Windows 7 to Windows 10 migration

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Kelvarr

Supreme [H]ardness
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Ok, I need some help here. As we all know, Windows 7 support is coming to an end. To that point, we will be starting our migration process shortly (all new machines are currently going out with Windows 10 though).

Part of what is holding us up is the daunting nature of it.
Our current plan involves a rather crude (and probably archaic) method:
  • Manually visit and back up current desktop/favorites/bookmarks/etc
  • Using our imaging software to deploy the Windows 10 image to the machine
  • Logging in as user(s) and restoring said backups.

Obviously, this will take a while with somewhere around 350-400 machines to do.

Does anyone have any hints/suggestions as to make this easier on us? Our AD is 2008R2, but we will be doing an upgrade to 2016 (mainly for Windows 10 support) within a month.

Paid, free, whatever. We are looking at all solutions currently.
 
Farva said:
PowerShell your backup and restores.
Click to expand...
Other than Google-searching this (which I am obviously capable of), do you have any specific references? I don't code in Powershell at all. I basically have to look up any PS commands.
 
Kelvarr said:
Other than Google-searching this (which I am obviously capable of), do you have any specific references? I don't code in Powershell at all. I basically have to look up any PS commands.
Click to expand...
Wish I could give you specifics, but the last place I worked at, someone else made the script. I merely used it.
 
DeaconFrost said:
How are the users currently backing up their data?
Click to expand...
All work files are *supposed* to be on the the network share. Those aren't the problem. It is the files that are stored locally, and in unique folders, that are the problem. Things like bookmarks are always stored locally.

Hmm....seems I might be wrong for Chrome.
%LOCALAPPDATA%\Google\Chrome\User Data\Default

Go to that folder and you can see a file with a name "Bookmarks".
Click to expand...
That seems easy enough.

But Firefox...
%APPDATA%\Roaming\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\<randomstring>.default

I guess I could just copy all *.default folders....
 
Can you just have them sync to something like nextcloud or use firefox/chrome backup?
 
I'd group policy the users' profile to network share like H:\ (their personal drive usually).

If you have similar standardized hardware, I'd create an image, and setup a PXE boot server. I'd then phase your departments to PXE boot the Win10 image onto their machines using soft install (prep work for this will take the longest) - don't do too many at a time, consider your network infrastructure. If you want to skip this part and take a ghosted image or so, by all means. Just trying to save the running around.

If you dont have similar standardized hardware but can keep it relatively worth your while (maybe 5-7 images or less) then so be it - anything more then standardization might be something to think about in the future.

That's as general as I can get - I see this alot in our corporate environment and PXE boot servers are easy, although the soft install scripts (what domain to add it to, what to name the PC, etc) can be a learning experience if you've never done it. BARTPE used to be free and the flavor of choice but that's what I learned 20 years ago. LOL

Good luck.

EDIT: Please do not visit those stations manually. Do the homework on the GPO, please.
EDIT2: BARTPE was retired a long time ago (just looked it up and now showing my age): WinPE is an option; used to have to pay for it, but I think it's free now.

Here you go: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/deployment/configure-a-pxe-server-to-load-windows-pe

The PXE server just runs a simple service, holds images. You can get this done.

EDIT3: All PC's need Window deploy and assess kit. If you have SCCM, use it here, if you don't (might be overkill in your environment); we used to use, and I personally loved Altiris. Take the .MSI and push it to all your PC's. Done.

K, now I'm done. Really. Would love to do this again, now I sit in meetings and deal with politics. Ungh!
 
Last edited:
atlas101 said:
I'd group policy the users' profile to network share like H:\ (their personal drive usually).

If you have similar standardized hardware, I'd create an image, and setup a PXE boot server. I'd then phase your departments to PXE boot the Win10 image onto their machines using soft install (prep work for this will take the longest) - don't do too many at a time, consider your network infrastructure. If you want to skip this part and take a ghosted image or so, by all means. Just trying to save the running around.
Click to expand...

I believe we can PXE boot from our imaging software (Macrium)...I'll have to look into it as I don't know how off the top of my head.
If you dont have similar standardized hardware but can keep it relatively worth your while (maybe 5-7 images or less) then so be it - anything more then standardization might be something to think about in the future.
Click to expand...
Yes, luckily, I would say 90% standardized hardware
That's as general as I can get - I see this alot in our corporate environment and PXE boot servers are easy, although the soft install scripts (what domain to add it to, what to name the PC, etc) can be a learning experience if you've never done it. BARTPE used to be free and the flavor of choice but that's what I learned 20 years ago. LOL

Good luck.
Click to expand...
I've dealt with *.hta files to vbscript some stuff during the RunOnce stage of Sysprep, but I'm certainly not well-versed in it. It takes a lot of playing around for me.
EDIT: Please do not visit those stations manually. Do the homework on the GPO, please.
EDIT2: BARTPE was retired a long time ago (just looked it up and now showing my age): WinPE is an option; used to have to pay for it, but I think it's free now.

Here you go: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/deployment/configure-a-pxe-server-to-load-windows-pe

The PXE server just runs a simple service, holds images. You can get this done.
Click to expand...

GPO is a work in progress. We need to update our AD version first...but that is slated for in the next month or so.

EDIT3: All PC's need Window deploy and assess kit. If you have SCCM, use it here, if you don't (might be overkill in your environment); we used to use, and I personally loved Altiris. Take the .MSI and push it to all your PC's. Done.

K, now I'm done. Really. Would love to do this again, now I sit in meetings and deal with politics. Ungh!
Click to expand...
No SCCM. We have Zenworks (ugh...but moving away from - just not in time for this Windows deployment) that we can push *.msi's out with. I might have to look into the deploy and assess kit.

Thanks for all the feedback!
 
MDT - Windows 10 on WDS - customized
As noted powershell backup folders
GPO to put user drives on a network share
OneDrive in use by chance?
Get people to make their own google accounts and sign in and sync.
 
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