The file downloads are not available outside the BCPS network.
Virus Alerts Last Update: 11/22/05 11:00 am Click Here!	Guide To Safe Computing and Network Updates Last Update: 6/22/07 Click Here!

Virus Alerts

11/22/05 - Mass Spam Email Problem

Many Outlook users are getting emails from what appears to be US Government Agencies like the FBI or CIA that contain information indicating possible illegal use of websites. These messages are SPAM that may include an attachment. Most of the files have been scrubbed by the Outlook Servers and have been labeled with the ~SPAM~ tag in the subject line. If attachments are included with these emails they should be deleted! DO NOT RUN THE ATTACHMENT. Most machines have updated virus definitions from ePO and will NOT become infected even if the attachment is run, but caution should be used when opening ANY email attachment you are not sure of.

There are directions for automatically deleting message that have been marked with the ~SPAM~ tag. Click here for those directions.

Sample email messages that are being sent in this mass spam attack may read like the following:

Account and Password Information are attached!
Protected message is attached!
=====dHSd9SZd;99zZ((EEEA
=====dw1W)6ZdzSL91WR
***** Go to: [http://]www.[DOMAIN NAME OF SENDER]
***** Email: postman
This is an automatically generated Delivery Status Notification.
SMTP_Error []
I'm afraid I wasn't able to deliver your message.
This is a permanent error; I've given up. Sorry it didn't work out.
The full mail-text and header is attached!
hey its me, my old address dont work at time. i dont know why?!
in the last days ive got some mails. i' think thaz your mails but im not sure!
plz read and check ...
cyaaaaaaa

Dear Sir/Madam,
we have logged your IP-address on more than 30 illegal Websites.lease answer our questions!
The list of questions are attached.
Yours faithfully,
Steven Allison
Department Office Admin Mail Post
===dkX XbW6dxPbXWPdSDd@R2XL9)CW9)SRd?kx@?
===dt4OduXRRL062WR)Wd.2XRPX,dKa,dnSS1d4vvy
*** Federal Bureau of Investigation -FBI-
*** 935 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW, Room 3220
*** Washington, DC 20535
++++ Central Intelligence Agency -CIA-
++++ Office of Public Affairs
++++ Washington, D.C. 20505
++++ phone: (703) 482-0623
++++ 7:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., US Eastern time

The Simple Life:
View Paris Hilton & Nicole Richie video clips , pictures & more ;)
Download is free until Jan, 2006!
Please use our Download manager.

 

11/11/05 - Virtual Card Virus Hoax

The Customer Support Center is getting calls about various emails that are being received indicating a virtual card may be sent that will damage computer hard drives. Recipients are encouraged to forward the message. This is a HOAX. Do not forward the message.

The following is a technical write up with details of this HOAX from Symantec.

This is a hoax. The hoax message is similar to the following:

WARNING

DO NOT OPEN THE VIRTUAL CARD. There is a virus spreading through the lists of roots web. One of the was is gets around the filters and other protection devices that roots web has is through ruses like this. It's a virus that mails itself using names it pickup up from the computers it gets into. Do Not Trust this simply because it mentions Cynthia's name. It is also using her e-mail address. This is one of those viruses Cynthia has been warning us about. I've been seeing it on other lists that I belong to. I can't type the name of the virus. According to the semantic sight just typing certain word will send this insidious thing along to others. I've seen it happen once tonight in a message I sent to another list. I am not going to put that on this list. I've already updated my anti virus program since then, but I'm not going to take the chance.

There are two ways this virus is being spread. One is through a specific web address, the other is through a greeting card invitation like this one. The web address appears as a hyper link. Another of the things that is happening is people are getting e-mails sent to them from themselves. These e-mails contain the virus.

3/15/05 - The Sasser Virus is infecting machines in the County again that have not been joined to the Domain and/or running the latest version of ePO (3.1.2.257) and McAfee VirusScan Enterprise 7.1.0. Infected machines will display an lsass.exe error and may reboot. The machine must be patched. Windows 2000 users should install Service Pack 4.

Patches for Windows machines are located below.
Microsoft Windows 2000 with Service Pack 2, 3 or 4

Microsoft Windows XP and Microsoft Windows XP Service Pack 1

After running these patches the computer may ask as for a Windows 2000 or Windows XP System Disk. Click Cancel on this window.

