Enabling School Laptops for Home use
By default, school laptops are configured for use only when connected to the Moray Schools network – this guide will outline the steps required to enable laptops for offline use, e.g. from home.
Please note that once configured, laptops will NOT function as if connected to the school network, so network drives U: and Workgroup etc. will be unavailable. However, this process will allow access to locally installed Microsoft Office applications, such as Microsoft Office, and also Outlook Web Access (OWA) i.e. “email from home” and Glow via your home internet connection.
To configure your laptop it will be necessary to temporarily physically connect it to the school network – this will only need to be done once. You do not need to do this at the school you normally logon at – as long as you have an EduNet logon account, you can logon at any school.
The process is detailed below:- (Please follow each step carefully)
- Connect your laptop to the school network using a known working network cable (a cable can be temporarily “borrowed” from a desktop PC, if necessary).
- Power on the laptop, and logon to the network using your usual username and password.
- Once logged on, reboot the laptop.
- This time, logon with the following account: .\offline.teacher (type exactly as shown). No password is set initially, so just hit ‘Return’ – however, the system will immediately prompt you to set a new password. Password complexity requirements have not been enforced, so there is no requirement for capitals/numbers/special characters etc. to be used (although it is recommended). Please make a note of the Asset number of the laptop that you are using, as only you will know the password for the next time you need to take it home.
Windows 10 
Windows 7 
- If the system does not recognise .\offline.teacher as a valid account, reboot the system and try again. (If the system still does not recognise the account, you should contact the ICT helpdesk for assistance)
- Once the password has been set, the initial logon and setup process will complete – if you have reached this point successfully, you can shut the laptop down and remove the network cable. Your laptop can now be used offline, from home – the remainder of this guide refers to enabling internet access from home. Note: you MUST use this new “offline.teacher” account when logging on from home – your normal EduNet account credentials will NOT work.
*** Enable internet access ***
- To configure the laptop to use your home internet connection should be straightforward, but to do this you will need to know the ‘name’ of your internet router and the password – these details are normally found printed on, or attached to, the router itself. On the bottom right hand corner of the laptop’s taskbar, you should see the ‘Internet Connections’ icon:-
Windows 10 
Windows 7 
If you don’t see the ‘Internet Connections’ icon at all, but instead see something similar to the image below, you should proceed to step 9.
Windows 10 
Windows 7
- Clicking on the icon will present a list of available WiFi networks – you should see something similar to the image below. You should select the ‘name’ of your router from the list, click ‘Connect’ and then enter the password:-
Windows 10 
Windows 7 
If all is OK, your ‘Internet Connections’ icon should appear as below, to indicate that you are connected to the internet:-
Windows 10 
Windows 7 
No further configuration is required and the laptop can now be used from home, subject to the restrictions previously outlined. A Glow shortcut is already installed on the desktop, and an additional “OWA from home” shortcut has been added, for accessing email:-
