on the cloud – Microsoft OneDrive As part of the Department’s Microsoft Office suite, all students get a personal ‘cloud’ storage system from Microsoft – OneDrive. OneDrive offers unified access to your stored files regardless of the device you use, and you can store up to one terabyte of any files you like. As with most things that sound too good to be true, OneDrive is as well. Unfortunately, Microsoft – for reasons best known to itself – has decided to provide two versions of OneDrive. The OneDrive that ships with Windows 8.1 and Windows 10 is simply OneDrive. You can activate this version against a Hotmail.com account or an Outlook.com account. For Victorian schools, Microsoft has provided OneDrive for Business. A totally different product! If you use the ‘cloud.lyndale.vic.edu.au’ web site you will be provided with the correct OneDrive for Business folder structure. If you install Office 2016 that Microsoft has provided to the Department, you will also get OneDrive for Business. If you don’t install the Department’s version of Office, you will need to find the OneDrive for Business app to download and install. If you have installed the Department’s version of Office 2016, simply “search” for “OneDrive for Business” in your Windows 8.1 or Windows 10, and run it. If you have previously activated Office 2016 with your EduPass ID, OneDrive for Business will “just work”. It is available in Windows Explorer as another files location, and within all Office apps you can select it as a save to location when saving files or loading files. When saving or loading files, select the “OneDrive – VIC – Department of Education and Training” as the load or save location. Note: none of the above stops you from having a HotMail.com or Outlook.com personal OneDrive location. OneDrive is a brilliant way to save your files and access them from any device. OneDrive is a great way to ensure your files don’t get lost if your computer crashes. Use and rely on it – it is far better than storing files locally on your laptop or on a USB stick. OneDrive allows you to completely recover all your files and folders, your desktop and most other settings if you allow it to synchronise your computer profile to the cloud. OneDrive is not currently supported when using a Mac. Microsoft has not released a OneDrive client for Mac. There is a beta version of a similar product, but why bother? Apple’s iCloud product is far superior.
Installing Office for Mac Installing Office for Mac is somewhat easier, as it does not have some of the extended functionality of Office for Windows. Office 2016 for Mac provides Word, Excel, Powerpoint, Outlook and OneNote. It does not include the Access database program, Lync, Skype or OneDrive. Follow these steps to install Office for Mac.
Go to this web site: http://cloud.lyndale.vic.edu.au using Safari – not Chrome. Login with your EduPass ID and secret password.
Once logged in to the Lyndale ‘cloud’ site, look for the sprocket in the top right corner between the bell and the ? symbol. Click it and select the only option, “Office 365 settings”.
From the left side, click Settings and then click Install and manage software.
A new browser tab will open, directing you to the software download site.
Click Install. Once Install is clicked a download of the entire Office 2016 package will commence.
Notice under the Safari icon on the right there is a black bar that will slowly fill up as the download completes. Once it does complete it will jump up and down.
Once the download has completed, click the jumping icon and open (double click) the “Microsoft_Office_2016_Installer.pkg” file. The installer will begin.
Click Continue.
Licensing. Click Continue.
Click Agree.
Click Continue.
Click Install.
The installer will ask for permission to install the Office suite on your machine. Enter your Mac password and click Install Software.
Installing…
Click Close. That’s it. The Office suite now installed but not yet activated. Click Go, then select Applications. Within Applications, find Microsoft Word. Run it.
Word will start.
Click Get started.
Choose your layout and click Continue. Click “Sign in” in the top left corner.
Enter your full EduPass ID and click Next.
Enter your secret EduPass password and click Sign In. Once this is done, Office 2016 for Mac will be activated (licensed) against your EduPass account. Now do the configuration for your Email client – Outlook.
Outlook for Mac – configuration guide Now you have installed and activated Office for Mac, you must now configure the Outlook product so you can receive emails from the school, its teachers and collaborate with other students. Outlook is Microsoft’s email client. It is an incredibly powerful email program, contacts list manager, task manager, and events calendar. Your ability to fully use its features can radically change how you manage your day to day life at school. All emails sent from the school to you will be sent to your EduPass email address, which you can access using Outlook. You can email other students in the school, create and use distribution lists (send one email to many students), and you can use Outlook’s collaboration tools with other students in Lyndale. At some point during 2016, Tasks and Calendar events published by the school will automatically appear in your Outlook program. You should run Outlook continuously all day. It cannot be overstated just how important it is that you use Outlook and be completely familiar with it. All your Outlook data is stored “in the cloud”, so regardless of what device you sign in on, you will see exactly the same information. Go to Applications, and find Microsoft Outlook. Run it.
Click “Get started >”
From these options, click “Exchange or Office 365”.
Enter your full EduPass ID in the first box, and ensure the Method is set to User Name and Password. Your User name is your EduPass ID and your password is your secret EduPass password. Ensure “Configure automatically” is ticked. Click “Add Account”.
