Windows 10 Education


  1. Posts : 136
    Windows 7 Pro x64
       #1

    Windows 10 Education


    I work two I.T. jobs. One of them is in a college I.T. department. So, naturally, when I heard about Windows 10 Education, I wanted to find out more. Mainly, the question that popped into my mind was, "Could this be a good system to upgrade to from 7 for a large deployment setting?" Obviously, Windows 10 is so new that it's going to be difficult to know in advance how it'll play in that kind of setting. But I (well, my boss wants to know) if it's a wise decision to start upgrading our devices. Since the semester doesn't start for 3 weeks, this could give us time to a) get everything upgraded, and b) work out the kinks to make sure everything is running smoothly.

    Thoughts?
      My Computer


  2. Posts : 2,487
    Windows 10 Home, 64-bit
       #2

    Off the top of my head:

    You have to weigh the advantages of having the 3 weeks free time now against the likelihood that if you waited until say Sept or Oct or next year that the process would be smoother and with fewer headaches.

    I'd think that decision would contain a lot of speculation.

    Nor do I know how big of an advantage the 3 weeks available now is or how little time you might have in September or later.

    There is supposed to be a "Service Release 1" in August and a "Service Release 2" in October--if you want to believe everything you read on the net and who doesn't. Who knows if they will significantly improve anything.

    Can you do a pilot program on a few machines now and see what catches fire?

    Are your existing licenses subject to the expiration of the "free upgrade" next July?

    How confident are you that you could roll back to Win 7 on all machines if you decide the upgrade was a bad move and how easily/quickly/painlessly could that be done?
      My Computer


  3. Posts : 136
    Windows 7 Pro x64
    Thread Starter
       #3

    ignatzatsonic said:
    Off the top of my head:

    You have to weigh the advantages of having the 3 weeks free time now against the likelihood that if you waited until say Sept or Oct or next year that the process would be smoother and with fewer headaches.
    That's what we're trying to weigh right now.


    There is supposed to be a "Service Release 1" in August and a "Service Release 2" in October--if you want to believe everything you read on the net and who doesn't. Who knows if they will significantly improve anything.
    Because the internet is the source of all knowledge. Duh.

    Can you do a pilot program on a few machines now and see what catches fire?
    We're doing that with a department spare, I'll recommend we do it on a couple others as well just to test it across different scenarios. I know our financial aid department won't be able to upgrade until the government says "Hey, our software now works on Windows 10."

    Are your existing licenses subject to the expiration of the "free upgrade" next July?
    We can upgrade now because of our volume licensing; I'm not sure how long it lasts, though.

    How confident are you that you could roll back to Win 7 on all machines if you decide the upgrade was a bad move and how easily/quickly/painlessly could that be done?
    We use network deployment for our Windows 7 installations, so rolling back wouldn't be an issue; just boot the machine to the onboard NIC, enter the network administrative password, select the specific package we want to install (we label ours based on what machine a particular package was made for), and walk away.
      My Computer


  4. Posts : 2,487
    Windows 10 Home, 64-bit
       #4

    What's the spirit of your two employers or more precisely the IT leaders? Devil may care, we're a cutting edge pioneering outfit and proud of it? Reserved and cautious, let some other poor SOB stand in the line of fire?

    Whatever it is, I wouldn't fight and try to change anybody's mind. I say that mostly because I assume you have some personal interest in ascending the greased pole of those 2 organizations.

    When in doubt, I wouldn't do it, particularly if you can re-examine it next summer when you may not be squeezed by a time window and may have more confidence in Win 10.

    Just my two bits based on examining bureaucracies all my life--to little avail.
      My Computer


  5. Posts : 136
    Windows 7 Pro x64
    Thread Starter
       #5

    ignatzatsonic said:
    What's the spirit of your two employers or more precisely the IT leaders? Devil may care, we're a cutting edge pioneering outfit and proud of it? Reserved and cautious, let some other poor SOB stand in the line of fire?

    Whatever it is, I wouldn't fight and try to change anybody's mind. I say that mostly because I assume you have some personal interest in ascending the greased pole of those 2 organizations.

    When in doubt, I wouldn't do it, particularly if you can re-examine it next summer when you may not be squeezed by a time window and may have more confidence in Win 10.

    Just my two bits based on examining bureaucracies all my life--to little avail.
    The college I.T. department job is one that I'll actually be leaving permanently after May, and cutting back on after December. It's a tiny college environment (~400 students) that is always tight on funds. As such, we're always looking for ways to stretch our dollars as far as we possibly can. To give an idea, we've only just (within the last 3 weeks) updated our access control from 10-year-old hand scanners to RFID cards readers, and installed security cameras around campus. So the idea of a free VL upgrade to 10 is very appealing to us. But, we may wait a few months as well and start upgrading when we're not a in pre-semester time crunch. The only edge we ride is the low-budget edge of "we may not have money to do something that we really need to do." Anyway, he decided to run a pilot test on a department spare and we'll be seeing if it plays well in a deployment scenario (i.e. managed on the network).
      My Computer


 

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