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When should businesses upgrade to Windows 10?

Looking at upgrading your business PCs to Windows 10 but not sure when to make the leap? Here are some issues to consider.

Business customers can often be years behind the state of the operating system art: right now most businesses are still running Windows 7, launched back in July 2009, having shown limited interest in Windows 8 which arrived in August 2012.Windows 10

Even when they buy new PCs, most companies today still downgrade them to Windows 7, so it’s usually home users that are first to take the plunge with the new software, whether they like it or not.

However, businesses may be significantly faster to adopt Windows 10, which arrives on 29 July (volume licensing customers will be able to download Windows 10 Enterprise and Windows 10 Education on Volume Licensing Service Center from 1 August) than previous versions of Microsoft’s operating system.

Part of the reason for the change is the huge public testing process – five million testers strong – that has preceded the arrival of Windows 10. As a result, the standard policy of waiting for the first service pack to arrive before rolling out a new OS is now longer the right one, says Stephen Kleynhans, research vice president at analyst Gartner.

However, that doesn’t mean firms should be full steam ahead with upgrades. “I’m not one who believes there is a need to rush to a new operating system. You want to let the ecosystem around the operating system mature a little bit before you jump right in,” he says.

Companies should wait until it’s clear if the line of business applications they use work happily with Windows 10, and whether they can find enough expertise to make sure any rollout is a smooth one. “All of that has to build up before you want to jump in and start running it in your production environment,” he said.

Kleynhans said businesses need to spend some time testing out Windows 10 in a controlled fashion: “Bring it into a lab, bring it into a test environment, let some folks run it for the rest of this year. Then, in 2016, get serious about it, start looking at it in a real test environment, start piloting it with some real users to see how it’s performing.”

He said that if all goes well companies should be ready to start deployments in the second half of 2016 or the beginning of 2017, depending on how large and complex their IT environment is.

“If you’re a large company nothing happens really fast. If you’re a small company the timeline is going to be a lot faster – if you’re testing with 10 people you might be testing with ten percent of the company.”

Starting the rollout a year to 18 months after the operating system is launched might seem like a long delay, but it would still be six months to a year faster than with previous upgrades.

Kleynhans said that it took most big companies 18 months of testing and remediation work before they were able to start rolling out Windows 7. In contrast, most companies will get Windows 10 testing and remediation done in less than six months.

The analyst said that some organizations are keen to get moving as soon as Windows 10 is available – such as those that are still using Windows XP or who have plans to deploy hybrid PC devices. But, for most companies, this will be too soon.

“There are pieces of the operating system targeted at the enterprise that we really haven’t had a chance to try out yet. You can’t consider significant production rollouts even in the most aggressive cases until later in the fall.”

He cited Windows Update for Business as a new tool that small and medium sized businesses will want to use, but that wasn’t part of the tech preview. There are also some other security components that haven’t been as broadly tested or available during the tech preview, he said.

As Ed Bott notes over at Tech Pro Research, other missing features will include the new unified sync client for OneDrive (the consumer cloud storage service) and OneDrive for Business (the cloud storage service for business Office 365 subscriptions). He predicts these will be wrapped up by late October, in time for Windows 10 PCs to hit the retail channel for the festive season.

Other factors to consider: at a prosaic level, the upgrade will inevitably cause disruption so don’t plan it for a busy time of year. If you’re in retail, starting the upgrade in November or December might be a career limiting decision for the CIO.

The state of your current infrastructure is another element to take into account. Gartner says that companies planning Windows 8.1 deployments should instead redirect their efforts toward earlier deployment of Windows 10.

“In almost all cases, enterprises currently planning to deploy Windows 8.1 should switch to Windows 10. Enterprises that already have Windows 8.1 deployed should continue with those deployments for the time being. Customers on Windows 7 with no plans for Windows 8.1 should begin evaluating Windows 10 for deployment in 2H16 or later,” the analyst firm said in a research note.

Equally, for some, the upgrade may never take place. David Gewirtz has no plans to upgrade any of his Windows 7 devices to Windows 10: “They work, they’re rock solid, and all their drivers are perfectly tuned to the hardware they’re running on,” he notes.

However long it takes enterprises to take the plunge, Windows 10 is likely to become widely adopted, if only because most firms will need to move off of Windows 7 eventually, while the relatively few who did move to Windows 8 will also update sooner rather than later. The pressures that forced companies to migrate off Windows XP and onto Windows 7 will eventually make them move from Windows 7 to Windows 10.

