Windows 10 Upgrade - Small Office Domain - Win 7 Pro OEM Licenses (~100 Machines)

Jason

You don't have to upgrade the windows 7 to 10 in place, Just image with a VL after you document and be done.

Also depending on your level of volume licensing you don't need a seat for imaging either. Imaging rights comes with your agreement not the seat. The seat is just if you are at a lower level and don't get access to everything thin VLSC. (I'm guessing Open License & Open Value are the only two that need to buy this, not sure as we don't have too)

Same with the documenting and going straight to windows 10, as along as you have an agreement higher than Open and Value you should be good. http://www.microsoftvolumelicensing.com/Downloader.aspx?DocumentId=9294

momurda

I have done a win7>win10 upgrades on about ten machines here at work. No major issues except when for people try to use Edge to do actual work. With 100 or so machines you could just login to each one and goto msn.com, hit the Upgrade button. Or unleash the update on your wsus, as youve suggested.

Dashrender

@Jason said in Windows 10 Upgrade - Small Office Domain - Win 7 Proe OEM Licenses (~100 Machines):

You don't have to upgrade the windows 7 to 10 in place, Just image with a VL after you document and be done.

Also depending on your level of volume licensing you don't need a seat for imaging either. Imaging rights comes with your agreement not the seat. The seat is just if you are at a lower level and don't get access to everything thin VLSC. (I'm guessing Open License & Open Value are the only two that need to buy this, not sure as we don't have too)

Same with the documenting and going straight to windows 10, as along as you have an agreement higher than Open and Value you should be good. http://www.microsoftvolumelicensing.com/Downloader.aspx?DocumentId=9294

SMB's rarely have an agreement higher than Open or Value, so that doesn't really play here.

You only get imaging rights to the same version that you have OEM rights to on the machine, so for the SMBs here, they need to actually go through the License upgrade process, using any of the above mentioned ways, otherwise you're application of a VL image would be outside of your license agreement, even though with KMS or MAK it would work.

JaredBusch

I have done many remote upgrades via ScreenConnect. It has worked perfectly every time.

I do grab the GenuineTicket.xml just in case though.

My process.

Download the current Windows 10 install using the Media Creation Tool.
Extract GatherOSState.exe and save to some useful network place.
Move the ISO to some useful network place.
Go to or remote into user computer.
Verify user data is backed up someplace.
Run any pending windows updates.
Reboot.
Copy GatherOSState.exe to desktop and run as administrator.
Move the GenunineTicket.xml to some useful network place.
Delete GatherOSState.exe from desktop.
Mount the ISO.
a. If Windows 7, I will use VirtualCloneDrive to mount.
b. Windows 8 mounts natively.
Run setup.exe and follow the prompts.

Dashrender

@JaredBusch said in Windows 10 Upgrade - Small Office Domain - Win 7 Proe OEM Licenses (~100 Machines):

I have done many remote upgrades via ScreenConnect. It has worked perfectly every time.

I do grab the GenuineTicket.xml just in case though.

My process.

Download the current Windows 10 install using the Media Creation Tool.

Extract GatherOSState.exe and save to some useful network place.

Move the ISO to some useful network place.

Go to or remote into user computer.

Verify user data is backed up someplace.

Run any pending windows updates.

Reboot.

Copy GatherOSState.exe to desktop and run as administrator.

Move the GenunineTicket.xml to some useful network place.

Delete GatherOSState.exe from desktop.

Mount the ISO.
a. If Windows 7, I will use VirtualCloneDrive to mount.
b. Windows 8 mounts natively.

Run setup.exe and follow the prompts.

Since you're running setup from inside Windows 7, running the gatherOSState.exe shouldn't be needed, you're doing a traditional normal upgrade.

JaredBusch

@Dashrender said in Windows 10 Upgrade - Small Office Domain - Win 7 Proe OEM Licenses (~100 Machines):

@JaredBusch said in Windows 10 Upgrade - Small Office Domain - Win 7 Proe OEM Licenses (~100 Machines):

I have done many remote upgrades via ScreenConnect. It has worked perfectly every time.

I do grab the GenuineTicket.xml just in case though.

My process.

Download the current Windows 10 install using the Media Creation Tool.

Extract GatherOSState.exe and save to some useful network place.

Move the ISO to some useful network place.

Go to or remote into user computer.

Verify user data is backed up someplace.

Run any pending windows updates.

Reboot.

Copy GatherOSState.exe to desktop and run as administrator.

Move the GenunineTicket.xml to some useful network place.

Delete GatherOSState.exe from desktop.

Mount the ISO.
a. If Windows 7, I will use VirtualCloneDrive to mount.
b. Windows 8 mounts natively.

Run setup.exe and follow the prompts.

Since you're running setup from inside Windows 7, running the gatherOSState.exe shouldn't be needed, you're doing a traditional normal upgrade.

I believe i specified that I run in just in case.

To clarify, I know 100% that it is not needed. But if any of the upgrades fail, have zero plan to start over, and the file may be needed.

Never has yet though.

Dashrender

@JaredBusch said in Windows 10 Upgrade - Small Office Domain - Win 7 Proe OEM Licenses (~100 Machines):

@Dashrender said in Windows 10 Upgrade - Small Office Domain - Win 7 Proe OEM Licenses (~100 Machines):

@JaredBusch said in Windows 10 Upgrade - Small Office Domain - Win 7 Proe OEM Licenses (~100 Machines):

I have done many remote upgrades via ScreenConnect. It has worked perfectly every time.

I do grab the GenuineTicket.xml just in case though.

My process.

Download the current Windows 10 install using the Media Creation Tool.

