Windows 10 - Current recomendation for business?

[freedomit]

When Windows 10 was released we emailed our business customers telling them not to upgrade due to hardware/software compatibility and also stability, and that we would release an updated statement in the New Year. So what are peoples recommendations for business's updating to Windows 10 now its been out for 6 months and there is only another 6 months left to upgrade for free?

From what ive read and seen there aren't really any features in Windows 10 that would benefit the average office worker. Testing on my own PC showed that the PC was very slightly slower to boot and use after upgrading to Windows 10 from 8.1 (not a clean install). Also compared to Windows 7 the stability of Windows Updates for 10 doesn't seem anywhere near as good.

So my thoughts...

* Anyone with Windows 8/8.1 should upgrade to 10, any software/hardware that works on 8/8.1 should by now work on 10 as they are similar code base. Also the end user will be used to the new look OS when compare to Windows 7.

* Anyone with a desktop/laptop less than 2 years old (i3/5/7 4th gen+) should upgrade, the newer hardware means they will probably have the computer for another 3-5 years so its worth the free upgrade to 10.

* Anyone with a desktop/laptop 2-3 years old (i3/5/7 3rd gen) should only upgrade using the fresh install method. Over time the computer will have naturally got slower and potentially accumulated software problems that a fresh install would wipe out.

* Anyone with a desktop/laptop over 3 years old (i3/5/7 1st & 2nd gen) is not really worth upgrading. Hardware support might be an issue and also they should look at upgrading to a new computer within a year or two so not worth the cost of upgrading.

* A full software audit should be done before upgrading to check for compatibility and also recommend that we do the upgrade rather than the customer in case of issue.

Do people agree?

 

[Slaters Kustum Machines]

I have had issues with older versions of Quickbooks that worked with 8.1 not work with Windows 10, so definitely check compatibility.

 

[cypress]

I was under the impression Windows 10 is not HIPPA compliant. I personally still have clients on Windows 7 and have no plans right now to upgrade to Windows 10.

 

[freedomit]

I was under the impression Windows 10 is not HIPPA compliant. I personally still have no clients on Windows 7 and have no plans right now to upgrade to Windows 10.

Sorry im UK based, we don't have HIPPA and i don't deal with any heathcare companies

 

[cypress]

Sorry im UK based, we don't have HIPPA and i don't deal with any heathcare companies

Understood, just speaking aloud to other techs to see if someone could confirm. I handle a lot of small home office businesses and this topic comes up quite often. If they have Windows 7 and it works fine I say No. If it is Windows 8.1 then we can upgrade. Of course letting them know that the best course of action is complete re-install rather than a direct upgrade.

Summing it up, your thoughts would be a good action to take.

 

[nlinecomputers]

http://blog.capterra.com/hipaa-compliance-and-windows-10-5-things-you-need-to-know/

If you need that level of control looks like only the Enterprise version of Windows 10 qualifies.

 

[nlinecomputers]

I personally still have no clients on Windows 7 and have no plans right now to upgrade to Windows 10.

So all of your clients are on Windows 8???

 

[cypress]

So all of your clients are on Windows 8???

LOL excuse the No part, I forgot to proof read that. All of my business clients in Healthcare / Finance are Windows 7 Pro.

Home office business clients are a mixture, Windows 7, and a couple of Windows 8. When they have asked me if they should upgrade to Windows 10, I state I rather they state with Windows 7 if that is their OS and when it comes to Windows 8 on applicable circumstances we can do a clean install to Windows 10.

Granted some have just gone out and purchased their new Windows 10 machines, and all you can do is support it.

 

[Larry Mashburn]

To be HIPPA compliant, does an operating system go through a certification process? Who makes that call?

 

[fencepost]

The concern with Windows 10 is all the information that gets shared with Microsoft. I don't have a listing, but Cortana works by uploading voice and downloading results (caveat: I've only used on a phone), which means it needs information on contacts, etc. Similarly I believe it's much more difficult to control whether a search is only looking at local (and locally indexed) files, or if it's also searching online - so if you're searching for "Jane Smith UTI" there's always a chance that you've disclosed to Bing that Jane Smith has had a UTI - even if what you were looking for was a locally-stored letter to another doctor treating Jane Smith.

