jmc1977 Posted June 17, 2022 Posted June 17, 2022 Hi all, I've been asked to talk to our trustees about our school network as our current head of IT is off long term. They want me to do a talk on moving from 8.1 to windows 11. at the moment we do have a number of PC's that meet the requirements for 11 and the other computers don't (cough cough)officially support it, but will run 11. As I've got to cover all areas of what we could possibly do (as it all comes down to money), please could I ask for your advice/knowledge on Running 8.1 alongside windows 11. What changes would need doing to AD and GP on our 2012 server. What known issues are there with school management software with 11, like SIMS? Deploying printers from a print server. could there be/or any known issues with start up scripts pulling across the drivers to the PC's What are peoples thoughts/experience about running unsupported PC's on a domain with Windows 11 and what issues could we face Thank you for your time on this, as I'm sure there are many aspects that I've not even thought about. Phil
mavhc Posted June 17, 2022 Posted June 17, 2022 Why aren't you on Windows 10 already? Also your server has been EOL for years now. Upgrade the server first to 2019, via 2016. Fundamentally Win8 and 11 are the same so not too many problems. I'd move one of each type of machine to 11 and see what happens. In the end your devices will need replacing anyway.
LeMarchand Posted June 17, 2022 Posted June 17, 2022 I've not had problems, but there is always the threat of MS pulling updates etc for unsupported machine specs.
chaplic Posted June 17, 2022 Posted June 17, 2022 Given it would appear your IT has been stuck in a time warp and hasn't had much thought or monetary investment I'd be looking to take this opportunity to transform rather than just incremental upgrade. So I'd have PCs domain-less and managed by intune and look to get rid/ minimise use of fileservers. Probably​ the hacks that make win11 work on supported hardware will continue to operate and on the odd machine I could live with that, but if you have fleets of devices that are poentiallly going to stop working after an update I dont fancy that risk much. 1
mavhc Posted June 17, 2022 Posted June 17, 2022 It's Windows, they're potentially going to stop working after any random update. Microsoft aren't going to brick a load of machines, what they want to do is have a new baseline and say Windows 11 (Supported) is much more secure and reliable. "Supported versions of Windows 11 crash 8x less times than something else". Every crash costs Microsoft money investigating it for starters, and then reputation. If they work to fix it that's more money spent. Do you even know if any of the 100 drivers on your PC are still being updated? No one does anyway. Doesn't matter what version of Windows your old PCs run on really, they're still not secure, but as we're not the NSA, we don't really care.
Ex-MGSTech Posted June 17, 2022 Posted June 17, 2022 (edited) You may want to check out the new DfE Digital standards. It will give you ammunition to get you systems upgraded as I'm sure they don't meet modern security standards! https://www.gov.uk/guidance/meeting-digital-and-technology-standards-in-schools-and-colleges BTW these are REQUIREMENTS with examples of situations where you should move to that standard, including your current provision being slow or under performing. Its as important as the curriculum stuff they happily spend out on! Edited June 17, 2022 by Ex-MGSTech sp
mavhc Posted June 17, 2022 Posted June 17, 2022 Nothing about computers in those standards though, wifi, switches, network, broadband
Ex-MGSTech Posted June 17, 2022 Posted June 17, 2022 i the workstations are in Win8 and the servers 2012 I'd imagine the rest will be of a similar vintage!
CHiLL Posted June 17, 2022 Posted June 17, 2022 You'd likely need to upgrade your servers and server function level to at least 2019. Microsoft do not recommend running multiple versions of the OS with Windows 11, as the GPOs are not compatible with older OSs. Their guidance is to use the GPO templates for the version of the OS you have the most of. So if you have more Windows 10 than Windows 11, stick to the Windows 10 GPOs. You'd be better off upgrading all the machines to Windows 10 21H2 and then investigating Windows 11. ESS have also stated that SIMS is not supported on Windows 11.
mavhc Posted June 17, 2022 Posted June 17, 2022 Not worth moving to Win 10 at this point, by the time it's all sorted Win 11 will be fine. Are you using Virtual Machines?
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