If a Windows XP machine constantly reboots follow the instructions below to halt the reboot and allow for patches to be downloaded and installed.

1. Go to the command line interface by clicking on the Start button and selecting Run. Type "command" (without quotes) and click OK.
2. At the command prompt, type "shutdown -a" (without quotes). This effectively orders the computer to abort shutdown.
3. Run your anti virus tools and download patches to remove the worm. All these files are on this link.

If a Windows 2000 constantly reboots the patch will need to be downloaded from another machine

1. Unplug the infected machine from the network.
2. Go to another non-infected machine and download the Windows 2000 patch (located above) and save the file to a flash drive.
3. Run the patch on the infected machine.
4. Reboot the machine and plug back into the network.

If unable to follow these procedures please call the Customer Support Center at #4672 to place a work order for a technician to visit your site.

5/17/04 - Two ePO service packs were installed Sunday (5/16/04) afternoon bringing the ePO server up to current release [v3.0.2.276]. Servers and user PC's will begin receiving a background upgrade to ePO agent version 3.1.2.257. The ePO agent icon will disappear from the system tray following the upgrade, but will return when ePO rules are enforced within 60 minutes. There is no appearance change in the ePO agent icon

4/22/04 - There is an email hoax that some BCPS staff members may find in their inbox. The message looks like it came from CNN.com. The subject of the message is "Osama Bin Laden Captured" The text of the email may look something like the following:

Hey, Just got this from CNN, Osama Bin Laden has been captured! Go to the link below to view the pics and to download the video if you so wish: http://209.151.89.106/ "Murderous coward he is". God bless America!

Do NOT go to the link listed in the email. If you go to this site software that acts like a worm will be downloaded to your machine. Do not reply to or forward the email message.

3/8/04 - The BCPS email system was hit by the Netsky.J virus today at about 4:00pm. At that time many emails started to flood the system. The Network Administrators were quick to react and stripped the virus attachment out of the email message. At this time they are working to purge the emails from the system. Users may find many email messages in their Inbox with the subjects listed below. Please delete these emails and empty your deleted items folder.

From: (forged address taken from infected system)
Subject: Taken from the following list:

Re: Hello
Re: Hi
Re: Thanks!
Re: Document
Re: Message
Re: Here
Re: Details
Re: Your details
Re: Approved
Re: Your document
Re: Your text
Re: Excel file
Re: Word file
Re: My details
Re: Your music
Re: Your bill
Re: Your letter
Re: Document
Re: Your website
Re: Your product
Re: Your document
Re: Your software
Re: Your archive
Re: Your picture
Re: Here is the document

Body: Taken from the following list:

Here is the file.
Your file is attached.
Your document is attached.
Please read the attached file.
Please have a look at the attached file.
See the attached file for details.

Attachment: filename taken from strings within worm, with a .PIF extension:

yours.pif
your_text.pif
your_bill.pif
mp3music.pif
document.pif
my_details.pif
your_file.pif
your_website.pif
your_product.pif
your_letter.pif
your_archive.pif
your_details.pif
document_word.pif
all_document.pif
application.pif
your_picture.pif
document_excel.pif
document_4351.pif
document_full.pif
message_part2.pif
your_document.pif
message_details.pif

3/5/04 - There is a message being sent to BCPS users in email. It contains the text below:

--------------- BEGIN MESSAGE ---------------
Subject: E-mail account disabling warning.
Dear user of e-mail server "Bcps.org",

Your e-mail account will be disabled because of improper using in next
three days, if you are still wishing to use it, please, resign your
account information.

Please, read the attach for further details.

Best wishes,

The Bcps.org team http://www.bcps.org
---------------- END MESSAGE -----------------

The message carries an attachment which contains the W32/Bagle.j@MM virus. The BCPS virus scanning software removes the attachment and replaces it with text attachment stating that the virus was deleted from the system. Please disregard the email and delete it from your mailbox.