If you have entered your EduPass ID and password correctly a box will pop up. This is called an “AutoDiscover” box. Essentially, it is a way to automatically configure MOST of the settings required to make Outlook work with your EduPass email account.
Ensure the “Always use my response for this server” is ticked, and click Allow. The configuration of Outlook for use with the EduPass system will finalise, and Outlook will appear.
You are not quite done yet. For an unknown reason the AutoDiscover system does not configure your Outlook client to get a list of email addresses of all students and staff in the school. You must add this information manually. Click Tools. Select “Accounts…”
Click the “Advanced…” button. Notice that in the Advanced window that appears the Directory Service server name is not filled in. In the Directory Service box, enter www.schools.vic.edu.au as the server name, and tick the box “Log in with my Exchange account credentials” as shown in the grab on the next page.
By performing these simple couple of steps you will ensure you get the “Global Address List” of all students and staff at the school. Click OK, and close the Accounts box. Now, when you click the “New Email” button, you will get the email addresses of all students and staff.
Anti‐virus software Since Windows 7 was released, Microsoft has provided – for free – a perfectly adequate antivirus software product. Called “Security Essentials” it is a totally adequate AV product for 99% of home computers. Time and time again, students with BYO laptops have come to the IT Department seeking help with their computers. We find expired installations of Norton 360, AVG, Avast – all requiring the owner (the student) to enter credit card details to “activate” their monthly subscription. Any antivirus software product that requires you pay for it is a complete waste of money. Students with expired subscriptions of antivirus software products have no virus protection! Remove these expired non‐functioning as soon as possible to restore Windows’ own antivirus software. Press Windows Logo Key + X and select Control Panel. Within Control Panel, find the “Programs and Features” icon. Double‐click it and, when the list fills up, find the antivirus software presently installed on the computer. Examples are “McAfee” anything, “Norton” anything, “AVG” anything or “Avast” anything. Click on it once so it’s highlighted then at the top select Uninstall. Uninstallation (removal) will commence. Along the way, you might be offered windows like “Stop! Are you sure you want to remove this? You will be unprotected!” with checkboxes ticked that say “I am going to re‐install. Retain my data”. Read these screens carefully, ensuring you tick the correct boxes to completely remove their software. Take your time. Some questions are tricky and can in fact be a double negative question! Ok, so you have got to the end and removed that expired AV software. Scroll up and down the list, looking for any other AV software that might be lurking. Some AV software companies split their software in to parts. They provide an AV software product, but also have installed an “advanced firewall” or “Internet safety” product. Find and remove these as well. Now reboot the laptop to finalise the removal of these products. When you restart, an information “balloon” may pop up advising you the computer has no AV software installed. On Windows 7 that is true. On Windows 8 and Windows 10, the balloon should be inviting you to start Windows Defender. If that is the case, do so and allow Windows Defender to start up. If that is not the case, “search” for Windows Defender in the Windows search box or press F1. For Windows 7, run up a browser to get to Google then in the address bar enter this web address:‐
http://windows.microsoft.com/en‐us/windows/security‐essentials‐download Or use Google to search for “Microsoft Security Essentials” and hit the first web site it returns. Download and install Microsoft Security Essentials. It is free.
Apple Mac computers are so rarely infected with viruses it’s a wonder any antivirus software products are available! Norton 360 is really the only reasonable product available for Apple Macs but it has a monthly subscription fee. Google Chrome is, however, susceptible to “extensions” that can wreck your Internet experience. Extensions are addons for Chrome that change the behaviour of the browser. Extensions can change your home page, can continually pop up ads on any page you visit and can, in general, make your Internet browsing a misery. To remove these unwanted extensions, run Chrome. Top right hand corner, hit the three bars. On the menu that pops out, select “Settings”. In the menu that pops up, click on Extensions (upper left). As a base installation, there should only be four extensions. Google Docs, Google Docs offline, Google Sheets, and Google Slides. That’s it. You might see “Ad‐Block” and that’s OK. Untick ALL OTHER extensions you see in the list, and click the bin icon for each extension to delete it. Now go back to Settings (upper left). For the “On Startup” click “Open a specific page or set of pages” and click “Set pages”. Within that list, hover over each web address and click the grey “x” at the right to remove it. In the “Add a new page” box, type www.google.com.au to set your home page to Google. Exit out of settings, and close Chrome. Now run Chrome. Much better!
