Reasons for Business not to do Free Windows 10 Upgrade

[trevm999]

Our LoB application just announced that they are now supporting Windows 10. My colleague wants to upgrade all our computers to Windows 10 Pro using the free upgrade. We have about 150 computers between all our locations.

What I want to do is live out the life of our machines (or the life of Windows 7) then switch to volume licencing.

My current points are that we're are going to have to upgrade each machine individually, since we don't have imaging rights, that we really should be using volume licencing anyways, and that machines might lose activation if we do something that changes the hardware hash.

What should I say to get my concerns across, and what other reasons are there not to upgrade?

 

[mraikes]

What is your colleague's reason(s) for wanting to upgrade? Just because it's free? Or have there actually been improvements to the W10 version of your LoB app that make it a beneficial change?

There's a cost to touching every machine that makes the free upgrade not actually free. And if there's anything other than the LoB app used on those machines that software and maybe hardware may not play nice. At this point, I've seen too many W10 upgrades that have worked OK for a while and then caused problems that required wiping and reinstalling everything from scratch.

I'm firmly in the "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" camp. But I'm realistic that at this point I (and many of us) are just shouting into the wind when it comes to W10.

 

[nlinecomputers]

Windows 10 doesn't give you full control over updates without the use of a WSUS server. There may be privacy concerns and you also have to take into account end-user training. Windows is similar to Windows 7 but not the same and it a pool of 150 or more users you WILL have some that will need considerable hand holding. All of that adds to the expensive of FREE.....

 

[YeOldeStonecat]

mraikes nailed it...what "other" things will break? Networked MFPs, other software. What "quirks" will slowly show up? How about all the various hardware that it's installed on...will it work 100% on all of them? Different hardware in desktops and laptops..has every model been tested?
How about "user training?" Lotta people don't like the touchscreen style menu of Win10.
How old are these rigs? Gonna spend an hour or three on each rig (for the upgrade...not only the OS upgrade, but BIOS update and drivers updates....things that should get done along with an OS upgrade). That's a lot of time to invest if the fleet is old and about to be discarded in a year or two.

 

[TurricanII]

There are risk in updating. The onus is on your colleague to demo the benefits rather than the other way round. Updating one person per department as a trial might be beneficial. If so then dump a full list of applications, printers and other hardware in use and get them to certify that each one is trouble free before the first update is done.

WIN10 has had lots of issues upgrading win 7, from corrupt explorer with no start menu to slow updates taking 12 hours. better to wait til you get a volume licence. No point doing it peacemeal, as you say.

 

[trevm999]

So the backend update to our LoB application is not free. It might still have to be done eventually, but right now the Windows 10 upgrade is the only reasons I know of for why we would need to do the upgrade.

The quirks that comes with the LoB update and then with the Windows 10 upgrade will probably create the perfect storm.

I also like the angle of that's it's not free because there is a guarantee of employee productivity loss throughout the process.

I'm going to make sure my locations aren't going to be doing the upgrade to Windows 10, but should I go over my colleague's head and try to put an end to the upgrade idea for the locations he manages?

 

[TurricanII]

I would just let the IT manager/responsible director know that you can not see a business benefit, only a risk, in updating old kit to Win 10 and so you will not update to Windows 10 immediately but will wait until you start replacing PC's and they ship with Win10 or until you go for a volume licence. List the reasons why (copy and paster from above).

I would advise you to get one capable Win 10 test machine set up so you can test readiness with all software/devices.

Maybe CC the other manager in to the email. It sounds like they are able to make this decision themselves but your explanation to the IT manager/responsible director may prompt the IT manager to block your colleague or may dissuade your colleague from jumping in.

 

[gikstar]

Maybe CC the other manager in to the email. It sounds like they are able to make this decision themselves but your explanation to the IT manager/responsible director may prompt the IT manager to block your colleague or may dissuade your colleague from jumping in.

Be cautious with including other managers in your email, depending on your position in the company, sometimes though you mean well, it could be perceived as overstepping your bounds.
If you can find an article on the pros and cons of upgrading that you can forward to your associate that hopefully he can pass on to anyone asking about upgrading to Windows 10.
I agree with all of the other comments regarding the upgrade.
Some of the computers may not be Windows 10 compatible. Now if you were an outside IT company and the client wanted to move everything to Windows 10, I see lots of billing $$$$$ and profits to your company.
Your suggestion of using Windows 10 volume licensing on replacement computers down the road is the proper solution.

