scandals of an ITian

Last week we completed our migration from our aging IBM workstations and laptops to newer hardware that could support Windows 7.

Due to various restrictions I could not replace the old hardware and have them replaced with the newer one straight off. Instead the newer machines had to be built from the bottom up using MDT 2010. You can do the user state migration via MDT 2010 and can be really useful and time saving but my deployment scenarios.

Instead I relied on another piece of software from Microsoft called Windows Easy Transfer for Windows 7.

So, let’s take a look at the scenario that I ended up with.

Saturday- Getting all the new workstations from the supplier, had them all powered up, keyboard, mouse, monitor and networked. Started off with batches of 5 machines getting Windows 7 deployed out to them.

Sunday- Continued with the Windows 7 deployments.

Each machine that finished the deployment had the following:-

1. Operating System
2. Office 2007
3. Visio 2007
4. Flash Player
5. AV Client Installed
6. Domain Connected
7. GPO deployed (few application installs, printers, network drives)

On the other hand I had the older machines still running in the domain. We couldn’t use the same computer names for the newer machines, but this was ok as these machines aren’t going to be decommissioned yet but retained to be used as Remote Web Workspace machines for all the laptop users at work who don’t have desktops to login into while they are remote.

Monday morning- Got the users to log onto both the machines, since they are not local admins on both the machines, had to run the software both on XP and Windows 7 machines with administrator accounts.

On the XP side:-

Download the software for x86 XP machines from here .

Install the software and it will be available under Start>All Programs

Here you have 3 options to go with. Most scenarios the options will be 2 and 3.

Option 3 is quite simple and helps transfer all your settings onto an external storage, another partition, file storage etc.

Lets take a closer look at Option2. This avoids for any error after the migration where you may have a user complain that something is missing.

Since we are migrating from XP to Windows 7, this is the only option that is presented to us. Later when we come across the same steps on Windows 7, there will be an option to choose whether the system is the old computer or the new one.

Take a note of the migration key as we would need to enter this again on the Windows 7 machine.

At this stage the XP machine will be searching for the Windows 7 machine with the same key to start the exchange process.

Now lets head over to the Windows 7 machine:-

You could either open it by searching for it

or browsing to system tools folder

Windows Easy Transfer starts off with the same screen

Depending on the options chosen from your original computer, choose the same selection here as well. I am going with the network option,

Since this is the computer to which we are migrating all the settings into, the option that needs to be selected is that its a new system. Incase of transfer from Windows 7 machine to another variant or another edition of Windows 7 we choose the old computer option or vice versa.

Get the key that was given to us at this screen on the Windows 7 machine and enter it here

At this stage the system is scanning the XP machine for all the user settings that are stored on that computer.

Once the scan is complete you have the option to choose which of those user settings you would like migrated.

Choosing what needs to be restored can be tricky but its quite straightforward and can be easily browsed as shown.

And then the transfer can be strarted.

Towards the end you should be able to see a finished transfer report including a comparision between the programs that are installed on both the machines.

This took on an average between 5 to 10 minutes per user and ultimately was quite easy and time saving in the sense of settings up outlook,printers,desktops, wallpapers etc.

Quite useful even for doing a Windows 7 RC to RTM edition.

Over the last 2 weeks I had selected a total of 3 users from my colleagues, who had the privilege of having their systems rebuilt with Windows 7. If I had to scale their true IT acumen they varied between from “got a grasp on things” to “nah I need a hand all the way through”.

What was their task? Well to bloody hell hit the road running from the very second they got their systems back with as little help from me.

And how did they do? Well then read on…

Brief description of their systems:-

1. Brand new Toshiba Satellite Pro P300
2. Two Brand new Lenovo
3. One Asus Laptop, most probably a couple of years old

What do my test subjects do?

1. Two of the participants belong to a team that does a lot of remote work. Mobility, comfort, stability and Office applications to be running at full steam.
2. One of the participants was my GM. Now come on, do I want to be screwing around with the bosses system?

Software’s installed on their systems?

1. Windows 7 Ultimate
2. Office 2007 SP2 Edition
3. Trend Micro Client
4. Foxit PDF Reader

Resources being utilized?

1. Part of the Essential Business Server domain.
2. Monitored using System Centre Essentials 2007
3. AV, AntiSpyWare, Firewall monitoring by Trend Worry Free Business Security Advanced Edition (LAN and Remote)
4. Microsoft Exchange server 2007
5. Forefront Threat Management Gateway for Edge security
6. Windows 2008 Standard File Server

The following were the criteria that I had put in front of them at the end of the 2 weeks in the form of an excel sheet for them to fill out. Since all of them have a busy schedule I kept my questions and the depth of the answers that I expected from them to a minimum. But I also tried to keep in mind all the issues that normal users that I have always heard would complain about their systems, though the issue would be something not at all related to their specific system sometimes. The scope of the questions might be quite general but what I intended on achieving at the end of this was:-

1. To see and hear what impression Windows 7 would have on my users
2. Would it be the solution for our environment and to help me slowly build a business case based on their feedback.
3. To make the users aware of such a product so that in time they may be able to give an opinion to someone else based on their experience.

To identify where Windows 7 would most likely have a positive or negative impact on them, I classified it under

1. Speed
2. Usability
3. User Experience
4. Past Experience doing the same task
5. Moving forward

The table below was filled out by each one of them. I have only aggregated them and tried to word using their own wherever possible.

Well there you go. These were the responses from the three users.

Damage:

Had to buy them coffee. Not once but twice. I don’t think I can even get it reimbursed J

This is the email that I had sent the survey form along with:

Hi ,

I shall start with smooth talking my way through this. COFFEE OFFER STILL STANDS! One of your colleagues has already claimed her prize with a special offer not for one but “2″ hot chocolates.

You would be a helping a struggling MBA student get some assignments done by getting this really small excel survey completed and sent back to him to redeem the ” Coffee to your table” offer. This survey is just a generic one. and I promise there won’t be any other for a while . Likewise you can ignore my last email on this topic.

So hopefully I would have to get you all your coffees on Monday morning since you guys would have sent the completed form back to me by end of Business day today. I knew I could count on you guys.

Cheers

Aben Samuel

Now who could resist an email like that??

Hope you enjoyed the post.