“Windows 7 comes to end of life in January 2020. That’s only four and half years away so you’re going to see the same sorts of pressures mount to get off of Windows 7. They need to go somewhere and they’ll go to Windows 10,” he said.

Have questions?

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Windows 10’s features

The new Windows 10 notifications will follow you everywhere

Windows 10 has a new notifications center for your apps — even the ones from your Windows Phone.

When you’re poking around Windows 10, you’ll notice something new: A small taskbar button that, when clicked, reveals a sidebar full of app notifications.

Welcome to the new notifications center, which is basically the Windows 10 version of the Action center in Windows Phone 8.1. The notifications center is part of Microsoft’s dream of “Windows everywhere” — it’s a universal notifications center that will pop up your app notifications across multiple platforms. Because who doesn’t want to be alerted about new Twitter followers on their phone, tablet, and now PC?

The new notifications center consists of two parts: The notifications area at the top, and the “quick actions” bar at the bottom. In the notifications area you’ll see notifications from various apps, including Twitter, Facebook, and your email account, as well as notifications from phone apps (e.g. alarms) if applicable.


Mouse over notifications and click the ‘X’ to dismiss them.

You can dismiss notifications three different ways: You can mouse over the app name (e.g. Twitter) and click the ‘X’ next to it to dismiss all notifications from that app. You can also mouse over each individual notification and click the ‘X’ next to it to dismiss that specific notification. Or you can click Clear All in the upper right corner of the notifications center to dismiss all notifications from all apps. Because this is a “Windows everywhere” feature, notifications you dismiss in the notifications center will also be dismissed on your other Windows devices, such as your phone.

In the quick actions bar, you’ll see four quick-access buttons as well as an Expand link. Click Expand to see all quick actions. Actions include things like a Tablet Mode toggle button, a link to the Display settings, a link to all settings, and toggle buttons for Location and Wi-Fi. Tap a quick action button to toggle a setting (tablet mode, location, Wi-Fi) on or off, or to go directly to the settings menu so you can configure your display, connection, or VPN.

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Pick your quick access quick actions from the Settings menu.

To choose which quick actions appear above the break, go to Settings > Notifications & actions > Choose your quick actions. Here, you’ll see four small buttons that you can click on to swap out actions. If you’d prefer to have your Wi-Fi toggle on hand whenever you open the notifications bar, you can switch it for the Display button. Of course, you’ll always be able to see all of the quick actions by clicking Expand in the notifications bar.

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In the Settings menu, you can also choose which apps’ notifications to display.

Here, you can also pick and choose which app notifications you’ll see in the notifications bar. If you want to turn all notifications off, you can simply click the toggle next to Show App Notifications. You’ll no longer see pop-up banner notifications, nor will you see app notifications when you open the notifications center.

If you’d prefer to just turn off notifications for specific apps, you can do that, too — find the app in the list and click its toggle to Off. Next to each app in the list you’ll see a link to Advanced notifications settings for that app. Go into Advanced to turn off specific notifications for that app — either banner notifications (pop-ups in the lower right corner of your screen) or notifications in the notifications center.

Want to turn your clock off? You can do that, too.

In the Notifications & Actions section, you can also clean up your taskbar by clicking “Select which icons to appear in the taskbar” (you can turn on and off things like the Network icon and the Volume icon), or by clicking “Turn system icons on or off.” In “Turn system icons on or off,” you can turn off the clock, input indicator or action center — in other words, you can turn off all system tray icons and have a completely icon-less system tray, if you so choose.

Have questions?

Want to get Windows 10?

Contact Our Expert IT business team
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South Jersey Techies, LLC is a full Managed Web and Technology Services Company providing IT Services, Website Design Services, Server Support, Network Consulting, Internet Phones, Cloud Solutions Provider and much more. Contact for More Information.

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Windows 8 Will Take Your PC To The Metro On Oct. 26

Windows 8 Release-Oct. 26!

We were told earlier this month that Microsoft had pinned down the launch of Microsoft Windows 8 to some time in late October. It was nice to finally get some confirmation about the release, but we still didn’t have an exact date – now we do.

Steven Sinofsky, President of the Windows Division at Microsoft, just announced during the company’s annual sales meeting that Windows 8 would be shipping on October 26. On that date, you’ll be able to upgrade to it, buy a physical copy in store or buy a new PC with the operating system on it. Microsoft’s Windows RT Surface tablet is also expected to launch around that time with the Windows 8 Pro version coming sometime after.

