Windows 10 - Is it time?

[garethEds]

So it's that time of year again when I look at re-building the desktop image which will be used for the next six months. I create two images a month. If I stick with Windows 7 for the next 6 months then it will be for the year.

 

So do I invest the time in researching Windows 10?

 

Do any of you regret switching? Do you wish you were still in Windows 7?

 

Has anyone created a checklist of things that need to be taken care of? Pitfalls etc? If I start the W10 path (I've tried before) what do I need to look out for?

 

What about profiles - mandatory or roaming? We don't use a profile now, but I will need to look at Outlook settings following the user in future.

 

Waffly message sorry.

 

Gareth

[IWDave]

I'm pretty much in the same boat. We've been trying Windows 10 on devices for a while and generally the response is good. However we've hit a snag that may cause us serious deployment issues on the bulk of our pupil laptops.

 

The case of the disappearing mouse

 

https://www.daveiw.co.uk/wp/?p=427847

 

Everything is fine until the machine restarts.

 

I'm very comfortable in pushing out another "latest build" via MDT of Windows 7 for the year if necessary.

[caffrey]

I'm in the same boat, just started playing with a windows 10 image and have a few PC's to install over summer, not sure how happy I am with it so might just wait till the anniversary edition appears. Way I see it we have until January 2020 to make our minds up.

[IWDave]

Forgot to mention we've only been testing LTSB to cut out the bloat.

[KibosJ]

We have moved to Windows 10 for our staff laptops and desktops and had absolutely no issues, but still not sure about student machines.

 

I'm going to trial it in one, maybe two of our ICT rooms and see how it goes. If there aren't any troubles then I will roll it out to the rest.

 

I've been playing with an image for a while now and believe I have everything set how I want. (Edge blocked, Chrome set to default, bloat removed, etc.)

 

Would be good to hear from anyone who has rolled it out fully.

[Sagima]

We sent it out to student machines first, then some teaching staff and we are just starting on the non-teaching staff. We are probably just about half way through. The vast majority of machines will have it by the end of the summer.

 

The only issue we had was it Chrome was set as the default browser then internet shortcuts would't open up properly - still investigating that.

[FN-GM]

We have began deployment. We have deployed it to just under 15% of machines, to range of different machines, not had any specific Windows 10 issues. The demand is that high at the moment we can't keep up.

[FN-GM]

We sent it out to student machines first, then some teaching staff and we are just starting on the non-teaching staff. We are probably just about half way through. The vast majority of machines will have it by the end of the summer.

 

The only issue we had was it Chrome was set as the default browser then internet shortcuts would't open up properly - still investigating that.

 

Try this - http://www.edugeek.net/forums/windows-10/159435-set-chrome-default-browser-group-policy.html

[ICTDirect_Dave]

We've been windows 10 site-wide for the last six months or so.

 

So far everything is very smooth and feedback had been good.

 

Admittedly we're a far smaller operation that most of you guys though

[GuyJD]

I'm currently 95% windows 10 here, I've only got 15 laptops on 7.

 

There were a few issues initially with teachers not knowing how to get to things but other than that it's been a fairly smooth transition, it's been helped by Microsoft practically forcing upgrades on home machines so everyone is familiar with it now because they have it at home.

[3s-gtech]

Have you got the back end parts done Gareth? Profiles, KMS, GPs, etc? We're still on that stage, with only one Windows 10 machine released into the wild (which seems to be fine). Lots of testing, ensuring Classic Start behaves as I want, that sort of thing. With the rate of change of Windows 10, and the Anniversary update coming, I will be sticking with 7 (and a handful of 8.1) for another year at least.

[Wubbalubbadub]

I keep thinking about this. But I don't like to have different experiences for staff and students. I would want Windows 10 everywhere or nowhere.

 

With the exception of the IT Support computers!

[Sheridan]

We're testing the waters with one main room and so far its been 'meh'. Lots of niggles (some still unresolved such as the start menu tiles can't be deployed reliably) and generally 10 has offered no advantages over 7. We will probably continue the upgrades but only when the PCs are due replacement or upgrade anyway. I still feel like what windows 10 turned out to be is a missed opportunity, I was hoping for a step up from 7 but what we seem to have is a cludged up Windows 8.

