HP ProBook 450 Laptop Tips and Tutorials

Your HP ProBook 450 comes with the following pre-installed software:

HP ProBook Laptop First Steps

myPCCS Technology Integration Website: http://links.pccsk12.com/mypccs 

First Time Use

Read this and follow the steps before you power on your HP ProBook.

1. Using one an ethernet cable from the wall, phone, or other ethernet cable connected to the network, plug an Ethernet cable into your laptop.
2. Turn on the device and wait for it to boot up.  Wait for the login script to finish running.
3. Press Ctrl Alt Del to bring up the login screen.
4. Enter your username and password that you currently use to log into your classroom desktop or other school computers.

Tips

• While at school, you will have access to your G Drive and the other network drives.  Although it is advisable to begin utilizing your Google Drive since that will be accessible anywhere. The yellow School Links star is still accessible on your desktop; there is also an icon for District Software.  You will not have access to any of these drives if you’re not using district networks.

• The device is not locked down; meaning you can install personal software and peripherals as you like with this caveat:  Should the device malfunction the response from Technology will be only to reimage, ie. set back to the original configuration.  None of your personal photos, videos, files, or software will be retained.  It is suggested that you backup/sync to an external device or your Google Drive on a regular basis.

• It is recommended to add the Chrome Apps launcher to your system tray by following this link: https://chrome.google.com/webstore/launcher.  It will only be necessary to do this one time.

Current Known Issues

• Ignore the Windows Script Host error dialog box - press Enter or the OK button.

• There is a fake flash update which will install malware.  Check out this website for more information:  http://links.pccsk12.com/fakeflashupdate.

To add personal printers

The operating system on the laptops is Windows 7-64 bit.  Our previous printer drivers were 32 bit.  The appropriate driver will need to be downloaded.  Older USB printers can likely be connected and Win7 will have a compatible driver available.  Some might say no driver found and ask if you want to troubleshoot.  If you follow the prompts and then allow Win7 to search for a driver it might find one and install automatically.  There will be other printers that require the driver to be manually downloaded and installed.

CAUTION:  There will be limited troubleshooting if you accidentally install malware and/or other software that messes up the laptop.  You will want to make sure that anything of importance is backed up before submitting a request to have it reimaged, as once the process is done there is no way of getting files back.

Sign-In to Google Drive on Your Desktop

Note: Signing in to Google Drive on your desktop is different than accessing and signing into your Google Drive through your Chrome Browser.  These directions allow you to access your Google Drive as a Folder on your laptop.

1. Open the Start Menu>Click on All Programs

2. Find Google Drive>Click to expand the folder>Select Google Drive

3. The next window will prompt you to sign-in with your Google Credentials (Make sure you sign in with your school account and NOT your personal account.  This is very hard to undo)

4. Once you are signed in, the next four windows will walk you through a short tutorial (4 Steps)

5. Click Done

6. Once you click Done, you will now notice the Drive icon in two places; On your Desktop and in your Systems Tray next to the clock at the bottom right of your screen.  Depending on much you have in your Drive, it will take some time to sync.

Mirroring and Extending Your Laptop’s Screen

1. Once your laptop is plugged into the HDMI cable and port on your wall, on your keyboard, press the Windows key and the “P” key simultaneously.

2. A new window will appear like below. To put exactly what is on your laptop screen on to the projector screen select “Duplicate.” This “mirrors” what you see exactly onto the projector screen.

3.  If you would like to drag your windows off of your laptop monitor onto the projector screen giving you two independent screens to make it display on the projector select “Extend.”

Audio (coming soon) *As tested, the audio will work by default when plugged into your classroom HDMI port.  If you experience trouble with audio, reboot the computer while plugged into HDMI and you should find success.

Printing and Adding Printers (coming soon) *Note that your laptop is set up to print to your copy room BizHub printers.  Google Cloud printing and local printing are both enabled.