Malware programs Malware is a special kind of virus. The intent of malware is not to crash your computer and wipe out all your files; instead the creators of malware want to steal your data and log all your activities on your computer to sell that data to companies. Malware programs are NOT classed as viruses! No antivirus program can or will block these programs from being installed. Malware programs want to gain your credit card numbers, login IDs and passwords to banks and social sites like Facebook, and to install key logging programs. It is therefore in their best interests not to interfere with your computer in a way that is noticeable. Malware gets installed on computers because people will almost always want and accept something for nothing. If a program is so good and so useful and yet it is free, the chances are extremely high the program being offered contains malware. Some recent examples the IT Department has seen are the “Pokki start menu”, the “Unity Web Player” and “CrossBrowser”. These programs (and hundreds more) operate as bait by offering useful functions that extend the functionality of Windows. In reality though, they operate as payload masters allowing many programs (often dozens!) to be installed silently, without your consent to actively data mine your computer. These programs can be removed! You do not have to put up with a computer that runs slow and causes ads to appear in your browser, and to constantly redirect your web browser to unknown search sites. Hit Windows‐Logo‐key + X and click Control Panel. In the menu that appears, change the icon layout from “Categories” to “Small icons”. Find “Programs and features”. In the list that comes up (might take a while) find the column header at the top that says “Installed on”. Click it. This will sort the programs installed list by date, not name. If the oldest date is displayed first, click the “Installed Date” header again to flip the list so the most recently installed programs are shown first. Examine the list carefully. If you find entries like those listed above, remove them by uninstalling them.
Now look at the list some more. If you see programs like “SzuuperrrSzaver Coouponzz”, “Unity Web Player”, “Pokki Start Menu”, “Pokki service engine” or “DNS Unlocker” uninstall them. All of them. If the program has no publisher name, uninstall it. If you see a whole group of programs that were installed all on the same date but recognise none of them uninstall them. Once you have uninstalled these malware programs sorted by date, there may be more. Some programs have gotten smart by modifying the installation date to be the oldest installed program. Click the “Installed On” header to flip the list so the oldest date is listed first. Examine the resultant list carefully. Do you recognise those programs? Do they have a publisher? If not, and you do not recognise them, uninstall them. If you still require assistance after you have completed the above checks please visit the IT Office. The IT Office staff do these checks and uninstalls every day on crippled student computers. No harm will come from removing these programs – in fact, your computer will probably run almost twice as quickly and consume much less power, therefore working longer before needing charging. After completing removing these malware programs, there is still work to be done. Go back to the Control Panel and find “Internet Options”. Click it. Find the tab that says “Advanced”. In the panel that appears, click “Reset…” In the box that appears now, tick every box to reset Internet Explorer to its factory default settings, thereby clearing all malware programs and resetting the home page. This only works for Internet Explorer. See the earlier section for clearing “extensions” within Google’s Chrome browser. Also review the section “Adjusting your device’s Internet proxy configuration” to ensure your computer’s proxy configuration has not been tampered with by these malware programs.
Troubleshooting Here are some issues the IT Department has encountered that may stop you from installing Microsoft Office or connecting to the Internet while at school. Time or date is wrong. Correct the time or date. Date format is wrong or the location is set to United States Get to Control Panel and locate “Region and language”. Review all the settings in there. Is the format English (Australia)? What is your location set to? What is your System Locale set to? For Microsoft Office to install, all settings MUST be set to English (Australia). Reboot the computer if changes are made. Can’t install Office 2016 on Windows Ensure you Windows installation is up to date. Use Windows Update to ensure system is up to date. Check for malware. Check date and time format and ensure date/time accurate. Office 2016 will NOT install on a cracked/hacked/not genuine installation of Windows. Cannot activate Office or reports server issues. “Try later” Date or time is wrong, or date or time format is wrong. Must be Australian. You must run Internet Explorer (or Edge on Windows 10) at least once to successfully activate Office. There are components of Internet Explorer used by the Office activation process that are not initialised until Internet Explorer run at least once. Can connect to Compass, but not to Google while at school Check your browser’s proxy settings by following the section “Adjusting your device’s Internet proxy configuration”. Check for malware. Can connect to Google but can’t connect to ‘cloud.lyndale.vic.edu.au’ You have malware installed that has tampered with your network settings – specifically your DNS settings. Review the section on checking for and removing malware. Look for “DNS Unblocker”. Remove any malware found. Now visit the IT Department to have your network configuration examined and reset.
Computer is running super slow and battery goes flat quickly. You have malware installed. Review the section on malware to remove it. You may have a faulty hard disk. Visit the IT Department as soon as possible to attempt to salvage your files before the hard disk completely fails. If the computer is under warranty, you will be required to return it to place of purchase for warranty repair. The IT Department will not, under any circumstances, attempt to repair or tamper with a computer that is under warranty.
Internet sites of interest www.lyndale.vic.edu.au
Lyndale SC public web site
cloud.lyndale.vic.edu.au
Lyndale SC ‘cloud’ portal
www.edustar.vic.edu.au
Department’s EduStar software catalogue
http://windows.microsoft.com/en‐us/windows/security‐essentials‐download
Download free antivirus for Windows
lyndale.vic.jdlf.com.au
Lyndale SC Compass login page
https://edupass.education.vic.gov.au/MyAccount
Clickview.lyndale.vic.edu.au
Change/reset your EduPass password
Clickview online login page