3/3/04 - The message dated 2/26/04 informs users with BCPS Rev2 and Rev3 machines to download a group of fixes from our website. These fixes should NOT be run on any Dell that is not Rev2 or Rev3. Original Dell images with the C:\, D:\, and E:\ drives are NOT Rev2 or Rev 3! These machines can run the SP 4 updates from the CSC site or from Microsoft. Any machine that is running Columbia should never be reimaged unless performed by a member of the Department of Technology.

3/3/04 - Many users are receiving an email that looks legitimate. It may look like it came from a bcps.org email address and contain text that looks like the following:

Hello user of Bcps.org e-mail server,

Some of our clients complained about the spam (negative e-mail content) outgoing from your e-mail account. Probably, you have been infected by a proxy-relay trojan server. In order to keep your computer safe, follow the instructions.

Pay attention on attached file.

Attached file protected with the password for security reasons. Password is 75080.

Kind regards,
The Bcps.org team http://www.bcps.org

The email may contain an attachment called warning.htm. this file was infected by the virus and cleaned. the text from the attachment is listed below.

ANTI-VIRUS DETECTION ALERT
The anti-virus scanner was triggered by this file. The file was not cleaned and has been removed. See your system administrator for further information.

Context: 'Information.zip'
Detection(s): 'W32/Bagle.gen!pwdzip (virus)'

Copyright © 1993-2003, Networks Associates Technology, Inc.
All Rights Reserved.
http://www.mcafeesecurity.com

The Department of Technology is working very hard at this time to prevent new viruses from entering into the system and to clean viruses out of email when they do enter the system. The people that are creating these viruses are very clever and they are finding many new ways to fool network administrators. CSC will continue to try and bring users the latest news and updates. Stay tuned to this page for more updates as they become available.

2/27/04 - We are developing the final touches on an immediate plan to address the infected computers in the schools. Concurrently, we are formulating a long term plan to minimize the impact of future viruses by automatically deploying windows and virus updates through out the network. Stay tuned for more information. We appreciate your patience.

2/26/04 - CSC is now reporting a problem with some Windows 2000 machines that are attempting to update to Service Pack 4 (SP4). Computers that have BCPS image rev2 and rev3 are unable to update to SP4 because of a core system (kernel) error. (See graphic below)

CSC has a fix for this problem but it is very time consuming. It requires that a 135 MB zip file be downloaded to the machine with this problem and two files be run from the zip file after it is decompressed. Directions and the zip file for executing this procedure are located on this link. NOTE: CSC is not requiring that users do this fix. We are still working on a global solution for this problem.

2/25/04 - McAfee virus scan software is displaying a message on many computers that states a failure to clean and/or move the Nachi.wormB virus.

The Nachi virus is not a destructive variety. It will not destroy your hard drive and/or your files. The Department of Technology is formulating a global plan to eliminate the virus from infected computers. If your machine has the virus we recommend that you run Windows Updates and then minimize the virus notification message rather than closing it. Your machine will continue to function with the message minimized.

To access Windows Updates go to the Start button and select Windows Updates from the top of the menu and then follow on screen prompts to scan your machine. Finally install any critical updates that are recommended. If Windows Update is not available under the Start button go to www.microsoft.com and click on Windows Updates on the left-hand side of the page.

Quick Tips

6/21/07 -At close of business Friday, June 29th, we will begin migrating BCPS’ Internet Service Provider [ISP] from Verizon to Comcast. As this process involves reconfiguration of multiple network devices, there will be extended Internet outages throughout the weekend. We anticipate completion no later than 4 PM Sunday, July 1st.

Most of IP address changes will be transparent due to name resolution provided by Internet Domain Name Services [DNS]. However, one service not covered by DNS is the Virtual Private Networking [VPN] access.

The following procedure with your installed Cisco VPN Client software may be used to prepare in advance for the ISP changeover by creating a duplicate VPN configuration and modifying it for the new IP address used by VPN. This 2nd VPN connection entry can be saved and used after the ISP change is made. Once the new VPN connection entry is used, the original entry can be deleted.

Cisco VPN Client Software Reconfiguration for New ISP (PDF) Requires user name and password to view.

5/23/07 Updated 5/25/07 - Preparations to support a new version of McAfee VirusScan software require upgrading the current ePO agent district-wide. The new version combines the ePO icon and McAfee icon into one new icon.

This process will begin to roll out at the close of business Friday, May 25th which is the start of the long Memorial Day weekend.

