thing2k's questions

The issue: when saving a document from either Word, Excel or PowerPoint 2010, every so often it will show the message 'file' is currently in use. Try again later.

We started our rollout of Windows 7 beginning of this year, and this issue was infrequent, but is now affecting enough people to be a problem.

Usually, if you clear the alert, then save again, it works fine, though only in Word or Excel. Annoyingly, PowerPoint has a bad habit of changing the file to read-only after the error. So the only choice is to save to a new file name.

The issue seems to only happen to files in the user's My Documents, which is a redirection folder from their HomeShare.

The HomeShares are spread across 3 different file servers, 2 Windows 2003 and 1 Windows 2008 R2.

Has anyone seen this issue and know how to fix it?

On site we have near 3 dozen servers, a mixture of physical and virtual, some backup to tape and others to disk, a few important machines do both.

All in all we have about 40 backup jobs. I record the success or failure, and probable cause, for each job. Now I've been asked to put all this information in to a "report". Which will be viewed by non-IT persons. Lots of graphs

So, I would appreciate opinions on what could consider worthwhile and should be included.

So far I've got:

• Overall Success Rate
• Off-Site Backup Success Rate
• Month Success Rate
• Day Success Rate - just for IT, handy for seeing failing tapes.
• Common Failure Causes

This can include items of worth just for IT.

Towards the end of last year we started using Mimecast services, in particular their cloud-based e-mail archiving. Since then we’ve been rolling out the Mimecast Services for Outlook (MSO) add-in.

We’ve informed the users that we will be give them training in the next few months, and we do not require them to use Mimecast, but my boss stated that we are getting rid of Personal Folders (pst files), by putting them into Mimecast. Unsurprisingly this did cause something of a backlash. Though, really, who likes change?

I know the IT reasons for getting rid of Personal Folders (inefficient, unreliable, single access, etc), but from an average user’s perspective, unless they have had one fail on them, they see them as simple and only way to archive e-mail when their 200Mb mailbox is full.

So what can I say to the users, to get them to understand why Personal Folders are not the best solution?

UPDATE:
I've read through the comments and answers. You've given me a lot to think about. That is why it has taken be awhile to respond.

First, I would like to make it clear that we are giving the users an alternative. Mimecast, has unlimited storage, remote access and a number of other features, that we are trying to promote to the users.

The 200Mb limit is unlikely to change. And so far upgrading Exchange, from 2003 to 2010, has only been discussed, but is not consider a current priority.

I'm in the process of migrating printers to a new Print Server, running Microsoft Server 2008 R2, for the most part it's been going fine. But we have a problem with a HP LaserJet 2600n. This printer is not supported by HP Universal Printer drivers, nor has its drivers been updated passed Server 2003. I've tried all the drivers that HP offer on there site for the 2600n, but none seems to work.

So I ask here if anyone has successfully managed to get this printer working on Windows server 2008 and how.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

UPDATE:
In the end we replaced the printer.

We have a few users who cannot plot from AutoCAD to any of our OCE TCS500s. The programs affected are AutoCAD 2008/9, LT 2008 and Trueview 2009.

When selecting the a TCS500 plotter in ACAD, on 2009 it resets to None without any alert, but on 2008 it throws up the following:

The plotter configuration cannot be used for one of these reasons: the driver cannot be found, or the driver has a problem. The None plot device has been substituted.

We've tried re-installing the plotters from the server, installing the plotters locally, updating the drivers, downgrading the drivers, repairing AutoCAD, all with brief or no success.

The main thing I cannot work out is it an issue with the drivers or the software, as we have nearly 100+ users with no issues at all, using the same programs and as far as I know the same drivers.

Any assistance would be greatly appreciated.