[Michael]

I have Windows 10 Edu running on over a 1000 devices I proactively manage (different sites) with no significant issues.

 

I presume those 'thinking' of deploying it are looking at Redstone 1, which should be due any day now.

[SHimmer45]

In the testing stage at the moment, yes its nice and fluffy with that wow factor BUT its slower to log users in compared to a windows 7 build on the same machine.

the initial profile creation on the machine can a little while and thats when its been pruned somewhat still 50MB though, second login is quicker than 7.

 

need to see what else i can trim out.

 

EDIT: does the redstone update also include LTSB release's?

[FN-GM]

We're testing the waters with one main room and so far its been 'meh'. Lots of niggles (some still unresolved such as the start menu tiles can't be deployed reliably) and generally 10 has offered no advantages over 7. We will probably continue the upgrades but only when the PCs are due replacement or upgrade anyway. I still feel like what windows 10 turned out to be is a missed opportunity, I was hoping for a step up from 7 but what we seem to have is a cludged up Windows 8.

 

I don't see any issues with 10.

[sparkeh]

All teacher laptops are now Win 10. Some test desktops around the school. Once I decided to use Classic Start Menu everything was fine and everyone is asking for it now.

[IWDave]

Has anyone had issues with the disappearing mouse/track pad? I've tried rolling back the drivers and re-installing unit specific, which works fine until the machine restarts. This at the moment is my only stumbling block.

[GuyJD]

Has anyone had issues with the disappearing mouse/track pad? I've tried rolling back the drivers and re-installing unit specific, which works fine until the machine restarts. This at the moment is my only stumbling block.

I've only had that problem when using a bluetooth mouse, Windows sees it as a touch screen instead of a mouse, at the time I had the problem there was no solution, the only way I got around it was to plug in a wired mouse.

[IWDave]

Yeah I tried that, but not ideal - although what did make me laugh was by default it swapped my mouse's buttons over be default. Think that was a one off - hopefully.

 

My supplier is to contact Toshiba for investigation.

[Oaktech]

I've played with it, I've deployed it to a couple of machines just to prove I can, and reverted back to 7 for continuity.

 

I have written into my development plan for governors that I will probably not be going to 10 site wide until 2018 because of device life cycles, Waiting for server 2016, Waiting for the dust to settle on 2 schools worth of server and storage projects and the promise of a new version for education.

 

I have some lenovo and fujitsu laptops at my federated school that are due for replacement next year that currently don't play nice with 10 (display issues on the lenovo and trackpad issues on the fujitsu). Whatever I replace with will obviously be w10 compliant, which these aren't.

 

I'm a very cautious adopter because I don't believe in making life hard for myself trying to iron out teething issues with a brand new OS. I also feel that my user's will be much more comfortable with w10 by the time I roll it out because it will have been in the wild for such a long time for consumer devices. I've done a lot of prep, but when lots of users start asking 'when we are going w10', that will be the time to go for it!

[Garacesh]

I've pushed Windows 10 out to 3 IT suites (one in ICT, two in Technology) and one room with a few machines (SEN dept) and so far the feedback has been pretty positive. A few niggles here-and-there but I think they're mostly to do with the students getting both the new Windows 10 and the current Windows 7 policies applied to them. I've had to keep them both in use since we're not W10 everywhere.

 

It did take me a long time to sort out Windows 10, though. Then again, I was rebuilding policies and profiles from the ground up, so it may be a little quicker for you.

[arh1a]

I will be rolling it out as soon as the Anniversary Education Edition is released as I don't want to waste time rebuilding all the computers twice. I have Windows 10 Education on a few random computers/laptops with no issues at all and even the start menu xml file is working. I'm not worried about using the LTSB version as I pull out all the apps I don't want from the WIM file and I want staff to use IE11 and Edge which they are happy to use.

[sparkeh]

Can I just ask people, what do you do about the long first log in? Put up with it?

[Garacesh]

Can I just ask people, what do you do about the long first log in? Put up with it?

 

I eliminate that by using locally-stored mandatory profiles