The new McAfee agent is installed automatically and without user intervention, but will noticeably change the appearance of previous McAfee product icons in the Windows system tray area in the lower right-hand corner next to the system clock.

The appearance of the McAfee icon is a red capital letter ‘M’ as shown here:

Please leave all computers powered on but logged off during this process starting on May 25th and continuing through the holiday weekend.

Laptop computers will begin to download the update when they connect to the network after the 25th of May. The laptop may run a bit slower during the download but a reboot should not occur.

5/10/07 - INSTALLATION OF WIRELESS TECHNOLOGY

The Department of Technology (DOT) will be installing wireless access points in all schools during the next several months. The access points will provide wireless connectivity to standard locations within all schools such as the library, office area, conference rooms, cafeteria, and other areas where there is daily use of laptop computers. This installation will also include a network security device that is designed to limit access to our networks and to help control the attachment of non-BCPS computers to school and office networks.

A private vendor, Fusion Networks, will be assisting the DOT with the installation. They will have appropriate badges and have been cleared through standard BCPS background checks. Any work they will be doing will not be disruptive to the school schedule.

Questions regarding this information should be directed to:

Name: Gary Schlimme, Manager, Computer & Network Support

Phone Number: 3858 or gschlimme@bcps.org

3/9/07 - OUTLOOK CALENDAR ISSUES RELATED TO DAYLIGHT SAVINGS TIME (DST)

Due to circumstances surrounding the forthcoming Daylight Savings Time changes, some issues related to calendars in Outlook have surfaced. Specifically, some recurring items appear to be one hour later than originally scheduled. The Department of Technology is aware of the issue and will deploy Microsoft patches later tonight to resolve the issues. At this time, do not modify any items in calendars that are affected by the issue mentioned above or attempt to resolve the issue in any other way. Further information will be forthcoming on Monday.

Below is general information regarding the Daylight Savings Time changes which were being prepared for publication before the Department of Technology became aware of the above issue.

The U.S. Energy Policy Act of 2005, passed by the U.S. Congress July, 2005, extended Daylight Savings Time (DST) in the U.S. by approximately four weeks. As a result, beginning in 2007, DST will start three weeks earlier on Sunday, March 11, 2007, and end one week later on Sunday, November 4, 2007, resulting in a new Daylight Savings Time period that is four weeks longer than previously observed. This change in government policy has ramifications that will affect the Baltimore County Public Schools computing environment that our end users need to be aware of.

On Sunday, March 11, 2007, Windows will not move the clock ahead one hour. In response to this, Microsoft has put out instructions and several patches to ensure that the Microsoft Windows environment will be configured properly to handle the new changes in Daylight Savings Time. Currently, the Department of Technology is working to ensure that the appropriate patches will be installed on all BCPS computing equipment prior to the new Daylight Savings Time so that on Sunday, March 11, 2007, the clocks will move ahead one hour.

There is no direct action required on the part of end users; however, Microsoft has several recommendations that it suggests Outlook calendar users follow.

All users of Microsoft products affected by the time change should give extra attention to meetings and appointments scheduled starting today, March 2, 2007, and continuing through Sunday, April 1, 2007, and Sunday, October 28, 2007 through Sunday, November 4, 2007, referred to here as the "extended DST period." (In this article, the terms "meetings" and "appointments" will be used interchangeably.) Users should view any appointments that fall into these date ranges as suspect until they communicate with all meeting invitees to make sure that the item shows up correctly on everyone's calendar both internally and externally. To minimize confusion during the affected date ranges:
• Include the time of the meeting in the email request so that invitees can double check the correct meeting time (such as, "Project brainstorming - 11:00 a.m. Central Time").
• Exercise caution with the appointments and meetings in the extended DST period. When in doubt, verify the correct time with the organizer.
• Consider printing out your weekly calendars during the extended DST period.

The Department of Technology strongly suggests that Outlook Calendar users follow these steps to prevent meeting and appointment schedules from becoming a problem. When dealing with the Outlook Calendar starting today, March 2, 2007 and continuing through Sunday, April 1, 2007, staff members are encouraged to double and triple check meeting and appointment times.