Often times we come up with ideas that we need to run my our associates to see if they will are feasible... hopefully this is one of those times

 

[resolvetech]

Biggest reason for those of us that work with Business is it may break your Line of Business (LOB) application or is not supported by the vendor.

 

[trevm999]

So it is a bit of like the wild west over here. Neither of us are in charge of each other, and there is no IT Director. At some point I think that will have to change. Going over his head means going to one of the owners.

I have decided that I want to make sure I don't overstep my bounds. He doesn't have the authority to approve the payment for the upgrade, so at that point someone is going to ask some questions, so I'll wait to see if I'm consulted on it.

 

[fencepost]

The only reason I know of to do the upgrade on Windows 7 boxes is if you want it to get Bitlocker on the Pro level instead of upgrading the Windows 7 PCs to Ultimate or going with third-party disk encryption. That's it.

Anything else, Windows 7 is going to be supported for 4 more years at which point you should be EOLing any machines you have right now anyway. It means you're going to have to run with mixed networks once Win7 new installs aren't available (unless you're already doing volume licensing and can downgrade), but I doubt that's such a big deal.

 

[fencepost]

Business reasons to go to Windows 10 on existing systems:

• Desire to keep equipment on the same version of Windows throughout the organization as Microsoft's strongarm techniques get stronger - including end of preinstalled Windows 7 Pro availability in ~6 months (~3.25 years before end of support, no big surprise there) and the "oh, it's not going to work with Skylake and later processors" FUD, etc.
• Need for features included in Windows 10 but not in Windows 7, such as the aforementioned Bitlocker (can Windows 7 Ultimate upgrades still be purchased? New installs can't).
• Improved support on older touchscreen/tablet devices that came with Windows 7 Tablet or Windows 8/8.1
• Loathing for Windows 8.1 and a desire to not install third-party Start menu replacements like Classic Shell
• Better Group Policy options in some areas? Maybe? I haven't looked into this.
• A strong desire to run the Edge browser?
• A need for something in the Windows App Store?
• Standardizing on Windows Phone as a business standard and you want consistency?

Gotta admit, I'm kind of reaching at the end there. But if someone is standardizing on Windows Phone let me know.

 

[TurricanII]

Without wishing to disagree with any of the above comments, it seems that the original poster has already made a decision and is now just looking for reasons to justify it. I'm pretty sure that's how religions get started.

Turning the question around, is there any reason why a business would want to upgrade to Windows 10?

Disclaimer: I support and run Windows XP, 7, 8.1, 10, Mac and Linux, and they're all just ways to let me and my clients use application software. If it works, why should I care what the OS is?

I'd say the OP has got a good hunch and was looking to see if they are overlooking anything. It's hard to turn down 'free' stuff anyway because humans are mostly acquisitive. The OP might have been looking to see if there was a wave of responses espousing the benefits of the 'free' update to Win10 that make it worth the various risks.

 

[ohio_grad_06]

I'll say that we've been doing the upgrades at my 9-5, and quite honestly, it's been smooth. We've even had users do them themselves if we tell them how, by having them download the media creation tool and do the upgrade direct from there. For the most part it's smooth and people like it. You can say privacy, but there was an article that they were backporting those features into 7 through updates so don't let that stop you.

http://www.extremetech.com/computin...y-invading-windows-10-features-to-windows-7-8

From a usability standpoint, it's one of the better systems in a while imo.

Reasons to upgrade

1. Keep equipment longer(as long as we are not talking ancient stuff-though we are repurposing some older Win 7 dual core machines for use in our training room area, installing Windows 10 on them and using an SSD makes those old machines feel like new)
2. Get everyone standardized and using similar software.
3. Install times. If I've got to redo a system, 7 used to take a LONG time due to updates. Now that I can just get the latest Win 10 iso using the media creation tool, my setup time is literally an hour or 2, plus installing programs and apps.
4. Especially if you have Windows 8/8.1, get 8 off the systems, the computer might thank you.
5. Not as good of a reason, but honestly, whether you like it or not, it's coming anyway, it's just going to happen. Might as well learn it now and get used to it.

I can say I had some users I was afraid to upgrade to 10 because they had Windows XP previously, and was unsure about upgrading them. But honestly, they seem to have taken to it like a duck to water. I was surprised pleasantly. One user said she had trouble getting around a computer before, but that it was one of the easiest systems she'd ever used.