Microsoft doing an exceptional job forcing out commercial customers, what do you think?

[PhineasTD]

Microsoft doing an exceptional job forcing out commercial customers

While my posts on Windows Central are few, anyone that's read them is sure to divine that I work in a spread of office settings. That said, a majority of the computers and servers I have exposure to run Windows (NOT 10) in some fashion (although our IT department has steadily converted our mobile to OS). Here's my question; What the hell is Microsoft thinking using so dubious a practice to practically force Windows 10 onto users? The interrupts alone are causing production delays, we have to educate personnel to NOT simply close down the Windows Upgrade dialog box as the 'x' actually initiates a download which consumes massive bandwidth and storage space, manually remove updates and stop automatic updates, then go behind every machine because so many have lost work because they carelessly ignored our numerous emails to avoid certain actions involving this Windows 10 nonsense. Our costs skyrocketed due to the 'Free Upgrade' due to lost data, software having to be reinstalled, and our IT department simply cannot keep up.

In short it has been a nightmare and has lead to the ultimate conclusion of eliminating all Windows operating systems from our company. It will be cheaper for us to convert rather than to restore, at least that is what we have so far discovered after our kaizen, and while personally I am not an Apple fan it does appear that they've become the lesser of the two evils. Being a global corporation, our expenses regarding this are massive and proves to be no small endeavor at any level. It'd be great to see Linux rise to a corporate and professional level for myself personally, but too many issues still arise for practical users.

I'd love to hear some feedback from Windows users in a commercial environment, particularly developers or IT individuals that have had to educate and re-educate users, chase down the updates that need to be stopped/blocked/removed, or have sought other avenues all together.

 

[Pete]

Re: Microsoft doing an exceptional job forcing out commercial customers

We have our software administered by group policy at our company, no one gets any prompts for Windows 10 installation.

 

[theefman]

Re: Microsoft doing an exceptional job forcing out commercial customers

Get some IT people who know how to implement group policy to block that crap.

 

[orlbuckeye]

Re: Microsoft doing an exceptional job forcing out commercial customers

We don't run Windows 10 on our servers and most people don't. We run Windows Server 2012 R2 64 bit with typically MS SQL server 2012 or 2008 backend databases. Most of our apps are client server web apps which makes upgrading alot easier. On the desktop we recently went through a upgrade to Windows 7. We use images to install the OS and we have Desktop support install application specific to the job. I work in application support my applications get security updates every month on the 3rd Wednesday. I come in early to make sure the applications run properly. We spent 0 dollars on training when we upgraded our desktop OS's because IT setup the apps the users use and need and that was no different from the previous OS. We use group policies and restrict admin rights to users PC's. We started using Surface Pro's in the past 1 to 1.5 years and haven't had to many issues with them. Most are Surface Pro 3's with Windows 8.1 but the Surface Pro 4's have Windows 10 which we are still testing bu haven't had an issue.

 

[PepperdotNet]

Re: Microsoft doing an exceptional job forcing out commercial customers

Get some IT people who know how to implement group policy to block that crap.

Further, have them implement WSUS so your users aren't going directly to Microsoft for updates in the first place.

 

[PhineasTD]

Re: Microsoft doing an exceptional job forcing out commercial customers

Enforcing group policies has been an uphill battle from day one. Our work stations are privatized and for good reason, but we also operate by remote when abroad. We've struggled a great deal keeping our architects plugged in, secure, but still able to access private and under contract (via NDA or legally binding) works. It's been a real headache.

 

[Krystianpants]

Re: Microsoft doing an exceptional job forcing out commercial customers

Enforcing group policies has been an uphill battle from day one. Our work stations are privatized and for good reason, but we also operate by remote when abroad. We've struggled a great deal keeping our architects plugged in, secure, but still able to access private and under contract (via NDA or legally binding) works. It's been a real headache.

Well, in your office you need to enforce active directory and updates through update server. Even if they are private computers the policies should not allow them to download while in the office.