The Department of Technology plans to update every piece of BCPS computing equipment. If unforeseen issues or problems arise during this process, staff should check with the Customer Support Center (CSC) at 4672.

3/1/07 - Image revision 6.6 has been released by the Department of Technology. this image works on all approved BCPS computers. The major changes to the image are as follows:

• The latest Windows updates
• GX745 drivers
• Latitude 620 drivers
• Internet Explorer 7.0
• Adobe Acrobat 8.0
• Shortcut to Safari Montage that points to that school’s server

3/1/07 - Internet speeds should improve for all BCPS Domain users now that a script is in place to bypass the Proxy server. All teachers and students when logging in as themselves, or generic Domain logins at the elementary level, should see improved speed. Manual bypass of the proxy is also allowed at this time should the script fail to run. CSC recommends that machines be reimaged if Domain login scripts are not running properly. Contact your Area Team Leader for more support on this issue.

10/20/06 - To the surprise of many in the information technology world Microsoft released Internet Explorer 7 on 10/18/2006 without providing sufficient time for testing it on the BCPS network. There are several web applications (vendor applications as well as internally developed) and websites in use which have not yet been certified by BCPS Department of Technology for use with Internet Explorer 7. These applications include AMS Financial, Student Activity Funds, Renaissance Place, Ultimate Survey, STARS and our own websites and web applications. We are working as quickly as possible both internally and with vendors to certify all web applications for use IE7.

Until this certification process is complete, we ask that you please DO NOT download and install IE7. To help prevent any conflicts with our images and networks, the Department of Technology has put several enterprise level blocks in place to prevent the install of IE7. Due to the nature of the IE7 application and install, the DOT cannot guarantee that this will prevent all instances of IE7 from being installed.

If you have already downloaded and installed this application, please remove it by going to “Add Remove Programs”, highlight “Windows Internet Explorer 7” and select “Remove”. This will revert your version back to Internet Explorer 6.

When the applications have been certified for use with Internet Explorer 7, the DOT will notify all of its users.

9/22/06 - At around 11:30 today the Work Order Database system that the Customer Support Center uses to track tickets crashed. As a result all tickets that were taken before 1:23PM were lost during the recovery. If you are not sure what time you called in a ticket, please check the online web access database to see if the record you called in was lost. If this is the case, please call the Customer Support Center to place the order again. We are extremely sorry for the trouble that we know this will cause.

8/23/06 - Important message about Dell Laptop Batteries: As you may be aware, Dell has identified a potential issue associated with certain batteries sold with Dell Latitude™, Inspiron™, XPS™ and Dell Precision Mobile Workstation™ notebook computers. In cooperation with the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission and other regulatory agencies, Dell is voluntarily recalling certain Dell-branded batteries with cells manufactured by Sony and offering free replacements for these batteries.

Potentially affected batteries were sold with the following models of Dell notebook computers or provided or sold separately as secondary batteries:

• Latitude: D410, D500, D505, D510, D520, D600, D610, D620, D800, D810;
• Inspiron: 6000, 8500, 8600, 9100, 9200, 9300, 500m, 510m, 600m, 6400, E1505, 700m, 710m, 9400, E1705;
• Dell Precision Mobile Workstations: M20, M60, M70 and M90; and
• XPS: XPS, XPS Gen2, XPS M170, and XPS M1710.

The batteries were shipped to customers between April 1, 2004 and July 18, 2006. The words “Dell” and one of the following are printed on the batteries: “Made in Japan” or “Made in China” or “Battery Cell Made in Japan Assembled in China.”

For those employees that have a BCPS issued laptop, we ask that you access www.dellbatteryprogram.com to determine if your battery is subject to this recall. If it is, please call the Customer Support Center at x4672, and they will create a work order with the necessary information to have the battery replaced.

As soon as Dell provides replacement batteries, the Customer Support Center staff will come to your school or office to replace the affected battery. In the meantime please make sure that laptops are turned off, when not being used for extended periods of time during the day. Dell has indicated that only six out of 4.1 million batteries have actually overheated and damaged the unit.

