Enterprise conversion from XP to Win7

[steadyrock]

This.

No, most of our applications were 32-bit with more going 64-bit every year. There are CRITICAL things you need to have in order and questions answered before you begin your migration. Moving to Windows 7 is NONTRIVIAL. How about your domain? Are you on server 2008R2? Is your domain ready for Windows 7? If not, you really need to get ready for it. A ton changed and how you do things have changed. Item Level Targeting, various oddities in how GPO's apply. Printer mapping gotcha's. User share issues. It is HUGE just preparing and migrating from a Server 2003 to a windows 7, Server 2008R2 domain (64-bit only btw so you will need servers that support it). How about your Exchange Server, did you know there are critical issues and alterations that have to be solved when migrating your Exchange Server? Did you know running Server 2008R2 Domain pretty much requires you to update your Exchange Server or all kinds of weird things can go wrong?

Hardware, compatible with windows 7? Sure, we have several thousand HP desktops have 100% drivers for Windows 7 and are in use and deployed. Did you know, however, that the front audio out ports are NON-FUNCTIONAL under windows 7? Yeah, who knew...

How about machine imaging, changes here as well. New options and new gotcha's.

DO you have a roadmap?

Legacy Applications?

Seriously this is a non-trivial thing in any REAL enterprise environment. We began our migration almost two years ago with back-end upgrades and then slowly but surely got into compliance and then THIS Fall we began major desktop migration. The process will not be completed until well into next year.

Did you upgrade your domain controllers just because they were on your roadmap or did some aspect of Win 7 force the upgrade? As far as I have been able to tell, Win 7 is compatible with Win 2003 DC's correct?

[SouperMan]

Did you upgrade your domain controllers just because they were on your roadmap or did some aspect of Win 7 force the upgrade? As far as I have been able to tell, Win 7 is compatible with Win 2003 DC's correct?

Upgraded to Server 2008 to take advantage of health monitoring via SCCM which took over our WSUS server, giving it a more homogeneous environment.

Sent from my mobile via Tapatalk.

[steadyrock]

Upgraded to Server 2008 to take advantage of health monitoring via SCCM which took over our WSUS server, giving it a more homogeneous environment.

Sent from my mobile via Tapatalk.

Thanks.

[odysseus]

Did you upgrade your domain controllers just because they were on your roadmap or did some aspect of Win 7 force the upgrade? As far as I have been able to tell, Win 7 is compatible with Win 2003 DC's correct?

Compatible, yes on an extended 2003 Directory Service. However a lot of new services that also mate up with win 7 are obviously not there as with a 2008 Server DC native deployment, and I am sure you are looking to upgrade the enterprise anyway from 2003's end of life.

[meaty-btz]

What they said above. Also there are features in the GPO's of Server 2003 that do not fire on Windows 7 and Windows 7 have many (read hundreds) of new features and controls that require Server 2008R2 for them to be properly set.

What really cooks our noodles is we are already looking at the upgrade to SQL Server 2012 coming soon. It just never ends. Just chasing your tail in a circle, forever. Let's not even go into our new Virtual Machine model for desktop use. Argh.

[steadyrock]

Compatible, yes on an extended 2003 Directory Service. However a lot of new services that also mate up with win 7 are obviously not there as with a 2008 Server DC native deployment, and I am sure you are looking to upgrade the enterprise anyway from 2003's end of life.

Yes, it's on our roadmap but I was just wondering if I need to rejuggle priorities. Sounds like we'll be OK for a little while, which is good since I have a hard date for the first phase of my Win 7 rollout and I really don't have room to slip a 2008r2 migration in there as well.