Windows 10 - Is it time?

[sparkeh]

I eliminate that by using locally-stored mandatory profiles

Great idea, I'll look into that

[uke]

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

 

We got far into testing with LTSB and have decided to switch to using Education. In the future MS might start using the store and there is no easy way to put it back. Also we found that with LTBS there is no default photo viewer and you can't easily add that or the included camera app on with LTSB.

 

Because of the anniversary release we are waiting for that update. Hopefully it will be out at the start of the school holidays and not the end!

[TIOAOA]

I eliminate that by using locally-stored mandatory profiles

 

Any guide to how you set this up ?

 

Hoping to get around to trialling it in a suite soon

[SHimmer45]

I eliminate that by using locally-stored mandatory profiles

 

thats interesting

what sort of size is the profile and what sort of login times are you getting?

[Garacesh]

Any guide to how you set this up ?

Hoping to get around to trialling it in a suite soon

See this post by @gavinh - helped me sort it out

 

thats interesting

what sort of size is the profile and what sort of login times are you getting?

≈30s and ≈550kb.

 

Including things like start menu structures and wallpapers that are copied to the machine (ROBOCOPY /MIR script at startup), my entire "locally-hosted-stuff-for-user-profiles-and-ui-customisation" folder comes to just over 3.5MB.

[FN-GM]

Waiting for server 2016,

 

Just wondering, how come?

 

Also we found that with LTBS there is no default photo viewer

 

You can turn on photoviewer http://www.edugeek.net/forums/windows-7/134818-set-windows-photoviewer-default-group-policy-preferences.html#post1463358

[SHimmer45]

See this post by @gavinh - helped me sort it out

 

 

≈30s and ≈550kb.

 

Including things like start menu structures and wallpapers that are copied to the machine (ROBOCOPY /MIR script at startup), my entire "locally-hosted-stuff-for-user-profiles-and-ui-customisation" folder comes to just over 3.5MB.

 

i get around 35 seconds on a 1st login but the profile is alot larger, sounds like i could be more brutal with the trimming

[Oaktech]

Just wondering, how come?

 

Native management tools... Being able to leave our hotch potch of 2008r2/2012/2012r2 servers behind in one go for the latest version...

Edited June 16, 2016 by Oaktech

[Garacesh]

i get around 35 seconds on a 1st login but the profile is alot larger, sounds like i could be more brutal with the trimming

 

I actually found that the more I cut out, the faster it was.

I would have thought the opposite: the bigger the profile, the quicker the login (as the more stuff that's in the profile, the more settings are 'pre-set' and Windows doesn't have to generate them itself) but alas, that wasn't the case.

[mavhc]

Sometimes getting black screens on logon, some users/computers fail to run GPOs, get access denied on sysvol. Q33 motherboards don't work with OpenGL needed for Minecraft Edu. GPO abilities to control the settings/control panel are terrible. The whole appx thing is terrible.

 

At least it's free.

[SHimmer45]

I actually found that the more I cut out, the faster it was.

I would have thought the opposite: the bigger the profile, the quicker the login (as the more stuff that's in the profile, the more settings are 'pre-set' and Windows doesn't have to generate them itself) but alas, that wasn't the case.

 

guess it still has to copy that data, also alot of stuff is generated and stored via indexing and database/metadata rubbish.

[mullet_man]

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

 

The anniversary edition is going to speed up first login's apperently. We have rolled out 10 for a fair few staff and not had any complaints so far, will create a new image based on the anniversary edition and push that out for staff.

 

Am hoping the anniversary edition does speed up logins so we can update our student devices.

[disk]

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.

 

Is the BIOS up-to-date on those laptops?

[mavhc]

Sometimes getting black screens on logon, some users/computers fail to run GPOs, get access denied on sysvol. Q33 motherboards don't work with OpenGL needed for Minecraft Edu. GPO abilities to control the settings/control panel are terrible. The whole appx thing is terrible.

 

At least it's free.

