I used it in the graphical installer during setup of the boinc-client under advanced settings.

Our NAS has the IP 10.16.57.254, so if I type \\10.16.57.254\wcg\pc001 for the data directory, installation runs through.
But after I have cloned this PC, all the clones get their own hostnames via a patch process during boot (so we have pc001, pc002, pc003 etc) but since pc001 is hardcoded as data-dir somwhere in the registry (?) they all would use the same data dir, which can't work...

That's why I've tried to type \\10.16.57.254\wcg\%COMPUTERNAME% in the wcg-installer but that didn't work and installation failed.

If you could tell me, where the information about the data-dir is stored afterwards (file or registry) I eventually may patch it similar to the way, the hostname and IP are patched during the boot process!?

Thanks and best regards,
Jochen

So, you're saying that each computer only has about 5 hours of user time before it gets reimaged? I've been out of the educational IT sector for a while, we only did it when there was a problem with a computer or when there was a major change/addition to the software package, typically once a month or less frequent for the "lab" computers and only once a year for staff computers.

I would have very much liked to run BOINC on all 600+ systems, but I was the low-man on the totem pole, and I'm sure someone would have asked why the cooling bills went up. Could have been a good thing in the winter.

It's not a complete reimage at every boot, this would take too long (you can do this too, when nothing other helps) but a synchronisation of changed files via rsync checked via their hashes.
Complete reimage for XP takes about 15 mins, synchronisation just 1-2 mins.

It depends: as admin, i can setup a default bootup method for each PC: normal/unsynchronized boot (mainly for personalized PCs with just 1 user or teacher's PCs) and synchronized boot (for all student PCs).
The first thing, students do after logging in, is to alter background image and such stuff, so we want to assure that after each boot, everything looks and is as defined in default.

But all users can override the admin's default boot option, e.g. in order to keep changes after a reboot, e.g. after a software installation that requires a reboot.

Yeah, would be great to have all the machines crunching for such a good purpose.

Best regards,
jochen

Our students do have local admin rights. So they are able to "test" all kind of things we teach in informatic lessons (even delete software or format the harddisk) or they can install software they need. I know that this could be also problematic from a security point of view but after reboot, all the changes are gone.

Good question whether I can exclude certain directories from being synced. It was possible with our last software, I'm not sure, whether it's also possible with the one we're using at the moment.