How do you start a "Service" in W2k? (1 Viewer)

[Rob Gillespie]

For a task that the current software can't perform, that should be what happens anyway except that the business need usually overrides the needs of one or two users. But when it's just down to a personal preference it's a big no no.

 

[JohnVB]

Rob,

As mentioned before, I think it really depneds quite a bit on the work place as to what should and shouldn't be OK.

I work at a software company. Most of the software engineers here use different software to edit the source code for the program. And the company encourages this becuase they know the engineer's time is valuable. They want people to be productive working on the product and not spending time learning new editor commands.

No one here cares what browser anyone uses. You have a favorite browser? Go install it, and quit asking IT about it. Though, people who run windows machines are told they should have the antivirus software running on it.

IT here is told to stay out of the engineering staff's way. Of course, IT is much more involved with the administration of the computers in the rest of the company.

At the same time we're very careful how we manage the source code. The source code is backed up, and changes to the code are managed very carefully, and no one computer is critical. If a computer crashes and burns, you re-formant, re-install, and you're back in businesss.

Do we have a rogue engineering staff? IT might think so, but we don't bother IT when we have a problem either.

Just thought I'd ramble some more,

- bones

 

[Mike Voigt]

I'm with Rob on this one. Depending on the size of the client, this can lead to a real PITA of a situation.

If you're supporting one or two machines, no big deal.

If you're trying to keep 700 people afloat with 4 people, never mind their work on web servers, data servers, plant data links, and the like, then quite frankly you will NOT get a chance to mess up a computer three times. The first offense gets you a stern warning, delivered by the HR department AND by your supervisor. The second one gets you fired.

You have to obtain permission from IT to install anything nonstandard.

And, yes, we check the PCs of every user at random times to determine if anything nonstandard has been installed.

Like it or hate it, you get to accept these terms; they're part of the terms of employment. Or you work w/o a computer, which is a nonstarter in almost every situation.

Net result: we have almost no downtime due to worms, etc. About the only time we get them is if some yahoo brings in an infected disc - and does NOT check it prior to installing...