Dear Users… (A thread for Sysadmin, Technical Support, and Help Desk people) Part 10

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I'd wish we would jump straight "stop printing."

It's 2022. Are you on a device connected to the internet? Is the person who needs this information able to access a device connected to the internet? Then why paper into it?

Again I know me being in the medical field is a huge part of this but I will never understand the utter fetish my userbase has for taking something that is created digitally like pretty much everything within a rounding error these days, printing it out to work on it, and then scanning it back in.
 
JoeMorgue said:
I'd wish we would jump straight "stop printing."

It's 2022. Are you on a device connected to the internet? Is the person who needs this information able to access a device connected to the internet? Then why paper into it?

Again I know me being in the medical field is a huge part of this but I will never understand the utter fetish my userbase has for taking something that is created digitally like pretty much everything within a rounding error these days, printing it out to work on it, and then scanning it back in.
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Inertia. "This is the way we have always done it, and it works just fine".
 
I have a weird problem that I am wondering if anyone else has encountered. I have a basic account, and an admin account. I have multiple tabs open in Edge with all the tools I need to do my job. Some of them are logged in with my basic account, others are logged in with my admin account. So far so functional.

One of the tools I need to use is Exchange Admin Centre. I need to use it with my admin account. This worked perfectly yesterday. Today, I tried opening it and it automatically redirected to my O365 Profile page showing my basic account. From there, I couldn't work out how to log that account out of that tab so I could use my admin account with Exchange.

Okay, I finally was able to do that by using on screen controls to open Outlook, which I then logged out of. I used my regular shortcut to go to Exchange, and lo! it prompted me to log on. However, when it tried to open Exchange, it automatically redirected to Outlook, but since my admin account doesn't have Outlook it tried to go back to Exchange, which automatically redirected to Outlook, which redirected to Exchange, which redirected to Outlook... loopy loopy over and over without stopping.

I can get to Exchange in an elevated Chrome window, so I've got the tool working. But has anyone else seen anything like this? Or is this just a niche situation that only applies to me?
 
Norman Alexander said:
What...??? Does it take you until your morning coffee break to actually get this all logged in, even when it does work? Is there any way you can automate this?
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Lol just about. I have 15 pinned tabs just for all the tools I need, though if I completely changed how I work I think I could get it down to seven, and just open the others on demand. It's easier for me to just leave them sleeping to save resources in the background. I've also got six other complete applications running in addition to Edge.

I'm the senior agent at my level. I do a lot of different things.
 
arthwollipot said:
I have a weird problem that I am wondering if anyone else has encountered. I have a basic account, and an admin account. I have multiple tabs open in Edge with all the tools I need to do my job. Some of them are logged in with my basic account, others are logged in with my admin account. So far so functional.

[snip]

I can get to Exchange in an elevated Chrome window, so I've got the tool working. But has anyone else seen anything like this? Or is this just a niche situation that only applies to me?
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I'm surprised this ever worked. For a given site, it will be using the same cookies (or similar tokens) to track your login session. This applies across tabs, as the site/domain (www.example.com or .example.com) will see the same cookies on all tabs.

The workaround is to use a private window; that doesn't share cookies with the other windows. It doesn't save persistent state, though.
 
grmcdorman said:
I'm surprised this ever worked. For a given site, it will be using the same cookies (or similar tokens) to track your login session. This applies across tabs, as the site/domain (www.example.com or .example.com) will see the same cookies on all tabs.

The workaround is to use a private window; that doesn't share cookies with the other windows. It doesn't save persistent state, though.
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The new Edge browser handles multiple accounts pretty well, usually. There are a few things I need to use a private window for, but not many.
 
arthwollipot said:
Lol just about. I have 15 pinned tabs just for all the tools I need, though if I completely changed how I work I think I could get it down to seven, and just open the others on demand. It's easier for me to just leave them sleeping to save resources in the background. I've also got six other complete applications running in addition to Edge.

I'm the senior agent at my level. I do a lot of different things.
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I understand the requirement. Stuff can get hectic and you needs LOTS of stuff at hand. You SO need to have a lot of that startup automated!
 
Norman Alexander said:
I understand the requirement. Stuff can get hectic and you needs LOTS of stuff at hand. You SO need to have a lot of that startup automated!
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For the most part it's not too bad. Our environment does not let you save browser sessions between reboots, unless it's in the form of pinned tabs. I rely heavily on that little loophole.
 
Norman Alexander said:
What...??? Does it take you until your morning coffee break to actually get this all logged in, even when it does work? Is there any way you can automate this?
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If I physically turn my laptop on at exactly 08:00 the absolute soonest I will be able to accomplish any actual work on my laptop in 8:17. I've timed it. The bootup, login, DUO Security check, and getting a browser and/or my e-mail to launch takes that long.

