Windows 10 - Current recomendation for business?

[freedomit]

Feels like we have a very split community with no real right/wrong answer

 

[SAFCasper]

For business clients on Windows 7 I mostly discourage upgrading. The potential issues from an upgrade are numerous yet the benefits... slim.

It's all case-by-case though. If the hardware is relatively new and supported.... and their LOB applications are fully compatible... then yeah I might recommend it. Especially if they are on 8.1 to begin with. I find upgrades go much smoother from 8.1 than from 7.

 

[Clink]

Windows 7 is still the best fit in a professional environment. It has support up until 2020, and most of the kinks with third party software have been ironed out. Not to say that I don't like Windows 10. I have it on my personal machines and like it, but sometimes a patch will come out and it will be slow for a week.

 

[YeOldeStonecat]

We'll be keeping Win7 the standard for quite a while down the road.
Historically businesses don't upgrade their across the board until at least the first service pack is released. (looking back to prior OS's).
I know "service packs" are no more...but it used to be at least a whole year....and typically a bit longer.

There are soooo many things to check with first.
*Line of biz app support....we don't want to push out a new OS until the clients list of LOB software supports it.
*Hardware peripheral support....client could have a lot of money tied up in big MFP units on the network, like Canon imageRunners...Kyoceras, etc. I'd want to make sure they fully support the latest OS with their software 'n drivers
*Client is ready for the big change. Prior OS's have "mostly" been subtle GUI changes up until Win8. Let's face it...since Win3.x...users have been familiar with the start programs menu in the lower left corner. Since Win8 was mostly bypassed....Win10 is a huge change for them. Clients have to deal with training time and learning curve.
*Do you really want to spend the time/money to upgrade the OS on that old hardware?

 

[jmcgraw]

Always make sure your BIOS and drivers are up to date, and you can avoid most of the problems. So far, I've been pretty successful upgrading PCs with only vanilla software.

 

[ChrisTech]

Feels like we have a very split community with no real right/wrong answer

I don't believe that there is a right/wrong answer, especially in our line of work where individual experiences affect our attitude to different things.

I've been asked by some of my business clients about W10 and like others here, my attitude is if W7 is working ok, why risk the change to W10 if there's no real benefit?

 

[mraikes]

I continue to see no actual value in migrating to W10, for businesses nor residential. Change for the sake of change is not value - except for a very small percentage of people.

Even vague recommendations like "well, if it's newer hardware they should do it" don't make sense to me. Why? Just because you can? With W7 support for another 4 full years that "newer" 1-2 year old hardware will then be "older" hardware 5-6 years old and likely to be due for replacement anyway.

It seems the only real argument in favor of migrating sooner is that it's free right now. But, if we wait out the 4 years it will still be "free" (included by default) on whatever new computers we purchase. I also believe that the path MS is on toward their own walled garden will make it worthwhile to them to continue to offer free or heavily discounted W10 and whatever follows W10.

MS' long term profit from luring people into their garden far outweighs the short term small profit on each OS sold today. That's why they're pushing, tricking and forcing people into it.

 

[nlinecomputers]

I find that Windows 10 performs faster on the same hardware than Windows 7. Faster bootup and shutdown times and faster program opening times.

 

[mraikes]

I find that Windows 10 performs faster on the same hardware than Windows 7. Faster bootup and shutdown times and faster program opening times.

The hybrid boot (and maybe even without it) may be faster at startup, but is shutdown time that much faster? Or does it just seem like it because it blanks the screen almost right away and continues to shut down in the background? Either way, IMO that's a negligible advantage. Many if not most business computers are not shut down except for occasional reboots. So that improvement doesn't translate into much of a $$ advantage.

Personally, I haven't noticed faster program opening times, but even if so - I suspect many employees tend to open the 3-5-15 programs they use the most and leave them open throughout the day rather than constantly closing and reopening. That's what I see at my FTJ's 180+ users anyway.

Nevertheless, on a day to day basis the actual speed of a computer (as long as it's not ridiculously slow) booting, rebooting or launching programs, is overrated. Put a brand new, "fast", computer on an employee's desk and they'll be pleased for a day. Maybe a week. Then they get accustomed to it, start noticing again how long it takes to do something, instead of remembering past slowness, and before you know it - they're complaining again.

And let's face it, even if Windows 10 were to save the average employee the unlikely amount of 10 minutes per day (granting faster booting, faster program opening, maybe other things faster), I doubt the employee will be noticeably more productive with that "found time", nor will the employer save 10 minutes in payroll per employee.