Enable Two Finger Scrolling

1. Windows Start Menu>Control Panel

2. Control Panel>Mouse/Mouse Properties

3. Mouse/Mouse Properties>Device Settings Tab

4. In the Device Settings Tab>Double Click on “Synaptics LuxPad V7.5”

5. Confirm that “Two-Finger Scrolling” is checked

6. Double click on “Two-Finger Scrolling”>Check “Enable vertical scrolling” & “Enable horizontal scrolling”>Check any other boxes you prefer

7. Click Apply>OK>Close. Now your two-finger scrolling is enabled

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Adjustments for improved display with HP

1. Connect HP with 25' HDMI cable
2. Image will likely appear fuzzy on projected display.
3. Open "Control Panel"
4. Bottom left corner, click and then select "Control Panel" along right side.

5. Open "Display" Settings

6. Click "Change display settings"

7. Click "Advanced settings"

8. Click "Adapter" Tab, if not already on it
9. THEN click "List All Modes"

10. Scroll up "List of valid modes"

11. Select / Highlight a different mode
12. Select 1280 by 720, True Color (32 bit), 30 Hertz

13. "Apply" Mode change
14. After pressing "Apply" your screen will blink out for a moment.

15. Click "Yes" / keep these display settings

16. Click "OK"

17. Last Step // with your projector remote

You're finished with the display settings window and can close it when suits.

FINAL STEP: Use your projector remote and continue to cycle through Aspects button until "Native". Select it and you should be set.

How to Print to PDF from MiStar for Conference Reports

In MISTAR-Q, hover on Menu, Marks and choose Reports

Choose the Report from the menu on the left.  After you have setup  your parameters, Click on Create Report

In the bottom right corner, hover until the menu bar appears.  Click on the printer icon.

Click on the Change button to change the printer

Choose Save as PDF

Click Save

Choose the location where you want to save your file, and give your file a name

Use Edit-Find or CTRL-F to search for students by name or student ID.

Printing Via System Dialogue Box Instead of Google Cloud Print

Keep in mind that Google Cloud Print is still in Beta, which means there can be glitches and issue with printing from Google Drive and from your HP ProBook in general.  Please avoid printing via Google Cloud Printing and opt for the much more reliable process outlined below using the Print Dialogue Box:

1. Keyboard Shortcut: CTRL>SHIFT>P

                        -OR-

Managing the HP ProBook Power Settings

The default setting on your HP ProBook can be modified to your desired operation by following the procedures below.  This will be useful when you want to conserve battery life in various computing situations.

1. Choose what closing the lid of does:

2. We recommend hibernation settings for your laptop, but for more info on this topic, visit the Microsoft FAQ

3. When you navigate to the Power Settings, you can also customize many other ways your laptop can conserve power and designate how you want it to act on a daily basis, depending on how you use you laptop in your instructional practices.  Again, here is how you can navigate to Power Settings

Using sleep or hibernation to save battery Power

Understanding sleep and hibernation mode

How do I configure my sleep and hibernation settings?

How do I exit the power-saver modes

Printing Troubleshooting

1. Please restart and log back in if you haven't already.  If you are printing while inside Google Chrome you will be using their print menu by default.  Please make sure to choose a Local Destinationand not one using Google Cloud Print.
2. Printing in Chrome will produce a window similar to:

3. Please click Change to see all of the available printers which will result in a window similar to:

4. Above you see Recent Destinations, Local Destinations, and Google Cloud Print.  Google Cloud Print is a beta service that has not been reliable for us.  You will want to use one of the BizHubs on \\HS-Staff-FS that are located under Local Destinations.

5. If you don't see any local destinations you may have to restart and log back in (this gives you the rights to print to one of the network printers) and if you don't see any listed you will have to work through the following instructions to get them:

6. Open Computer

7. Open the N:\Apps drive

8. Open the Printer Drivers folder

9. Run (double click) the Salem BizHubs file if you're at Salem, there are similar files for Canton and Plymouth

Enable Printing/Printers

Safe Computing Practices/Avoiding Viruses/Automatic Updates are turned on (coming soon)

Google Safety Center - best practices, tips & tricks, etc.