About your Account

Having your own user account has several advantages:

• You can customize your own desktop colors, background, font preferences.  These customizations do not affect other users.
• You have your own personal storage space on the network - called your Home Directory.  You can access that from any school computer or from home via NetTrekker
• You can turn in assignments by dragging and dropping into your teacher's folder rather than printing the document and turning in a paper copy. 

Conventions Used in this Document:  

    How Network Paths are Described

Logging on and Off

On all Windows computers, you will be asked to press the CTRL-ALT-DEL keys together in order to bring up the logon dialog box.  (Press and hold CTRL and ALT keys, then tap the DEL key).

To log onto the system you must type your username, password, and the domain name.  All student accounts are on the MISO domain.  Use the <Tab> key on the keyboard to move from field to field in this dialog box.  Use <Shift><Tab> to move backwards.  Once you have entered the username, password, and domain name, hit the <Enter> key.

IMPORTANT!   REMEMBER TO LOG OFF WHEN YOU ARE DONE!

It is important to remember to log off when you are done using the computer.  Otherwise the next person who uses that computer will be able to delete your data and change the configuration of your account.

You can log off at any time by pressing the CTRL-ALT-DEL keys together.  This brings up a dialog box with several options on it.  A key letter on each option is underlined.  You will notice that the 'L' is underlined on the Logoff option.  You can press the 'L' key on the keyboard, and then press <Enter>.  The system will then close all of your programs and log you off.  

To be sure this happens smoothly. it may be a good idea to close all programs manually first before you log off.  If a program needs to ask you about saving your work before it can close, it will hold up the logoff process until you respond.

So the key sequence to log of is:    CTRL-ALT-DEL,   then 'L',   then <Enter>

Of course you can use the mouse to do all this, but that's much slower.

Changing Passwords

You should change your password to something that you won't forget.  Don't make it too easy though.  A good password has 6 or more characters in it with some capitol letters and some lower-case letters and some numbers.  If you have an Internet account or an Email account at home, use the same password for both.  You will have much more success at remembering a password if you use it frequently.

You can change your password anytime while you are logged on by pressing CTRL-ALT-DEL.  This brings up a dialog box with several options on it.  One of the options is Change Password.  When you click this button, you will be presented with another dialog box that asks you to type the old password, and then type the new password twice.  Because you don't get visual feedback when you're typing your password, it's necessary to insist that you type it twice in order to assure that you didn't make a typing error..

You can change your password as often as you like.  In fact, it is a good idea to change it every 2 months or so.

Here's some ideas on how to select characters for your password:

• Name of a favorite pet
• Name of a cartoon character or story character
• An odd word that you made up
• A word spelled backwards

Then you might capitalize the 2nd and 3rd characters in it.

Some ideas on where to get numbers for you password:

• numbers from an address or phone number that you are familiar with
• locker number
• age of everyone in your family
• any of these numbers backwards
  

Put the numbers at the beginning or middle or end of your other characters.

Your Home Directory - My Documents - "DIGITAL LOCKER"

Your Home Directory is a folder on our server where you can store your data.  My Documents should point to your home directory.  This is a folder on the server that only you have access to.  As long as you are logged on as yourself, you will have access to this folder.  If you are using any other user account, you will be denied access.

Feel free to store in your folder any data files that you need for school use.  You can create as many folders and sub-folders within your home directory as you need in order to keep your data organized.  For instance, you may decide to have a folder for each class that you take.  However, keep in mind the rules we have for using computers at MTHS (see below).

Where is your Home Directory?

Your home directory resides on a centralized school district server.  When you log on "My Documents" should point to your home directory.  You can also find your home directory by running the Windows Explorer and looking on the Z: drive.

Other Storage Areas

Some departments have labs and their own servers.  If you are taking classes in those departments, you may be given access to folders on those servers in which you can store your data.  If you have a class that provides storage space for you to use on another server, you should probably use that server for that class.  For instance, if you are taking a computer animation class, the data files that you will be working with are much larger than files for Word documents.  The server in the tech area is designed to provide enough storage for the students in those classes. 

Home Directory Details (for those who want more information):

If you want to use the Explorer to find your home directory, start by launching the Windows Explorer program.  You will find in the left pane that your computer has a Z:  drive.  It looks like another hard disk.  In the language of computer operators, this is a network share that has been redirected to a virtual disk drive.  

Storage Etiquette and Some Rules:

DO NOT BRING IN SOFTWARE!!!
Please!  Do not Load, Install, or Run any software programs from outside sources without approval from the Tech Coordinator.  ( Shon White)  This means that you should not be storing any files with extensions .exe or .dll or .com in any folder on any school computer.  You should be aware that every file loaded onto our computers leaves an ownership stamp from the person who put it there.   If it is determined that you have attempted to load or run any non-approved programs on one of our computers, your account will be disabled.  To get it re-enabled, you will need to talk with Mr. White.  The user-at-fault will need to participate in cleaning the software from the computer.  If the same user is caught a second time, their account will be disabled for two weeks and will only be re-enabled when the user writes a formal letter of apology.  If a student needs to complete work for school, then other arrangements or accommodations will need to be made because they have will lost their privilege for using the school's computers.  

