We are looking to begin the migration of staff users to Windows 10 later this calendar year. For existing Windows 7 Service PCs, we will be using an ‘In-Place Upgrade’ Task Sequence to upgrade the PC to Windows 10. Assuming the PC’s Windows 7 installation is in a healthy condition, this avoids the need to re-image and therefore having to backup and restore the user’s applications and files.

 We’d like to invite School IT, PC Tech Support and Service Desk staff to trial the latest Windows 10 build and upgrade process. This is still very much under development with new features being added all the time. As these features are added we will deploy them to any PCs that have already migrated, so you will not have to re-image your PC again later to get the final build.

 If you would like to try out the process and build, please submit a case to the EUC team with the same subject line as this e-mail and provide the PC name(s) you wish to migrate. These can be your main PC or a development/test PC, and it must be running the Windows 7 Staff service. Please do not provide PC names for machines used by non-IT staff end users.

Once we have the name of your PC we will check for any compatibility warnings returned by your PC(s) and advise you on any action required. We will also advertise the Task Sequence to you at that point.

The process can take up to a couple of hours during which you won’t be able to use the PC. For the full rollout we are therefore proposing that end users trigger the update at the end of the day and leave it running overnight. However, if you’d rather run it during the day (for example if you need to take your laptop home with you each night) then that is not a problem.  

If you have any questions regarding this or encounter any issues, please let us know via the Service Desk.