Windows 10 - how are you deploying it?
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OK a few assumptions:
You don't have Software Assurance
You don't have an Enterprise Agreement
You have no other traditional option that grants you upgrades to Windows 10.Now that that is out of the way.
100 workstation environment, machines have either Windows 7 Pro or 8.1 Pro licenses
Assuming you want to upgrade, how would you do it?
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I've done the following.
Taken a domain joined machine, inserted the USB drive with the Win10 image and upgraded.
The machine activated through MS activation servers with no issues. -
Now that the machine has a valid Windows 10 Pro license, I believe that I'm legally allowed to use Win10 Open License media to deploy images and use KMS for these machines.
Thoughts?
Yes this will be a huge pain in the ass, I'll have to upgrade manually all 100 devices, but I don't see another option for getting the Win10 license attached to the machine.
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Have you attempted to go through Windows Updates on the target machine? As a test for one site, we used the current system to run Windows Update which pulled the Windows 10 package.
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I've just used the http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows10 site as all of our machines are OEM Dell's...
Though I've not rolled it out totally yet...Autodesk doesn't want to certify anything older than 2014 for Windows 10 use...
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@gjacobse said:
Have you attempted to go through Windows Updates on the target machine? As a test for one site, we used the current system to run Windows Update which pulled the Windows 10 package.
Domain joined machines don't get the prompt to upgrade. I'm using WSUS so my machines don't see an option to upgrade to Windows 10 from Windows Update either.
I don't recall seeing an option in Windows update to push out the Windows 10 upgrade - did I miss something?
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@garak0410 said:
I've just used the http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows10 site as all of our machines are OEM Dell's...
Though I've not rolled it out totally yet...Autodesk doesn't want to certify anything older than 2014 for Windows 10 use...
Same here, that is where I downloaded the image that is on my USB stick from.
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@Dashrender said:
@gjacobse said:
Have you attempted to go through Windows Updates on the target machine? As a test for one site, we used the current system to run Windows Update which pulled the Windows 10 package.
Domain joined machines don't get the prompt to upgrade. I'm using WSUS so my machines don't see an option to upgrade to Windows 10 from Windows Update either.
I don't recall seeing an option in Windows update to push out the Windows 10 upgrade - did I miss something?
The machines we did were domain joined. We only ran the Windows Update, which processed all 'new' updates and then pulled the Win10 files.
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@Dashrender said:
100 workstation environment, machines have either Windows 7 Pro or 8.1 Pro licenses
Only 100 workstations shouldn't be too hard to do manually, which you'll need to do to get the key.
We have 1 volume license of it just to do imaging, and then will do inplace upgrades on the machines to get it registered for windows 10 then do images via WDS. But this process will take us a while with 20k computers.
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@gjacobse said:
@Dashrender said:
@gjacobse said:
Have you attempted to go through Windows Updates on the target machine? As a test for one site, we used the current system to run Windows Update which pulled the Windows 10 package.
Domain joined machines don't get the prompt to upgrade. I'm using WSUS so my machines don't see an option to upgrade to Windows 10 from Windows Update either.
I don't recall seeing an option in Windows update to push out the Windows 10 upgrade - did I miss something?
The machines we did were domain joined. We only ran the Windows Update, which processed all 'new' updates and then pulled the Win10 files.
huh - I'll have to create a new OU and move a machine or two to that OU. Then have that OU use MS updates instead of WSUS and give it a try.
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@gjacobse said:
The machines we did were domain joined. We only ran the Windows Update, which processed all 'new' updates and then pulled the Win10 files.
Assuming that wasn't a fluke - this is great news! Many reports (who are of course talking out of their asses) have been reporting that businesses don't get the free upgrade. But there is no reason that an OEM licensed Pro machine in a business doesn't qualify for a free upgrade any less than a home user with OEM Pro installed.
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@gjacobse said:
The machines we did were domain joined. We only ran the Windows Update, which processed all 'new' updates and then pulled the Win10 files.
Are you machines using an Open license KMS key, or the OEM install? That could be a difference.
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Fluke?? I thought we were talking about Microsoft...
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@Dashrender said:
Assuming that wasn't a fluke - this is great news! Many reports (who are of course talking out of their asses) have been reporting that businesses don't get the free upgrade. But there is no reason that an OEM licensed Pro machine in a business doesn't qualify for a free upgrade any less than a home user with OEM Pro installed.
None of that matters. Business or residential. Domain joined or not. All OEM keys are upgradable. KMS activated may not be. I have not looked into it. VLSC MAK keys are from what I understand. I'll be testing a VLSC MAK sometime soon at a client.
Regarding WSUS, I would not bother with that. You have to hit the machines manually to kick things off anyway. Or has someone come up with a command line to run an upgrade?
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KMS does work, I've tried it three times so far - works like a charm.