As far as VPN goes, since they are private you would likely want to setup an SSL vpn that creates tunnels for specific services and controls inbound/outbound traffic rules. Barracuda has a good sslvpn solution. It even has a web portal that uses a thin java client for very specific services so clients don't need any software on their end. And the best part is you restrict access and their regular internet still routes through their own provider not using your vpn for regular traffic.

 

[AndyCalling]

Re: Microsoft doing an exceptional job forcing out commercial customers

File level encryption. Seriously, there's nothing better for handling access to small bundles of key documents, as the security follows the file around and does not rely on external factors to remain secure. I suggest you avoid NTFS file level encryption for portability reasons (in case a Linux server comes in to play, or a USB stick). Actually, I've found something as simple as 7-Zip works well as it does provide full 256bit AES encryption and the 7-Zip programme is light and readily available already on many PCs.

Sounds like a pretty basic and unsophisticated approach, but the simplest solutions are sometimes the best.

I'm not sure what you mean by a privatised workstation. So, you're public sector and your PCs are managed by a private company? Possibly, but I doubt you meant that. I guess you mean your PCs are hardened in some way? Remember that encrypted PCs often only encrypt data at rest. File level encryption also solves that problem (largely).

 

[Pete]

Re: Microsoft doing an exceptional job forcing out commercial customers

So, the thread title here is slightly misleading when the actual issue is a difficulty in configuring/locking down a corporate system.

 

[Chintan Gohel]

Re: Microsoft doing an exceptional job forcing out commercial customers

Seeing that no one has asked this: could you share the reasons why you would not wish to upgrade any machine to Windows 10? It would be interesting to know the reasons

 

[v535]

Re: Microsoft doing an exceptional job forcing out commercial customers

You could simply try to push a service config disabling BITS and WU in your enterprise OS image during post install settings like the one, used in NTLite.

 

[anon(5327127)]

Re: Microsoft doing an exceptional job forcing out commercial customers

Get some IT people who know how to implement group policy to block Win10 UNTIL you've tested it..

+1.

Windows 10 is the future and, along with Hyper-v or even a terminal server, your older systems/software can still function. A lazy I.T. department will always keep you behind.

 

[anon(5327127)]

Re: Microsoft doing an exceptional job forcing out commercial customers

P.s. WSUS. There is ZERO excuse when WSUS is FREE.

"Being a global corporation"

Is your post REALLY a serious post? A global company would/should/could NEVER even have any problems with all of this stuff. I'm baffled by the OP's post?

 

[PhineasTD]

Re: Microsoft doing an exceptional job forcing out commercial customers

Sorry it's been a minute since I've responded. It's difficult for me to explain due to boundaries involving NDA's. I'm also neither a computer guru nor do I work in the IT department so my explanations are limited by my own knowledge. Our company has slowly been migrating away from Microsoft as much as it can and Windows 10 has been an ongoing issue with our IT team. Also, Microsoft's approach to commercial entities hasn't been the best of late (my personal experiences here are a little better versed) and some of the articles that Windows 10 presented are not ideal for us at this point in local office development (Concerns about it's more commercialized format and it's lack of support for some of the older software that we rely heavily upon).

By privatized systems I mean that by both intellectual properties and in a small part physical one. We each can secure contracts through the brand name and have both legal obligations to the company but also rights to our work, how it is secured and maintained, and this is a highly competitive industry. The environment as it is produces some issues when it comes to security of dwg's, dxf's, 3ds's and the like, not to mention sharing designs, particularly when we as individuals can be held legally responsible. It present real complications.

I'm struggling to explain it better...sorry guys.

 

[Ray Adams]

Re: Microsoft doing an exceptional job forcing out commercial customers

I am sorry, but do not get me wrong. If your company decided to go away from Windows into Linux. How you will handle it if your IT team even unable to handle simple group policy in Windows!? I cannot imagine having company's office sitting on Linux where you simply do not have such good network integration.


For example our company still sits on this ancient Windows 7 and IT team updated policy long time ago.
The problem with the companies is that they do not want to spend their time to upgrade to Win10. I am working as software developer and I hate Win7. We buying new boxes for office and wiping Win10 just to install Win7! And I still cannot convince my VP IT to start upgrade process while it is still free for old Win7 boxes.