Because Microsoft wants to streamline the whole updates process as well, on most versions of Windows 10 you have no control over what updates are installed, when, and what features they do or don't enable or re-enable. One further issue that I haven't seen discussed much is that I believe some of those features are being backported onto Windows 7 and 8.1 (but probably not 8 which I think is actually EOL as of today).

And if you don't believe that Microsoft would release an update that explicitly undid settings chosen by the user, take a look at the history of Windows 10 upgrade notifications ("GWX").

 

[trevm999]

Getting Bitlocker and Applocker features for free has been making me think about upgrading the computers at the business where I work, but I'm not looking forward to dealing with driver issues

 

[Eagle21]

Getting Bitlocker and Applocker features for free has been making me think about upgrading the computers at the business where I work, but I'm not looking forward to dealing with driver issues

AppLocker is only supported for Windows 10 Enterprise and Windows 10 Education, not Windows 10 Pro.
So I'm not sure how you are "getting it for free" when Windows 7 and 8 Enterprise already support AppLocker.

 

[trevm999]

AppLocker is only supported for Windows 10 Enterprise and Windows 10 Education, not Windows 10 Pro.
So I'm not sure how you are "getting it for free" when Windows 7 and 8 Enterprise already support AppLocker.

It looks like my intel was wrong, well at least I would still have Bitlocker to look forward to. (the computers are Windows 7 Pro)

 

[HankArnold]

When Windows 10 was released we emailed our business customers telling them not to upgrade due to hardware/software compatibility and also stability, and that we would release an updated statement in the New Year. So what are peoples recommendations for business's updating to Windows 10 now its been out for 6 months and there is only another 6 months left to upgrade for free?

From what ive read and seen there aren't really any features in Windows 10 that would benefit the average office worker. Testing on my own PC showed that the PC was very slightly slower to boot and use after upgrading to Windows 10 from 8.1 (not a clean install). Also compared to Windows 7 the stability of Windows Updates for 10 doesn't seem anywhere near as good.

I can't agree with some of your points. I find W10 to be very stable and secure. I do agree that there aren't many compelling reasons (for most users) to upgrade from W7. W8.1 in a business should definitely consider migrating to W10. Notice I said "migrating", not "upgrading". In most corporate/business environments, it's almost never a good idea to upgrade. It's so easy to create templates for any machine that I never, ever, upgrade a machine. If I have a W7 machine that should convert to W10, I just re-image it.

I do agree strongly that a complete software *AND* hardware survey be done before jumping into W10.

 

[freedomit]

I can't agree with some of your points. I find W10 to be very stable and secure. I do agree that there aren't many compelling reasons (for most users) to upgrade from W7. W8.1 in a business should definitely consider migrating to W10. Notice I said "migrating", not "upgrading". In most corporate/business environments, it's almost never a good idea to upgrade. It's so easy to create templates for any machine that I never, ever, upgrade a machine. If I have a W7 machine that should convert to W10, I just re-image it.

I do agree strongly that a complete software *AND* hardware survey be done before jumping into W10.

Thanks for your comments.

I have found a couple of Windows 10 bugs, one off the top of my head was you can't access the IPV4 properties of a VPN connection so changing the default gateway option has to be done via Powershell command.

 

[nlinecomputers]

one off the top of my head was you can't access the IPV4 properties of a VPN connection

Strange I can do it....

 

[freedomit]

Strange I can do it....

Maybe they fixed it?

http://blog.mikejmcguire.com/2015/07/31/cant-change-ipv4-or-ipv6-properties-on-a-windows-10-vpn/

 

[freedomit]

Another thought i guess is the size of customer. Some of my customers are 1-5 users so upgrades should be simple, however i also have a customer with 100 users spread across 3 sites which makes things a lot harder.

 

[nlinecomputers]

Maybe they fixed it?

http://blog.mikejmcguire.com/2015/07/31/cant-change-ipv4-or-ipv6-properties-on-a-windows-10-vpn/

Yes back in the 1511 update.

 

[Matthew Bradley]

A lot of line of business apps won't support Win 10 until after the free upgrade period. I know our dental and vision clients under Eaglesoft, Dentrix and Officemate have adamantly said no to the upgrade even though I'm quite confident it would work fine. Having said that, I've had a few clients who "accidentally" upgraded and it wrecked havoc on Quickbooks, file sharing and printer mappings.