Windows 10: Opinions needed about my approach to deploy windows 10 Pro to 200 PCs

Hello, I am glad I found this Forum, For long time I have been working with Midrange servers (iSeries, pSeries), and due to company downsizing issues I have been volunteered and tasked to deploy Win10Pro on about 200 PCs (all PCs are identical, same brand, model, configuration, etc) those PCs where purchased some years ago with OEM Win10Pro license burned in the ACPI of the system board, but when they were deployed into production, way back when, they were deployed with Win7Pro which is no longer supported by Microsoft hence the need to image them with Win10Pro. We have a copy of Symantec Ghost Standard Tools 3.1 so I focused in using it to do the deployment.

The following approach is what I have tested and the tests seem to work, but I do not know enough about deploying Win10Pro images to predict if the approach has pitfalls not apparent to me. Here is the Deployment tests I have done:

- I clean installed Win10Pro 1809 in one of the PCs
- installed all needed applications, Win Updates, drives, etc.
- This PC was really set up and customized as if it is the only PC being deployed
- BTW, these PCs do not need to have password, so this one PC was setup as such, they don't join a domain either
- At this point this one PC's apps were tested and seemed to work as expected. Ghost was used to capture an image of these PC at this moment just in case I need to get back to it.
- I then syspreped generalized the PC using a XML file that renders de OOBE flag useless (as explained here Sysprep generalize Windows image without OOBE
- Once the PC was down I captured another image which will be used as Golden Image to deploy the 200 PCs with it.

I did a test, Multicasting the Golden Image to 60 PCs at once (using Ghostcast 3.1), the process took just 12 minutes from the moment the multicast transmission started till it ended.

Once imaged, each one of these 60 PCs had their own individual PC name and Win10Pro License Key that matches the one in the ACPI (mother board).

I again tested the installed apps in couple of the 60 PCs and they seem to behave as expected. having said that, this PCs have not been tested in a production scenario.

Anybody see any flaws with the above approach.

Many thx in advance

:)

 

Will Lotus Approach run in Windows 10 Pro?

I am running Lotus Approach version 9.8.0709.1005 in Windows 7 Pro 64 bit using Windows XP (service pack 3) compatibility mode.

If I upgrade to Windows 10 Pro 64 bit, will Approach still run?

I have seen info that suggests that 16 bit programs will not run on Windows 10 64 bit.

Thanks

 

Windows 10 Tweaks

Pressing “Windows+Pause Break” (it’s up there next to scroll lock) opens the “System” Window.

Windows 10: In the new version of Windows, Explorer has a section called Quick Access. This includes your frequent folders and recent files. Explorer defaults to opening this page when you open a new window. If you’d rather open the usual This PC, with links to your drives and library folders, follow these steps:

• Open a new Explorer window.
• Click View in the ribbon.
• Click Options.
• Under General, next to “Open File Explorer to:” choose “This PC.”
• Click OK

credit to Lifehacker.

 

How to plan and deploy upgrade of Windows 7 Pro to Windows 10 Enterprise

• It seems Win7Pro can't be directly upgraded to Win10Ent. I read Win7Pro has to be upgraded to Win10Pro first and then upgrade to Win10Ent. Is it so?
  
  Windows 7 Professional does not have an upgrade path to Windows 10 Enterprise, but as you noted, you can upgrade first to Windows 10 Pro, then perform an Easy Upgrade to Enterprise from Pro:
  
  Windows 10 upgrade paths (Windows 10) - Windows Deployment
• Is there any tool to scan network and list all PCs with information like if it can be upgraded, what all apps & drivers would be affected, etc.
  
  The Microsoft Deployment Toolkit is what you would need:
  

Microsoft Deployment Toolkit - free download | TechNet

• Is there any tool to customize deployment. I would like to remove Store, Edge, some bundled apps, automate activation, if required, etc.
  
  The MDT would be the tool of choice:
  
  

Deploy a Windows 10 image using MDT (Windows 10) | Microsoft Docs

Is there any additional things to be taken care of?

WindowsNetworking.com has some good articles about deploying Windows 10:

http://www.windowsnetworking.com/articles-tutorials/windows-10/0.1.1/

You should also post follow up questions on the dedicated Windows 10 IT Pro forums on Technet. This forum is really consumer oriented.

Technet forums - Windows 10 IT Pro - Microsoft