 

Also hangs on log on sometimes on group policy regional settings, drive maps, all kinds of stuff

[mikes]

Sometimes getting black screens on logon, some users/computers fail to run GPOs, get access denied on sysvol. Q33 motherboards don't work with OpenGL needed for Minecraft Edu. GPO abilities to control the settings/control panel are terrible. The whole appx thing is terrible.

 

At least it's free.

 

Do you mean the ability to lock down / control what students can see/access in the Control Panel (personalization, mouse, etc) - this is very limited in Windows 10?

My school is very particular about what students can and can't do on the computer (no control panel, no funky mouse cursors, no adjusting the toolbar etc) - does this not work as well in Windows 10?

[Garacesh]

(no control panel, no funky mouse cursors, no adjusting the toolbar etc)

Nope, these all work fine.

[mavhc]

Do you mean the ability to lock down / control what students can see/access in the Control Panel (personalization, mouse, etc) - this is very limited in Windows 10?

My school is very particular about what students can and can't do on the computer (no control panel, no funky mouse cursors, no adjusting the toolbar etc) - does this not work as well in Windows 10?

 

You can't pick and choose the new settings items, all or nothing. You can't block settings without blocking control panel. And you can pick and choose control panel items (but that's now useless as you have to block "settings and control panel".

 

It's more for staff really, want to give them Sync Centre etc, but not everything.

[Oaktech]

You can't pick and choose the new settings items, all or nothing. You can't block settings without blocking control panel. And you can pick and choose control panel items (but that's now useless as you have to block "settings and control panel".

 

It's more for staff really, want to give them Sync Centre etc, but not everything.

 

For staff, could you allow full access to control panel, but rather than choose items in the old way, could you restrict the individual files with security settings?

[Garacesh]

You can't pick and choose the new settings items, all or nothing. You can't block settings without blocking control panel. And you can pick and choose control panel items (but that's now useless as you have to block "settings and control panel".

 

It's more for staff really, want to give them Sync Centre etc, but not everything.

 

Hadn't really thought about that - we're using mandatory profiles here so the staff don't need to change anything.

For staff, could you allow full access to control panel, but rather than choose items in the old way, could you restrict the individual files with security settings?

Alternately, disable Control Panel but leave Win+X intact. You can remove shortcuts from Win+X if you use mandatory profiles (though annoyingly you can't add to it)

[Lonix]

We are in the middle of a review of Windows 10.

 

I think we won't make the switch completely till summer 2018. This gives us time to make sure all areas have decent equipment plus our testing so far is positive but we will wait till an ICT teacher is happy to test Windows 10 for day to day usage.

[flyinghaggis]

I'm feeling like we won't be moving away from Windows 7 for at least a couple more years. I think my primary concern at the moment is, other than Windows 7 reaching End of support in 2020 and needing to be replaced, Windows 10 doesn't (at first glance based on using it at home) appear to bring anything to the table or offer any functionality we don't already have. We've been spending most of our time moving to Google Apps and rolling out iPads recently so I haven't really been keeping up to date with what Windows 10 is offering so it's maybe that some of the key features have passed me by.

 

The way our school is going I'm feeling like we'll soon be at a point where most pupils will use their tablets day to day and when on a computer they'll simply require a web browser to get their work done so the OS is increasingly irrelevant for most people other than a few with specialist requirements like Computing/Art/Technology.

 

Has anyone prepared a business case with a list of reasons/benefits of upgrading to Windows 10? I'm still in two minds about whether we should be considering a site wide Windows 10 deployment or opting for a more 'thin client' cloud/server approach with something like ChromeBox's/etc.

Edited June 21, 2016 by flyinghaggis

[mavhc]

Or Microsoft could just make group policies, not sure what's so hard about that. They'd rather we paid for InTune though, does that let you control it?

[FN-GM]

Or Microsoft could just make group policies, not sure what's so hard about that. They'd rather we paid for InTune though, does that let you control it?

 

They do make group policies

 

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=48257

[mavhc]

But (almost) nothing to control PC Settings.

[garethEds]

Thank you everyone for the discussion and pointers on this. I think a new Windows 7 image will be made this week for the next 6 months. I'll wait for the updated 10 to arrive in the next few weeks and see how much improvements there are.

 

Thank you

 

Gareth