‘I was embarrassed for him’: High schooler outsmarts computer expert after school computers shut down every 20 minutes and delete all unsaved work

Author image for Eleonora Bader
Eleonora Bader
May 30, 2024 1:00 PM EDT

Just because you have a degree doesn't make you smart, and that is pretty obvious when you take a close look at people who have graduated from college.

Let's talk about school. A student's quick thinking saved the day when his school's computers encountered a recurring shutdown issue. The school relied on a program that reset changes after logout, requiring students to save work on the server. But a licensing issue caused the PCs to shut down after 20 minutes, deleting unsaved work and frustrating just about everybody. While others kind of accepted this as the situation, the student created a simple PowerShell script to prevent the shutdown. When the problem reoccurred, the school hired a 'Microsoft trained expert' to investigate. The teacher, aware of the student's script, invited him to assist.

The so-called "expert" surprised everyone by asking the student to explain the script, admitting he couldn't recreate it. Things got worse from there, and you can read all about it below.

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  • 01
    "Well, this is awkward."
    via Canva
  • 02
    The moment I learned paperwork doesn't mean much in the real world
    via u/Blinkysorbis
  • 03
    This happened when I still was in school, our Computers had a program on them that would reset all changes made after logout, so we had to save all our work on the schools server. For some of my classmates this was somehow already impossible to understand but this is just background info. The point is that this program needed a license that was paid by the city and they just paid when the old license ran out what causes that for a few months of the year (I live in Germany and as you might know c
    via u/Blinkysorbis
  • 04
    Everyone just accepted this and occasionally lost their work, so I made a simple three line powershell script that would prevent the pc from shutting down. This was the first time the license ran out, the second time the school hired a ,,Microsoft trained datacenter expert" that tried to solve the problem, while we were waiting for the new license. My teacher knew that I made this script and told another teacher working with the expert in the second room. In the middle of our lesson they asked f
    via u/Blinkysorbis
  • 05
    $expert:,,You are the guy who made the script, right? We cannot recreate it, could you explain it to us?" Wait, I shouldn't be the expert in this room, but I will give my best $me:,,Ok, I show you what I made, its just a loop, that breaks the three second shutdown, that the program starts after twenty minutes, by spamming shutdown -c every second."
    via u/Blinkysorbis
  • 06
    $expert:,,Thats so simple I wouldn't have thought of this! We want this on a Thumbdrive and start it on every PC at the beginning of the lessons so that the students don't see the code and have no window with the execution to close by accident." $me:,,Can't you just put it on the reset image on the server?" $expert:,,That does not work, we can not update the images this simple."
    via u/Blinkysorbis
  • 07
    So I tried something on the PC they were working on and the moment I opened the powershell IDE the proclaimed expert asked me what powershell is and it took me a second to understand that he was not joking. When I tried to execute the script, the test PC blocked execution from external drives and after some testing I found out that powershell files were blocked by windows default security policy an those machines, but not batch scripts. I was not able to change the policy by script, so I told th
    via u/Blinkysorbis
  • 08
    The same evening I had a working script that would create a powershell file on the system and execute it hidden, the script was still not that complicated, but when the,,expert" saw it, he did not understand anything of it. After this I understood that an expert on paper can still be incapable of real world tasks as I already read many times in this sub. TLDR; Microsoft trained expert, didn't know Powershell and windows built-in security so he had to ask a highschooler for help.
    via u/Blinkysorbis
  • 09
    Wolfling217 21 hr. ago The joke from Dilbert was that when the expert sat down, the first thing he said was, "Behold the power of CERTIFICATION!" This was immediately followed by, "That's all I remember from the training."
    via u/Wolfling217
  • 10
    ListOfString 20 hr. ago Was it Microsoft trained or Microsoft certified? It was like some rando who got a contract to come out based on availability and proclaimed certifications. Also you don't need Powershell to do this. A batch script plus a scheduled task would have done fine and required less permissions. Either way, good job.
    via u/ListOfString
  • 11
    Responsible-End 7361 - 20 hr. ago Is Microsoft trained like the official techs on the Microsoft help forums that grab a random word from your question and give you an article about it, followed with "did this solve your problem?"
    via u/Responsible-End7361
  • 12
