Enhancing PC Performance in Teaching Venues

Have you recently noticed an improved user experience with no hardware failure and better PC performance when using the computers in teaching venues? To employ the emerging technologies to enhance the teaching and learning experience in class and meet the pedagogical content knowledge needs, the old and bulky desktop computers in all the 120 teaching venues have been replaced by the mini PCs with the new reboot-to-restore software during Semester A of the Academic year 2021/22.  

The new mini PC deployment not only reduced the high hardware failure rate but also improved significantly the system boot-up time. As the mini PC is small and different from the old desktop PC, please find the photos below that indicate the lectern's location and its power button.

 

Reminder

• Users are advised to upload their work files to OneDrive or save them on their own removable storage devices, such as USB flash drives and USB HDD/SSD
• USB-C port is available on the front panel of the mini PC, which can support fast USB devices with a data transfer rate of up to 10 Gbps
• DVDs are slowly becoming obsolete, and the DVD drive is therefore not bundled with the mini PC; please borrow a portable DVD drive from the IT Service Desk in the LI Building to play DVDs in these teaching venues if needed

Along with the hardware upgrade exercise, the old Provisioning Services (PVS) reboot-to-restore technology was replaced by a new software called Deep Freeze Enterprise. The software protects the computers from unauthorised or unwanted changes to the operating system, including users' data and their work, keeping the whole system intact by removing all changes upon every reboot.

The benefits of using Deep Freeze software are summarised as follows:

• Provides faster start-up speed of Windows operating system
• Minimises the network demand during start-up and eliminates boot-up-storm when a large number of PCs start up at the same time
• Tailor-made configuration settings can be stored in the SSD of individual mini PCs
• Offers centralised management over the network from the Deep Freeze Console for better administration and monitoring
• Supports scheduled update functionalities so that administrators can apply up-to-date Windows and software patches after office hours
• Unexpected changes are removed automatically with a simple reboot

With this new software, managing computers remotely has never been easier.