Click here for Emergent Superintendent's Bulletin related to Dell Battery Recall. (Word)

3/28/06 - Important message about Websense Filtering: An upcoming change to Websense, our web filtering software, may impact schools. Secure websites (identified by URLs beginning with 'https' rather than 'http') will now be subject to filtering along with other sites. However, you will not get the standard Websense 'block' page for these sites. If you are accessing a secure website that is blocked by our web filtering system, you will receive an error message that the page cannot be displayed, as if there was another problem with the site. Please e-mail webfilter@bcps.org to inquire about any issues with secure websites being blocked.

2/8/06 - Notice from Network Administrators: During a recent upgrade to Websense, (our filtering software), the ability to allow safe searches on Google images was taken out of the new update by the company. We are working with the company to see what can be done to reinsert this feature back into the new version. Until this issue is resolved, all Google images will be blocked. We are sorry for the inconvenience and will work to resolve this issue.

The Office of Instructional Technology has put together a document that gives links to some web sights that contain free graphics for student and teacher use. Click here to download the Word document: Locating Graphics on the Internet.

1/13/06 - The Microsoft Operating System Critical Update that was deployed by the BCPS Networking Staff starting Friday January 6, 2006 has not reached all the systems. Since then there have been several other updates released by Microsoft and McAfee (Virus Protection Signatures).

In order to complete our update process, please continue to leave your computers on at night so the updates can be deployed. It is very important that computers be left on over the upcoming holiday to assist in this process.

12/23/05 - Dell Computer is recalling voluntarily some laptop computer batteries. The following machines MAY have recalled batteries:

• Latitude D410, D505, D510, D600, D610, D800, D810
• Inspiron 510M, 600M, 6000, 8600, 9200, 9300, XPS Gen 2
• Precision M20, M70

Go to the following website to see if your laptop battery is on the recall list: http://www.dellbatteryprogram.com/

9/7/05 - As was discussed at the last Liaison meeting held at Cockeysville Middle School on September 1st, the Customer Support Team, with assistance from the Network Team will be implementing the change in the student log in passwords. Many instructors indicated that it took too long for some students to log in which cut down on the amount of time spent on the instructional activity.

This change will occur after 4:00 pm Tuesday, September 13th , through 6:00 am Wednesday September 14th. Your student share data will not be affected. It is, however, our policy to remind you that it is not the responsibility of the Customer Support Center to back up data. Important files need to be backed up at the school site.

The kindergarten log in password WILL NOT CHANGE. They will remain k1, K2, etc. as the user name, and go as the password.

All other student log in passwords will be changed in the following manner:
1st Grade User name(s) 1a, 1b, etc. will remain the same however all grade 1 passwords will now be set to the number “1”
2nd Grade User name(s) 2a, 2b, etc. will remain the same however all grade 2 passwords will now be set to the number “2”
3rd Grade User name(s) 3a, 3b, etc. will remain the same however all grade 3 passwords will now be set to the number “3”
4th Grade User name(s) 4a, 4b, etc. will remain the same however all grade 4 passwords will now be set to the number “4”
5th Grade User name(s) 5a, 5b, etc. will remain the same however all grade 5 passwords will now be set to the number “5”

This change was presented at the Liaison meeting and was given a resounding roar of approval from the group. With your assistance this change will be smooth one for both our students and our instructors. If you have additional questions please contact your Area Team Leader.

8/19/05 - Many updates were released during the summer break that are critical to the performance of BCPS computers. Some of these updates are large and require the machine to reboot after installed. Therefore the Department of Technology is asking that all computers are turned on and plugged into the network as soon as possible. These machines should be left on at all times as most downloads take place at night. Staff members should be aware that machines may reboot without warning after an update is applied. Any questions should be directed to the Customer Support Center at x4672. Thank you.

5/13/05 - The previous Word document that was released on May 6, 2005 has been rewritten to conform with Microsoft Outlook 2003 the BCPS standard email program and has been enhanced with graphics. The new document is available on this link and the previous link in the 5/6/05 entry. We apologize for any confusion that the previous document may have created.

5/6/05 - On Wednesday evening 5/5/05, The Department of Technology had a complete failure on the Outlook Exchange 2 email server (one of our 3 Exchange servers).   All users on Exchange 2 were affected.  We have since rebuilt the e-mail server and restored data from tape backup. Some information was unrecoverable.
We apologize for any inconvenience.

