Windows 10 on Windows 7 Network

[TheICTTechnician]

Hi,

 

We are currently running on Windows Server 2008 R2 and we are Windows 7 Pro across the board on all desktop and laptops. We have just taken delivery of 30 laptops and a trolley. They are all Windows 10 Pro. WE are unsure whether to leave them on 10 and network them or take them back to Windows 7. Would they work okay on 10 on our network or would it be more hassle than its worth? Anyone had and experience like this?

 

Thanks

[3s-gtech]

They'll work fine, but you need to get your Group Policy ready to manage them (grab the latest ADMXs), and you could do with a Windows 10 testing machine to use RSAT, as some settings can't be accessed on older OSs (sadly I forget which - certainly not he most vital step). It's abit of work getting your domain ready to properly use Windows 10 machines, but it'll be worth doing.

[DalekSec]

It's abit of work getting your domain ready to properly use Windows 10 machines, but it'll be worth doing.

 

Agreed, you'll have to do it at some point anyway!

[altecsole]

Create a new Windows 10 computer OU and setup new Group Policies - there are additional settings for Windows 10 that you will probably want to use and this is a good opportunity to do that.

 

You should find that user settings from Windows 7 will work pretty well.

[tmoon-mint]

I would be tempted to reimage them to Windows 10 Education if possible. It is apparently going to get education specific features at some point.

[ositek]

With Windows 10 you'll find that *most* of your existing GPOs created with the Windows 7/2008R2 GPMC/administrative templates will work just fine. Although you won't be able to manage the newer features added in Windows 10.

 

Microsoft thankfully provide the newer administrative templates for download in MSI format so you can manage Windows 10 specific settings on non-Win10 machines. What I'd personally recommend as I've done it in our environment, if you haven't already, is to create the Central Store for ADMX files in your domain. This means you can replicate ADMX files across your domain controllers and have access to the same set of templates on any computer running GPMC.

 

My advice upon creating the central store is to download both Windows 7 and Windows 10 ADMX packages and install them. Copy the Windows 7 ADMX collection into a new temporary folder (skip any of the Language Code folders apart from en-US unless you require them) and then copy the Windows 10 ADMX collection into that same new folder (overwriting the changes). Then copy the folder containing the new files into your \\domain.com\SYSVOL\domain.com\policies\PolicyDefinitions folder you created when setting up the central store. This means that you retain any Windows 7 specific ADMX files that were removed in Windows 10 and have the newer Windows 10 GPOs available too.

 

Here's the Microsoft article with links the ADMX templates and information on setting up the central store.