Upgrading to Windows 7 in a company.

mickoneill30

Our company is using XP on a few hundred PCs and it's time to move.

I'm looking for advice from anybody that's gone through this process before.

Specifically any resources on Volume Licensing, Automated builds, standardising desktops etc.

I know Google is your friend and I've got plenty of books but if any other admins are like me they've a pile of links in their favourites of the best sites and they'll have figured out or experience some problems.

That's the kind of info I'm looking for.

CptSternn

If you are doing an enterprise wide upgrade ring Microsoft. They have specialists who will walk you through everything you need to know. In many cases they will even send someone on-site to give you an evaluation.

tech

i dont think you can upgrade Win Xp to Win 7,

BaconZombie

Even if you could I would not recommend it.

tech wrote: »

i dont think you can upgrade Win Xp to Win 7,

CptSternn

It wouldn't be a straight upgrade. Normally in an enterprise entvironment you would use Config Manager to roll out new images to all of the clients.

Again, Microsoft will send someone in with the tools needed to do this if you are looking to upgrade your entire site. I work for HP, and work alongside many Microsoft lads and watch them do this all the time sure.

In fact, many businesses now are moving from XP to W7 in this very manner. The customer I am current working with is doing the very same migration.

mickoneill30

OK I used the wrong word.

I don't want to upgrade our existing XP installations. I want to replace them using existing hardware & apps if possible. I would never upgrade one OS to another in place. It always ends in tears or at least problems.

I worked on a project when moving to XP from NT and had loads of resources. I know I can get consultants (I used to be one too), I just thought there'd be some IT guys on Boards that had done this before by now and might have interesting sites or white papers that I haven't found yet.

sandleman1979

Right, where to start...
First things first you need to check that all your hardware is capable of running Windows 7.

The Microsoft Assesment and planning toolkit will assist you here.
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/en/details.aspx?displaylang=en&FamilyID=67240b76-3148-4e49-943d-4d9ea7f77730

This creates reports to say if a machine has the necessary memory, CPU etc. Also shows if there are drivers available for any hardware you have.

Additionally you need to ensure all your apps will work within Windows 7
The Application Compatibility Toolkit will assist you here.
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/en/details.aspx?familyid=24da89e9-b581-47b0-b45e-492dd6da2971&displaylang=en

When ready to go the following will assist you in deploying Windows 7 using standardised images using task seuqences.
The Microsoft Deployment Toolkit can be downloaded here
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/en/details.aspx?FamilyId=3BD8561F-77AC-4400-A0C1-FE871C461A89&displaylang=en

Or if you have the licensing use Microsoft System Center Configuration Manager
http://www.microsoft.com/systemcenter/en/us/configuration-manager.aspx

MDT is free, SCCM costs so usually sways companies decisions ;-)

You can have a single Windows 7 image that can be deployed to any machine, drivers are stored allowing the task sequence to install only what is needed for a particular machine. Software can either be captured in the image or deployed as part of the task sequence.

Task sequences automate the whole process meaning no insert this disk etc. You can also build the user state migration tool into the process to capture users documents and settings and restore once Windows 7 is installed.

I can keep going, but all the links above will have access to documentation which in MDT is much better than previous versions...

Any questions give me a buzz...

mickoneill30

Thanks Sandleman. Thats the kind of post I was hoping for. I'd never heard of MDT. I've used SCCM before but we're not big enough where I am now to justify that.

pclancy

There was some good info on using MDT info relating to the XP-7 migration process at Tech Ed this year.

Lots of videos here for digestion: http://www.msteched.com/

Personally i'm finding it hard to come up with any reasons to upgrade to 7 right now from a stable 1500 client XP environment. IE8/9 is a feature we'd like and visually its nice but until all support for XP ends in 2014 I don't think we're moving anywhere.

Edit: http://www.msteched.com/2010/NorthAmerica/WCL311

mickoneill30

pclancy wrote: »

There was some good info on using MDT info relating to the XP-7 migration process at Tech Ed this year.

Lots of videos here for digestion: http://www.msteched.com/

Personally i'm finding it hard to come up with any reasons to upgrade to 7 right now from a stable 1500 client XP environment. IE8/9 is a feature we'd like and visually its nice but until all support for XP ends in 2014 I don't think we're moving anywhere.

Edit: http://www.msteched.com/2010/NorthAmerica/WCL311

Thanks for that. That's interesting stuff.

When I was moving from NT - XP in another company one of the major reasons was that apps were starting to appear that wouldn't work on NT. IE is the first, there'll be more. I'm just pre-empting the move rather than have it forced on me like it was when I moved from NT.

Another reason is that hardware vendors are starting to abandon XP. I bought some HPs recently. I was creating my image and did the usual of install XP then wandered to HPs website to grab the drivers and there was no XP section. I was able to get all the missing drivers from the individual vendors but I imagine it'll happen that some vendor doesn't bother writing XP drivers for some new chipset or device in the next year or so and we'll be forced to use Windows 7 on it. By moving formally we can test and design our builds properly rather than have to wing it (a common practice in my current company)

And I've about 30 machines to replace in the next few months.

Otherwise you're right. I've no problems with our XP infrastructure. It's a stable and reliable OS when admins with at least half a brain look after it.

joe_elway

Get yourself onto the MS Springboard site. Things you will want to learn about are:

1) MAP - for assessment and info gathering
2) ACT - for app compatibility.
3) WDS - for booting up hardware on the network.
4) MDT - for doing very clever OS deployment
5) Maybe ConfigMgr - for zero touch OS deployment if you have licensing for System Center Configuration Manager.

I've a step-by-step blog on MDT 2010 at http://www.aidanfinn.com/?page_id=10027. MDT was updated to MDT 2010 Update 1 a few months ago.

I'm part of a team writing "Mastering Windows 7 Deployment" but that won't be out until Q1 2011. The Windows User Group will probably be doing a day long event early next year. I presented for a couple of hours last year and the webcast should still be OK: http://www.aidanfinn.com/?p=10180