Policy for late upgraders?

HCHTech

HCHTech

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Ok, despite a year-long effort, I've got a small pool of commercial clients that for whatever reason will not be able to complete upgrading all of their Win7 workstations by the 14th. Maybe 8 machines spread across 3 or 4 clients. I've got one last SBS2011 server that cannot be decommissioned until 2/1 as well.

I know you all have the same issue, come on, admit it. :-)

Are you doing anything special for these stragglers? Any firewall changes, extra lockdowns, etc? I'm not talking about residential customers here, they are on their own. I'm talking about business clients that are in one kind of corner or another to have ended up in this situation. I'd like to support them the best I can.
 
I don't... those clients were all fired or the equipment died. Ancient poorly maintained gear just doesn't survive that long in this desert.

Which is to say they're all already upgraded or isolated. I am of course marketing on this topic heavily to find more though. And honestly, if Win7 is fully patched with AV on it, it's fine for another month or two.

Just watch the advisories for an ugly zero day.
 
I don't allow my clients to get away with that crap. They were all moved off of Windows 7 years ago. I'm an exclusively Windows 10 shop.

That being said, I'm getting a good number of NEW clients coming in with Windows 7 computers that I'm either replacing or (rarely) upgrading.

The only time I'll keep a client on an older OS is if it's a dedicated machine that won't be going online. I've got quite a few clients with machines ranging from DOS to Windows 7 that won't be upgrading.
 
Concur with high$ estimates. Each one of these comes down to money - as it always seems to do. For example, One is moving to a cloud-based management software so won't need the server at all, but is too cheap to pay for both the existing on-premise solution and the cloud solution for a month. Their call, I just explain the risks and costs. One is hand-transcribing data from an ancient DOS-based accounting system (of course out-of-support) that only runs on Win7-32bit and requires internet to ping their license servers. They have to keep it active on two workstations until they finish the transcription job. All of the stories are like that.
 
Wait, ancient DOS based accounting system?

I've gotten pretty good at getting those running on Windows 10 boxen via DOSBox.
 
I'm seeing quite a few of these.
It's $$$ and I'll put you on my list.
In other words, you will wait in line.
Upgrade to SSD included.
Many people are in a panic, thinking they are going to wake up to a non functioning computer.
Next............................
 
Sky-Knight said:
Wait, ancient DOS based accounting system?

I've gotten pretty good at getting those running on Windows 10 boxen via DOSBox.
Click to expand...

Yes. Passport is the name. They were moving away from it to Quickbooks anyway because, well, so many reasons. I love DOSBox. I have it at an actuarial client running an ancient DOS version of their main LOB app on a couple of Win10 computers. They need it to get details of work they did 20 years ago for IRS/DOL audits, etc.
 
HCHTech said:
Yes. Passport is the name. They were moving away from it to Quickbooks anyway because, well, so many reasons. I love DOSBox. I have it at an actuarial client running an ancient DOS version of their main LOB app on a couple of Win10 computers. They need it to get details of work they did 20 years ago for IRS/DOL audits, etc.
Click to expand...

It's been a while since I have had to work that one, but my favorite part is when I share a local printer, so I can crack open a command prompt and net use lpt1: \\localhost\printer /persistent:yes, then configure the software in DOSBox to print to LPT1.

For places that need it, that's some arcane wizardry that turns you into a hero, when paper starts coming out of the network printer everyone told them would never work with this ancient software.
 
I won't support any Windows 7 machines. I upgraded a couple of end of last year that had Line of business software and that turned out good. I have a couple of residentials that still have Windows 7 and I have contacted them today. Just waiting to hear back.
 
cypress said:
I won't support any Windows 7 machines.
Click to expand...

I won't be except under very, very exceptional circumstances, either.

Anyone using a machine with Windows 7 on it as a daily driver in contact with cyberspace will get one service out of me before they'll get any other: an in-place upgrade to Windows 10.

And if I were to have someone whose hardware would not support Windows 10, then the advice to upgrade to a new machine would be part of that.

Both hardware and software have functional shelf lives. While a little "life support" for either can sometimes be justified, there eventually comes a time when it can't.
 
Hate to admit that we still have 49x Windows 7, 6x Server 2008R2 and 1x SBS2011 - all managed clients :eek:

Not so bad as it sounds though. 32 of those workstations and 3 of the servers are just one client which will be replaced early February. The SBS is already part-way into a 365 migration.

As for the stragglers... We are giving them until 1st May. The UK tax year ends 5th April so this allows allocating a new years budget towards upgrades. After that we won't provide support for any devices running Windows 7 unless they purchase extended security updates. We can order this via one of our partners for around £60 per device, per year.
 
I don't "take it personally". I make recommendations, and stress to them the importance as necessary for the situation.

Makes no difference to me. If they want to assume risk, I advise them of the level of risk involved and what "could" happen (usually pretty blanked, and not fear mongering) and do whatever they want to do.

I find less and less people are willing to take my advice it seems, at least locally... or if they are taking it they aren't communicating it. I made several posts on local public forums about win 7 going EOL and that there is no charge for going to windows 10 (unless you have a tech do it for you). Not so much as a smiley face.... oh well. I've got plenty of nicely paying gigs. I don't sweat it when others don't sweat it. If / when they come at me because all hell broke lose... I likely won't have time. But, I can offer the "I'll make time" price. Life has gotten pretty relaxed for me
 
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