The laptop my work provided me is so locked down it's one step below unusable. All of the techs here legit keep second laptops handy to actually work on.
 
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JoeMorgue said:
If I physically turn my laptop on at exactly 08:00 the absolute soonest I will be able to accomplish any actual work on my laptop in 8:17. I've timed it. The bootup, login, DUO Security check, and getting a browser and/or my e-mail to launch takes that long.

The laptop my work provided me is so locked down it's one step below unusable. All of the techs here legit keep second laptops handy to actually work on.
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When working from home as we have been doing during COVID, the way my laptop connects to the work network via our portal is VERY manual and highly secured. So the usual at-work desktop login scripts and processes fail to run automatically and have to be invoked manually after connection. So the whole connection process to get to "at-my-work-desktop ready to work" status involves 23 distinct steps (I counted) and four different login sequences. Takes about 15 minutes, given my home internet is painfully slow (we live in the sticks).

But if I connect my laptop inside the work environment, all this is automated and gets done in about 30 seconds.

Waddayergonnado!
 
JoeMorgue said:
If I physically turn my laptop on at exactly 08:00 the absolute soonest I will be able to accomplish any actual work on my laptop in 8:17. I've timed it. The bootup, login, DUO Security check, and getting a browser and/or my e-mail to launch takes that long.

The laptop my work provided me is so locked down it's one step below unusable. All of the techs here legit keep second laptops handy to actually work on.
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I don't mind jumping through the myriad of security hoops if they actually did anything but my work laptop requires me to enter the same password and login four times in a row. Exactly the same one. So we have the insecurity of using just one password for everything combined with the inconvenience of having to enter it multiple times. And then there are the applications that obligingly autofill the login and password but sit there waiting for me to click "okay" to actually log in. What's the point of that?! It's combining insecurity with inconvenience -- if it's going to autofill it may as well auto-activate!

And we have to use Microsoft (sigh) "Authenticator" now on our phones instead of DUO. It required me to increase my Android password from four digits to six, and it turns out that after twelve years of using the same four digit password it REALLY gets ingrained in my muscle memory. Oh, and there's a permanent undismissable notification from a work app on my personal phone now that reads "your organization may monitor network traffic in your work profile". I know. But I can't get rid of that message.
 
TragicMonkey said:
I don't mind jumping through the myriad of security hoops if they actually did anything but my work laptop requires me to enter the same password and login four times in a row. Exactly the same one. So we have the insecurity of using just one password for everything combined with the inconvenience of having to enter it multiple times. And then there are the applications that obligingly autofill the login and password but sit there waiting for me to click "okay" to actually log in. What's the point of that?! It's combining insecurity with inconvenience -- if it's going to autofill it may as well auto-activate!

And we have to use Microsoft (sigh) "Authenticator" now on our phones instead of DUO. It required me to increase my Android password from four digits to six, and it turns out that after twelve years of using the same four digit password it REALLY gets ingrained in my muscle memory. Oh, and there's a permanent undismissable notification from a work app on my personal phone now that reads "your organization may monitor network traffic in your work profile". I know. But I can't get rid of that message.
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Do you mean it comes up every time you log in and you have to acknowledge it, or it comes on and you can't get rid of it at all, taking up screen space on your phone?

I was irritated on the app development side because (I think) of new laws that require a privacy policy. But mine is ok with a link on the Settings page for now.
 
alfaniner said:
Do you mean it comes up every time you log in and you have to acknowledge it, or it comes on and you can't get rid of it at all, taking up screen space on your phone?
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It's permanently present when I swipe down from the top to get to the quick menu where the on/offs for Bluetooth, silent mode, airplane mode, and wireless network are.
 
On your personal phone? I'd like to see a very clear GDPR-compliant (or US equivalent) statement of exactly what data is gathered. And I'd be very careful what personal issues I googled in the meantime. Or maybe creative. Google "is it wrong to be sexually aroused when people ask work questions" for example.
 
Wudang said:
On your personal phone? I'd like to see a very clear GDPR-compliant (or US equivalent) statement of exactly what data is gathered. And I'd be very careful what personal issues I googled in the meantime. Or maybe creative. Google "is it wrong to be sexually aroused when people ask work questions" for example.
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I'm not worried about privacy, it's only monitoring the use of the work-specific applications that got installed -- Outlook is the only one I use, to get my work email on my phone. But since I now work from home I rarely use my phone for internet, I just use my computer. So there's no danger of snooping workplace fiends discovering my fondness for naughty pool boys who keep losing their clothing in the most careless fashion and then getting into rather extraordinary situations. They are the ones who need the warning about being monitored at work.
 
TragicMonkey said:
IWhat's the point of that?! It's combining insecurity with inconvenience -- if it's going to autofill it may as well auto-activate!
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At the moment I get why that one happens. It can contribute to even more annoying lockouts in cases like where a password has expired.
 
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