Whether I’m at home or at school, from the moment I log onto a computer, there always seems to be a program demanding it be updated.
Adobe Updater is the worst offender, with updates that seem to come out at least once a week. Windows Update is next on the list, popping up and often insisting on restarting the computer, whether I’m in the middle of something or not.
According to the Information Technology Services (ITS) department at Lethbridge College, all computers on campus are set up using an image. The images are updated once or twice a semester, but only once approved by instructors.
An image is an exact copy of an operating system with selected programs (sometimes hundreds) installed. Everything is installed only on computer, and a snapshot is made and applied to other computers, preventing ITS from having to install everything individually on each computer.
When a computer on campus seems to be running really slow, the tried and true method of restarting a computer doesn’t always fix the problem. As it turns out, ITS says you need to shut down the computer and start it up again for the computer to go back to the original image.
When the image is freshly applied after a shutdown, it often takes longer to log in. ITS says this is because the user information is no longer stored on the computer and it has to grab it from scratch off of the school’s servers, which takes time. Up to 5 minutes on a Mac in my experience, which ITS says is due to larger user profiles on the Mac versus those on PCs.
When I log onto a Mac on campus, I’m prompted with a dialog box asking to run a script (which lets you access folders on school servers), which I find annoying. ITS tells me this issue should be solved by January, which is also when they’ll be upgrading to the newest version of Mac OS X, Leopard..
I often hear in the Computer Commons around campus that the computers are running slowly. I recommend shutting the computer down, and wait a few minutes for it to cool down before turning it back on. They’re on almost always on, which is bound to have an affect on performance and speed.
If you are running into problems with computers on campus, contact Computer Services and let them know. They want to hear from you.
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