Included on this link is a Word document with information to help you manage your exchange mailbox. This includes reducing mailbox size and methods for backing up critical email messages to other locations, i.e. usb thumb drives, local computer drives or other external storage areas. It is important that all users do not use their exchange mailbox as a local "storage" area for correspondence and associated file attachments. The Department of Technology tries diligently to take every precaution to keep email and other files secure and backed up, but incidents can occur that result in a loss of data. Thus it is important that every user take the time and learn the necessary steps to have a backup copy of all necessary data.

If you need help, please review the attached document and or contact your Tech Liaison or the Customer Support Center.

Once again we apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused.

4/4/05 - Over the holiday break preparations were made for the eventual Windows XP Service Pack 2 deployment. Certain machines that were obtained by schools during the 2004 Dell Roll-out are now experiencing an error. The error reads "Windows could not start because the following files are missing. windows\system32\hal.dll". If you have a machine that was obtained during this roll-out and the error is not present no action needs to be taken.

To fix this problem take an Iassist Boot disk (CD or Floppy) and start the machine up from this disk. After the machine beeps press the N key to cancel the download process. At the V:\DNI\Clone prompt type BOOTFIX. The machine will copy some files and then reboot. Remove the boot disk and allow the machine to start up normally.

3/24/05 - The Department of Technology would like you to leave your PC’s powered on over the spring break for maintenance purposes.

There will be an upgrade to the ePO agent and anti-virus updates that will be applied to the computers.  Windows 2000 and Windows XP machines that are configured to use the Microsoft Windows Automatic Updates website will update themselves during this period.  We also plan on doing some inventory maintenance related activities.

For these reasons, your computer will need to remain turned on and connected to the network. Your monitor can be turned off. Please save and close all open documents and log off of your computer before you leave for Spring Holiday.  This will safeguard your files and email account. To log off go to the start button and select the Log Off option.

Thank you for your understanding and cooperation in this matter.

3/10/05 - During the next several days the Department of Technology will be releasing Microsoft Windows Updates to all computers that are on the domain.  These updates are monthly releases from Microsoft that address security and performance issues that have been discovered by Microsoft and others during the past month.  In order for these updates to be installed please leave your machine on at all times.  Please save and close all open documents and log off of your computer each night before leaving the building.  This will safe guard you files and email account. To log off go to the start button and select the Log Off option.  Some updates require a reboot of your machine.
 
In most cases these updates will be installed automatically and you will not be required to do anything.  In some cases however you might notice a message that indicates that "updates are ready to be installed".  If this occurs merely indicate yes or click ok for the install to take place.  Please make sure you have saved all your work before you allow the install to take place or say yes to a message that indicates a reboot will take place.
 
If you have any questions please contact the Customer Support Center
Thank You.

1/24/05 - On January 20, 2005 the Sus Server sent out a Windows 2000 HotFix that is causing Columbia machine to display a 16 bit error. Click HERE for information on fixing this error.

10/12/04 - DELL POWER ADAPTER RECALL NOTICE- Dell is recalling some power adapters for laptops that may be in the County. The CSC repair shop will NOT handle these recalls. Customers should go to the following website to see if their adapter has been recalled. Customers that have an adapter included in the recall must fill out the form on this site to get a replacement. http://www.delladapterprogram.com/multiorder.aspx

8/16/04 - Microsoft is due to release Windows XP Service Pack 2. At this time BCPS computers should NOT download this service pack. The Department of Technology is testing the product to insure that it will not adversely impact on the current BCPS image and software.

4/1/04 - After users have their computers joined to the BCPS domain there are many new features that can be utilized. One of them is the H:\ drive which is referred to as the user's Home Drive. Then Department of Technology is asking that all Domain Users redirect their local My Documents Folder to their H;\ Drive. The instructions for doing this procedure are located on the following link: Setting the My Documents Folder to H:\ After Imaging

6/18/03 - HotBar must be removed from all computers. It is "SpyWare" that generates SPAM and pop-up ads as well as reporting information about you and your website browsing habits. This violates the Telecommunication Policy. Click here for HotBar removal instructions.

10/28/02 - Users may receive an e-mail with a banner asking them to add color to Outlook.(see graphic below) It should not be installed. Click here for more information.

These links provide support for various BCPS systems.

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