Small Town Big Technology
- picture is removed due to broken link -
Moving Forward With Windows 7
A regular hobbyist would collect stamps, game card, bottle caps, but Shukri, Ministry of Education Computer Tech Support, has been collecting Windows 7 build (leak and officials) since 2008. He has all the builds, from #6519 up until build #7000.
The sheer enthusiasm has been driven by the much awaited (and promised) enhancement of Windows 7, compared to its predecessor, Windows Vista.
Shukri is based in Parit Seri, Muar,Johor. He is currently attached to Sri Jamil Primary School. Under his care are – 30 desktops, 12 laptops, 1 server and over 150 users.
Due to hardware (and cost) constraints, the school is still running legacy Microsoft OS, Windows XP and server 2003. As a non-urban school, budget for total refresh are hard to come by, according to Shukri.
“We make good with what we have, improvising and pushing hardware optimization to the edge”.
Windows 7 – air of life to old hardware
One aspect that Shukri is esthetic about Windows 7 is its ability to run in XP-spec workstation specs not high enough for Vista (or even XP) but runs Windows so smoothly.
While Vista might require up to 4 gig of RAM to run without sacrificing the glossy Aero, Windows 7 runs on a mere 1 gig. Given 2 gig of RAM, it runs like horde of charging bull.
Old hardware at the school that has been due for destruction can now be revived and used for the benefit of the students. The economic climate has force many planned upgrade for rural schools to be slashed up to 75%, and being able to re-use Windows 7 on low spec machines is like water to a thirsty man in the desert, timely!
Bigger,Better,Badder
Windows 7 has incorporated many of Shukri’s wish list, that he did not see or experience in Windows Vista. Among them are - Super bar, jumplist and ability to boot VHD. Windows 7 enhancement are more than mere cosmetic upgrades, its versatility improvement has now made it able to boot HD to test multiple OS.
AppLocker
This feature enables Shukri to lock the machines to only use application that has been signed or authorized. It enhances security by preventing un-signed software to be run on the school’s network.
Pirated software and malware will be blocked by enabling this feature. He has already heard the grumbles of teachers and students alike when he enabled this feature on their workstations.
BitLocker
Although Sri Jamil is not an enterprise or a government agency which has many top secret data lying around, Bitlocker is still necessary to ensure the security of the schools workstation, especially the teachers laptop.
Teachers are provided with laptop and also portable harddrive. Bitlocker can now protect the harddisk and also mobile data storage, an enhance from Vista’s Bitlocker which only provide encryption for hard disk.
IE8
IE8 came bundled with Windows 7. One major milestone that IE8 has over IE kin, is IE8’s compliance with ACID Test, the internationally recognized web browser standard. Therefore, the long winded argument of IE not being ACID Test compliant is now over.
Singular tab process reduces browser crash tremendously. MS has got it right this time with having individual process to run on individual tab. The ‘sandboxing’ also isolates and prevents malware attacks, as browser run scripts no longer ‘spill over’ to the entire system.
With the above also comes color tab browsing, each content of the individual browser is highlighted in the colored tabs. This way, users are no longer confused of the tab content and are not hassled into opening each tab to find out what they were browsing.
The school also runs a public-internet-lab, member of the community in Parit Sri in Muar can use the internet facilities for free. To ensure privacy, Shukri has configured the IE browser to run ‘In Private Browsing’ mode. This ensures, users post browsing cache files are not stored or viewed by the next users. Also, reduces his workload by having to manually ensure all cache and temp files have been ‘flush’.
IT Pro Momentum - Extending Technology Adoption To Rural Areas
The school that Shukri works in has only limited budget for all other expenses, and investment for Information Technology Infrastructure does not rank high on the list.
However, the need to always be on the cutting edge of Microsoft's Technology is very close to Shukri's heart. Before he knew the existence of IT Pro Momentum, he often read
TAP or even Early Adoption Program (EAP) on Microsoft's Enterprise customer's system admin blogs with envy. All the cool technology adoption experience, but none for rural arear
system admins. But with IT Pro Momentum, Shukri is able to be the l33t (elite) group of System Admin's to join Microsoft inner circle of Beta testers and experience the technology
and abundance of support materials provided in IT Pro Momentum's portal. In his own words - 'Before this (ITProMomentum), I thought Microsoft only catered for big city corporate
customers only, but community programs like this will help me personally to enhance my skills, and provide me with the skills to ensure my school is not left behind".