I like the dual screen setup, but I would say no laptops because backing up a take-home laptop won’t happen on a set schedule with the rest of the workstations

I like the dual screen setup, but I would say no laptops because backing up a take-home laptop won’t happen on a set schedule with the rest of the workstations overnight. Plus if someone takes one of the laptops to Starbucks and gets a virus online, when the machine comes back on your LAN it can create some real headaches for everyone else. I know people love laptops but that is my opinion on them, plus I think they run hotter than a box machine meaning more frequent disk errors. I would recommend letting your people check personal e-mail, IM, etc..., from the work machines. It really won’t hurt anything and it will make for a happier employee. I would also not want personal laptops on the company LAN because of the chance of spreading viruses or stealing IP. As far as software, any e-mail client that downloads a copy of the email to the employee’s machine as well as leaves a copy on the server would be my recommendation. If the person wants to use the client for personal mail too, split the mailbox inbox folders based on xxx@personal.com and xxx@company.com. I would also add MS Word and MS One-Note which a lot of people seem to like. Personally I like Windows Live Messenger because it can send and receive free SMS (personally I use it a lot). Also if you’re not backing up in-house add a backup client like Mozy.com and your all set. You might also want to put a policy in place that the employee cannot self install any software without your approval. Basically, if someone wants to add Trillion, or their favorite development workbench they must ask because the hardware does not belong to them and you will know what’s on the machine if it fails and must be restored.