    Nition 16 hr. ago I'm imagining that conversation now. : So, you have no idea how to solve this? : Was this reply helpful? :...what? No, you haven't solved the main problem. : Please mark your question as Resolved. ✰: : But... }: Please let me know if you need more assistance. Have a great day. go? : Well, we still need to... hey, where'd he sound of car speeding away
    via u/Nition
  • 13
    Thatsinger 19 hr. ago The hilarious part is that they were paying annual licences for functionality that's built in to windows. Mandatory profiles have been around since at least XP, and you can combine that with group policies that prevent saving stuff locally and re-direct to the users network folder so they can't lose stuff by saving in the wrong place. Depending on when this was, I could forgive the Tech not knowing about powershell, If this was 2007 or 2008 when it had just come out they ma
    via u/Thatsinger
  • 14
    Blinkysorbis OP. 18 hr. ago I once asked why they use this software and the answer was that the pc would even reset after accidentally formatting it (some student accounts had admin rights for some reason) or an aggressive virus attack. The whole thing happened around 2021 on Windows 10, so I think he should at least have heard of Powershell
    via u/Blinkysorbis
  • 15
    Thatsinger 17 hr. ago some student accounts had admin rights Wow, that is so much worse. No wonder they were concerned about Malware if low level users had admin rights and anyone could plug USB sticks in and run scripts.
    via u/Thatsinger
  • 16
    Elfalpha 12 hr. ago 600GB File shares do not "Drag and drop" Programs like Deep Freeze or other write- protection software are a step above that though. They prevent any writing back to the hard drive, instead having a cache of some sort that acts like it but is wiped on shutdown. You can install/uninstall programs, make registry changes, all kinds of nasty stuff kids get up to. Then restart the PC and boom, fresh as a daisy.
    via u/Elfalpha
  • 17
    Thatsinger 4 hr. ago Sure, but with proper group policies and a mandatory profile you can stop users making any changes to the system outside of their user folder which is then wiped as soon as they log off. I can see the use case if you are putting public facing kiosks out in libraries or for industrial control PCs where you have to give the users admin access because the ancient software requires it. beyond that its a fix for a problem that doesn't need to exist in most situations for orgs wit
    via u/Thatsinger
  • 18
    notverytidy 16 hr. ago I once got forced to do an "expert level" IT training course. it essentially said how to plug in the power cable, keyboard and mouse and ensure the PSU switch was turned on. the entire section on 'troubleshooting' was making sure the building had electricity AND you'd turned the monitor on! The final "super advanced" (and allegedly secret) tip to check if the keyboard was working was to press CAPS LOCK and see if the light flashed. I wish I was joking how utterly s! ***y t
    via u/notverytidy
  • 19
    The most basic stuff you can imagine, dragged out over 8 LONG LONG hours....and only cost the company £2000. 20 Reply Share ... Blinkysorbis OP. 16 hr. ago This is what makes me wonder how people who really need courses like that even survived up until this point. It seems to me that some people were born without common sense, except pressing caps lock, but if someone who used a pc for any work before doesn't know that they shouldn't be using one in the first place
    via u/Blinkysorbis
  • 20
    lilkatbaby 16 hr. ago "Wait, I shouldn't be the expert in this room" is a terrifying thought to have, and it's unreal how much you'll have that thought in life
    via u/lilkatbaby
  • 21
    Shadowwynd 18 hr. ago The computer repair store I worked at many moons ago had an MSCE set up some used computers at the front of the store. Windows of that vintage would detect a plug-n-play monitor and request the driver for it. You could hit "next" and it would find the driver automatically. MSCE wasted 30 minutes fiddling with it but couldn't figure out how to do it.
    via u/Shadowwynd
  • 22
    Geminii27 18 hr. ago Making your job suck less This is the point where you agree to sell your amazing program to the 'experts' for four to five figures. :)
    via u/Geminii27
  • 23
    Z4-Driver - 17 hr. ago Back in the days where MCSE was still a thing, it was similar. There were a lot of people with MCSE certificates who didn't really understand anything, hence it was sometimes referred to as 'Microsoft Certified Solitaire Expert'. To get Microsoft certificates, you just have to memorize the correct answers to the questions in the multiple choice test. But that does not mean, you really learned and understood the stuff.
    via u/Z4-Driver
  • 24
    Falwaeth 15 hr. ago Haha, yet .y boss throws the fact that I lack a paper degree or certificate at me every time he can, and then resumes to justify paying those people with the degree more.
    via u/Falwaeth

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humor assistance delete tech support work stories pcs students shut down new hire work files graduate it computer expert teacher high school funny high schooler
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