How to plan a Windows 7 roll-out
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Broadcast Windows 7 may be Microsoft's fastest selling OS, but some of the larger scale roll outs have started only recently. Rev 1 teething problems, combined with the effects of a slump, fuelled the initial caution.
But with many of you set to cut your teeth on this OS refresh, we have pulled some experts into our studio to give you a bit of help. So make sure to put the 2 June at 11am BST (12pm CEST) in your diary for this spectacular.
Tim Phillips is running the show with a little help from our friend Dale Vile from the analyst firm Freeform Dynamics. Joining them are Gavin Bell from Computacenter and Will Westwick, head of workplace at BskyB, who recently kicked off a Win 7 migration at Sky. He’s also done some serious OS migrations at some ‘major’ British retailers so he knows his OS upgrade path like the back of his hand.
Our panel will explore how to move into the deployment phase, explain the drivers behind the deployment schedule, hold your hand through the deployment choices and point you in the direction of some migration tools. Will himself will give you a run through the lessons he’s learned from his OS upgrade projects and take you through some of his top tips for success.
For any of you planning such a move, this should be just the fillip. You can register right here for free.
COMMENTS
WOW THANKS
Then marvelling as the employees tear the network to pieces due to lack of GPOs. I can hardly wait.
@SpottedCow
It's a bit of an oversight alright from Microsoft re joining the domain before renaming the machine - I use this process to prompt for a PC rename before joining the domain:
http://txt.bitprocessor.be/2009/12/29/windows-7-sysprep-tips-tricks/
@David 155
This is THE number one issue I have with Windows 7 rollouts, David.
We have an environment that involves multiple users using the same machine. If Microsoft cannot give us a utility that lets us create a standardized Default User profile, Windows 7 is nearly impossible to deploy, as much as I'd like to. It would take less than six months for the boffins at MS to come up with a method, if someone high up made it a priority.
Microsoft says that a combination of Sysprep's copyprofile=true, combined with GPOs and scripting will take care of this. For one, they're wrong; it isn't possible to get the same level of control. Two, it takes three times as long (or longer) to use their new supported methods. There is a multipage comment thread on "The Deployment Guys" Technet blog from users frustrated by the current methods.
Sysprep now has bugs, too. So far, I haven't been able to set machines to automatically join the domain unless I allow them to be assigned random names. If I tell Sysprep to let me choose a name, the "join domain" step occurs before the machine naming step, and it fails.
I want to be able to deploy Windows 7 easily. Right now, I'm telling my boss that the ongoing issues are going to keep most of our systems on XP for another year, in the hopes that Microsoft sorts out some of this garbage. They got the OS right; problem is, the deployment is enough to drive anyone to drink.
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