Extract GatherOSState.exe and save to some useful network place.

Move the ISO to some useful network place.

Go to or remote into user computer.

Verify user data is backed up someplace.

Run any pending windows updates.

Reboot.

Copy GatherOSState.exe to desktop and run as administrator.

Move the GenunineTicket.xml to some useful network place.

Delete GatherOSState.exe from desktop.

Mount the ISO.
a. If Windows 7, I will use VirtualCloneDrive to mount.
b. Windows 8 mounts natively.

Run setup.exe and follow the prompts.

Since you're running setup from inside Windows 7, running the gatherOSState.exe shouldn't be needed, you're doing a traditional normal upgrade.

I believe i specified that I run in just in case.

To clarify, I know 100% that it is not needed. But if any of the upgrades fail, have zero plan to start over, and the file may be needed.

Never has yet though.

I have had GenuineTicket.XML fail and fell back to the Win 7 sticker - and that always works.

BRRABill

@JaredBusch said

I believe i specified that I run in just in case.

Computers. Shit happens. Good plan!

Dashrender

@BRRABill said in Windows 10 Upgrade - Small Office Domain - Win 7 Proe OEM Licenses (~100 Machines):

@JaredBusch said

I believe i specified that I run in just in case.

Computers. Shit happens. Good plan!

I wasn't doing it this way, I was saving the XML, then rebuilding with a Win10 USB stick, but that starting being rather unreliable. Switching to standard upgrade mode, while a little longer (oh and I had to say keep my user data, but no programs, as save nothing wouldn't register for me either) did work more reliably.

scottalanmiller

@Brains said in Windows 10 Upgrade - Small Office Domain - Win 7 Proe OEM Licenses (~100 Machines):

@Dashrender I was speaking to Microsoft about this situation late last year, and they hinted at purchasing 1 Win10 VL and using that. Im really doubtful due to licensing issues. Do you think it would work?

that's been standard always and MS pushes it heavily. Just takes one VL copy to have imaging rights.

BRRABill

@Dashrender said

I wasn't doing it this way, I was saving the XML, then rebuilding with a Win10 USB stick, but that starting being rather unreliable. Switching to standard upgrade mode, while a little longer (oh and I had to say keep my user data, but no programs, as save nothing wouldn't register for me either) did work more reliably.

I just mean I personally take backups of backups and always assume something nutty will happen.

Dashrender

@BRRABill said in Windows 10 Upgrade - Small Office Domain - Win 7 Proe OEM Licenses (~100 Machines):

@Dashrender said

I wasn't doing it this way, I was saving the XML, then rebuilding with a Win10 USB stick, but that starting being rather unreliable. Switching to standard upgrade mode, while a little longer (oh and I had to say keep my user data, but no programs, as save nothing wouldn't register for me either) did work more reliably.

I just mean I personally take backups of backups and always assume something nutty will happen.

yeah I've learned that 2+ backups are required. ug.

BRRABill

@Dashrender said

yeah I've learned that 2+ backups are required. ug.

A prime example of this was the iPhone backup. Quite a few times, I would do a backup, and then something would happen, and it would back itself up again, thus overwriting the old backup. So I would take a backup, and then backup the backup.

Just typical versioning, but not intuitive when the phone is doing its own thing.

Brains

Thanks everyone for your help. I was able to get my deployments down to 3-4 minutes hands on per desktop by using WSUS to deploy the upgrade. I did have to modify a reg key - AllowOSUpgrade, but everything seemed to work well. Does anyone have any GPO pointers for the transition?

Steps:

Created Windows 10 WSUS Computer Group. Approved Win10 Retail Upgrade only for that group.
Made GPO Change for AllowOSUpgrade
Uninstall Kaspersky From Desktop(s) (Says its not compatible even though it is - wont let me upgrade unless I remove) remotely via Security Center
Add Computer(s) to WSUS Windows 10 Computer Group
Log into the machine and click start upgrade (Remote Desktop Connection Manager is useful. I can remote into 10+ computers all at once with my saved credentials)
5-10 minutes later, click upgrade now
Wait
Physically go to desktop(s) and go through initial 2-3 configuration screens. Disabling M$ spying.
Reinstall KES
Done

travisdh1

@Brains Don't forget the last step of going back and disabling Micrsoft's spies after the updates are complete. One of those every so helpful updates enables all of them.

Dashrender

something I discovered yesterday, upgrading does not remove the old manually install drivers. I had to go into programs and features and remove them. Then after several mins, windows 10 detected the hardware and installed it's own driver.

JaredBusch

@Dashrender said in Windows 10 Upgrade - Small Office Domain - Win 7 Pro OEM Licenses (~100 Machines):

something I discovered yesterday, upgrading does not remove the old manually install drivers. I had to go into programs and features and remove them. Then after several mins, windows 10 detected the hardware and installed it's own driver.

On this, I have chosen to not install any drivers in my image because all of my gear has detected the network by default on install.

I then let Windows 10 down load whatever it thinks is right after that.

dafyre

Windows 10 does pretty good with hardware detection. The only thing I go after is the NVIDIA drivers for my laptop... and even that is by choice.

Brains

@travisdh1 yay! Thats what I love to hear in my healthcare field! Microsoft randomly stealing our PHI! I am going to try to disable it all through GPO if possible, so that it stays static. Do you have any good references that I could use to make sure I get them all?

Brains

Unrelated note, has anyone upgraded a Win7 laptop with dual video cards to Windows 10 yet? I havent spent much time on it yet, planning to this month, but my laptop doesnt even prompt me for the upgrade and doesnt run if I manually instigate the upgrade process.