As most Windows users who are upgrading probably already have Microsoft Windows 7, you will want to take advantage of Microsoft’s insane upgrade program. For only $40, users with Windows XP or later can upgrade to Windows 8 through digital download. Those who want a physical copy can pick one up for $70. The special pricing will be available through January 31, 2013.

Windows 8 is Microsoft’s chance to prove that they still got it. Many people believe that this is their last chance before Apple gobbles them up and spits them out with Mac OS X and iOS. Microsoft Windows 8 is definitely something unique only to Microsoft as it’s the first operating system to share the same core across all devices whereas Apple requires separate operating systems for mobile and desktop.

We’ll find out on October 26 if Microsoft’s bet on the future plays out. The Metro interface was designed for portable devices, which Apple already has a strong foothold in. The hype surrounding the recently announced Surface tablet could help catapult Windows 8 to the notoriety it needs to succeed.

Microsoft Launches Windows 8 Today

Microsoft kicks off Windows 8, on sale today

Microsoft hopes it can capture the imaginations of tech consumers again, as Apple has.

That was the subtext Thursday for a splashy launch of Microsoft’s Windows 8, the new operating system upgrade on sale today.

“What you’ve seen and heard should leave no doubt that Microsoft’s Windows 8 shatters perceptions of what a PC truly is,” said Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer. “We’ve re imagined Windows and kicked off a new era for Microsoft and our customers.”

For the first time, the new Windows has a touch-screen interface, with movable tiles, instead of the traditional “Start Menu” and screen. For older computers that upgrade, the touch-screen will not be accessible, but the tiles can be accessed by mouse or touch-pad.

Microsoft says that 1 billion people use its Windows operating system, with 670 million on Microsoft’s Windows 7, which was introduced in 2009.

At Thursday’s launch party, PC partners — including Lenovo, Sony, Toshiba, Dell and Hewlett-Packard — showed off new computers sporting Microsoft’s Windows 8. Many of the laptops have splashy new designs with removable screens that morph into portable tablets.

Microsoft’s new operating system works on tablets and traditional PCs and laptops. Despite twin versions, Windows 8 and Windows RT, Microsoft is taking a notably different course than Apple by providing the same look and feel to both types of devices.

Apple still markets separate operating systems for Macintosh computers (OS X Mountain Lion) and for the iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch (iOS 6), even though some features are common to both operating systems.

“I think they did a really good job of reintroducing themselves to the consumer today, Microsoft, not just Windows,” says Michael Gartenberg, analyst for technology research firm Gartner.

He says part of Microsoft’s challenge is to explain to consumers why the radically different approach is better.

“Consumers have shown a willingness to learn. They learned how to use mice and keyboards. They learned how to use touch and pinch-to-zoom. They can learn how to do this, too,” he says.

Microsoft’s unified approach to the operating system is based on its belief that touch-screens will soon dominate PCs, says Ross Rubin, principal analyst at Reticle Research.

“Rather than come to market with another tablet operating system — seeing how (Google’s) Android has struggled in that space — they (Microsoft) decided to leverage the high shipping volumes of PCs every year in order to build developer support for a tablet operating system,” he says.

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Office 2016 Preview

Office 2016 Preview for existing Office 365 subscribers

For enterprise

Office 365 administrators with an Office 365 ProPlus subscription can now enable the Office 2016 Preview for their organization by turning on First Release. Learn how to turn on First Release.

Once First Release is turned on, users can install the Office 2016 Preview.

Enabled Office 365 ProPlus users

1. Sign in to the My Software page.

2. Go to Try the next version of Office.

3. Click Install.office2016

This will install the Office 2016 Preview on your device.

Note Enabled Office 365 ProPlus users can follow the same process above to install the Project 2016 Preview and the Visio 2016 Preview. On your Software page, select Project or Visio from the Software list. If Project and Visio are not listed, they are not included with your subscription.
Not ready to join First Release? You can still get the Office 2016 Preview,find out how.

For home

  • Go to the Office M Account page.
  • Click Language and install options.
  • Click Additional install options.
  • Open the Version drop-down menu and select the 32-bit or 64-bit Office 2016 Preview.
This will install the Office 2016 Preview on your device. You will stay on the Office 2016 Preview track until you uninstall the Office 2016 Preview or until Office 2016 is released.
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