DO NOT ALLOW ANYONE TO USE YOUR ACCOUNT
If we find that your account is being used by someone other than yourself, the account will be disabled.  There are students in this building who are not allowed to use computers - for whatever reason.  It is not your responsibility to determine if those reasons are are valid or just.  Those issues should be raised with the appropriate teacher, administrator, or tech coordinator.  All you need to do is remember the basic rule:  Don't share your password with anyone.  Do not allow anyone to use your account.  If someone learns your password, then change it.

INTERNET ACCESS IS  PRIVILEGE
You will have Internet access provided you have turned a signed consent form and that information has been entered into your student record.  Internet privileges can be revoked at the request of any staff member who determines you are not using the Internet appropriately.  Examples of inappropriate use are:  viewing pages to gather information that could be a threat to other people, viewing pornography, refusing to pay attention in class by browsing when you should be listening to the teacher.

STORAGE
We do not have unlimited storage, so please be courteous and only store files that you need for schoolwork.  That means no games or programs or picture collections should be found in your folders.  Each student can store roughly 500 Megabytes of information in their personal folder.  If you attempt to store more than 500 MB of data in your home directory, you will receive a message that will indicate that the disk is full.

Do not save files to any location or folder other than your HomeDirectory Folder on any school computers unless that location was created specifically for you to use by one of the school staff.

So what is a profile anyway?

Associated with your user account there is a folder called a profile.  This is where all of your preferences and configuration settings are stored.  When you configure printers, save the start page for the Internet Explorer, change the color of your desktop background, or save an Internet URL in My Favorites, you storing this information in your profile.   Your desktop is also part of your profile.  To view the contents of your profile, use the Windows NT Explorer to browse to  C:\Documents and Settings (on Win2000 and XP).   Here you should see a folder with your username on it.  This is your profile folder.

Storage place to avoid.  Where not to store data:

• Don't store data in any sub-folder of your profile.
• Don't store data on your desktop
• Don't store data in any folder other than your HomeDirectory or a folder created for you by your teacher.

The reason for this is as follows:

Every time you logon to a computer your profile is copied from the server (MTHS2) to the computer you are using.  When you log off your profile is copied back to the server.  This concept is called roaming profiles because when you make changes to your environment (say you change the color of your screen background), those changes will appear on any computer you use - in effect - it roams with you.

The problem is... If you store files on your desktop or anywhere in your profiles folder (C:\Documents and Settings), these files get copied back and forth every time you log on or log off.  This will cause the logon/off operation to slow down as you accumulate more files this way.  If you store files in your home directory, they don't move.  They have no effect on your logon/off time.

PROFILES ARE VOLATILE
Another good reason to not store any data in your profile is because profiles tend to be volatile.  Because of the way that they are downloaded an uploaded constantly, it doesn't take much for them to get destroyed.  When a profile is destroyed, all of the information stored in it is wiped out.  If you lose your profile, you will need to re-add the printers that you use.

CORRUPT PROFILES
Sometimes profiles become corrupt.  Symptoms of corruption are:  

Inability to add printers
your background cannot be displayed
Every time you get a fresh new profile

It is necessary to delete your profile if it becomes corrupted.  You can have one of the tech coordinators help with this.  

If you are using a computer that's connected directly to a printer, you should see the printer listed in the printer folder.

The printer folder can be found by clicking on the Start button and Settings and then Printers.  You can also double click on the My Computer icon and then double click on the Printers icon to get to the same place.

Most of our computers have access to printers thru the network.  For instance, the printer in the Library and the printer in the Career Center are available for use by students.  To use these printers you need to setup a connection or Add a printer. 

Print-Limit Software

The Print-Limit software tracks all printing activity to our network printers.   Each semester students will start out with a $5 balance in their printing account.  Each single page printed will be charged $0.05.  This is enough to print 100 single-sided pages.   If the student elects to use the double-sided printing feature on some of our printers (The Liblab Printer in the library supports this), then the price will be $0.03 per page.

Students and staff can check on their accounts by going to the following local web-page.  This page is local - so it is not available outside the school district network.

http://mths2/printlimit/

When your print account reaches zero, you will no longer be able to print to our network printers.  More pages can be purchased by adding some money to your account.  Our office secretaries, Kay Vest and Sherry Newell will handle those purchases.

Adding a Printer (Method 1):

This will add an icon for that printer in your Printers folder.  If you have more than one printer in your Printers folder, then one of them will be tagged as the default printer.   You can change the default printer by right clicking the printer that you would like for the default and selecting Set as Default Printer.  In some computer lab areas that contain printers, your default printer will be automatically changed for you.

1. You should find a folder on the desktop labeled:  "Printers on xxxx"  Where xxxx is the name of a print server.
2. Open this folder and right-click the printer you want to add.  Select Connect  from the menu that drops down.
3. That's it, you've added that printer.