It would take the incremental value of a "faster" OS a very long time, if ever, to offset the time/money spent by employees complaining about changes, hunting for missing stuff, trying to get Edge to do what IE already does (and it probably won't), and just general delays for the average user to figure out how to do whatever was easy for them to do in the past. Will they figure it out eventually? Of course. Is it worth the pain of forcing them to do that? Not yet.

No, there's has to be something other than a little faster speed to make it worthwhile to recommend a migration. Businesses speak the language of dollars and cents. Unless we are able to articulate and demonstrate a real value in migrating to W10 through measurable productivity gains or measurable savings, there's no reason to recommend it at all.

 

[Grant]

I find that Windows 10 performs faster on the same hardware than Windows 7. Faster bootup and shutdown times and faster program opening times.

I've found the same thing on the PC's I've installed it to. I've also tested Win 10 Pro on some old gear and it runs pretty snappy as longs as you have enough RAM.

 

[PaulTech]

Microsoft is pushing Windows 10 so hard it seems the ultra-thins are difficult to purchase with a Windows 7/8/8.1 Pro version.

Has anyone gone through this yet? http://windowsserveressentials.com/2015/08/17/small-business-server-2011-standardwindows-10/

It seems to me that with Win10 there will be more traffic through the WAN and I have clients stuck with smaller pipes for various reasons so protecting that bandwidth is important.

 

[Endakd]

One think we've noticed is that Sage 50 accounts (ver 20 or older) can have fairly serious problems after a W10 upgrade...

 

[610WebTech]

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

What issues did you have with Quickbooks and were you able to resolve it?

 

[Slaters Kustum Machines]

I don't recall exactly, but it as a 2012 version and it was decided that it was best to upgrade to a supported, compatible version.

 

[Doc+Com]

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

The 'off-the-shelf' OS has little to do with how 'HIPAA compliant' (not HIPPA) a machine is and has more to do with the policies, privileges and restrictions set for the user both from a (PC) configuration standpoint and user procedures in the workplace.

 

[freedomit]

I was thinking of sending the below out to our business customers. Thoughts?


Following on from my previous email regarding Windows 10 I wanted to provide an update to the previous recommendations now that 6 months has passed.



THE FACTS


Windows 10 is a free upgrade for all licensed devices running Windows 7/8/8.1 if the upgrade is completed before 29th July 2016. After this date Microsoft will charge to upgrade to Windows 10, however it is rumored that Microsoft may extend or reintroduce the free upgrade offer at a later date. Windows 7 Professional will continue to be supplied on new computers until October 2016 (downgraded from Windows 10 Pro) and will be supported by Microsoft until January 2020.



WHATS NEW

There are many new features in Windows 10 but some of the main ones are...


· The Start Menu – Windows 8 replaced the Start Menu with the Start Screen (formally metro) which many users disliked and found difficult to use. Windows 10 sees the return of the Start Menu similar to Windows 7 but with the addition of Live Tiles.


· Cortana – this is Microsoft digital assistant similar to Apple’s Siri and Google Now, it allows you to issue commands and search via voice or text. Although a nice feature I don’t see it being used much in the office environment


· Edge – This is Microsoft’s new flagship browser to replace Internet Explorer, it has been designed with speed and security in mind. At the moment some features are missing so Internet Explorer is included for legacy purposes.


· Virtual Desktops – This allows users to switch between virtual desktops of applications organized how you like them. You can create a virtual desktop for a particular task, open a collection of applications and then switch to another desktop should you need to switch to another task. I can see this being useful for power users who work on multiple projects concurrently as it allows the segregation of apps.


· Continuum – This feature allows touch screen users to switch between a desktop friendly interface and a touch screen interface dynamically. This feature is only useful on hybrid devices like the Microsoft Surface.




OUR VIEW


Now that most of the bugs have been resolved Windows 10 is a good operating system that is pleasant to use, more secure and an improvement over Windows 8 however there is no stand out feature that would increase business productivity. Windows 7 is stable and will be supported for the next four years, new computers we purchase still come with it installed as most business environments still demand it. There are also compatibility issues with older hardware and software so we recommend an audit and data backup is done before upgrading.



After reviewing information from various sources, personal experience and the views of fellow professionals we have come to the conclusion that there isn’t a simple Yes or No answer that fits all clients. Many factors need to be taken into consideration such as age of hardware, software compatibility, network environment, in place upgrade/reload upgrade and project costs. Therefore if you are interested in upgrading to Windows 10 we recommend contacting us for a free phone consultation and quote to upgrade.



If you have questions or would like to request a consultation please feel free to contact me.

 

[nlinecomputers]

It needs a stronger call to action. Clients are just going to ignore this and sit on their hands after reading this.