Preparing for the worst with Windows 11...how do I use sysprep and restore client data?

[NviGate Systems]

Core2Duo systems are slow. Unless they do one app at a time.

I will admit, I actually run a Dell Optiplex 745 with a Q6600, but I don't run Windows, I run Linux. With Windows, most C2D have serious issues with reliability plus many of those boards (like mine) have bad caps. I recapped mine, but let's face it, not everybody is as tech savvy as we are, so sure you don't mind tweaking etc., But your customers won't.

Early AMD CPU like the Athlon X64 are crap. Even in XP they were not that powerful. So, the fact is, Microsoft has no intention of stopping the advancement of features in Windows, and like other ecosystems, as each release comes, more machines fall by the wayside cause they just can't keep up.

Sadly, not everyone wants to run Linux. If they did, that would be a different situation.

 

[YeOldeStonecat]

I like how they added some functionality back to "system properties"....that was recently taken away in a recent W10 update.

Some changes to the usual "right click" context menu...looks good.

 

[britechguy]

I like how they added some functionality back to "system properties"....that was recently taken away in a recent W10 update.

This is one of the reasons I beg people to actually use the Feedback Hub. I have had direct experience with issues I've opened resulting in changes (one was a reversal, and that was a couple of years ago) in a slated change.

If there is a big enough hue and cry about any given change or changes via the Feedback Hub it's clear that this "bubbles up" to the top of the heap of things to review. It doesn't mean you'll necessarily get what you want, but it certainly helps toward pushing that sort of request in front of the eyes of the various teams that are responsible for the thing you're giving feedback for.

 

[britechguy]

I should also add that the Feedback Hub, along with a host of other Microsoft services that a very great many do use, are automatically available, without any additional need to log in, when you are using a Microsoft Account linked Windows 10 user account.

This is, in my opinion, a big, big plus. If you're going to use any Microsoft services routinely, where is the advantage of logging in with a local account then subsequently needing to use a Microsoft Account, separately, to gain access to those services?

Your Microsoft Account is "the key to the kingdom" of Microsoft Services. And I know of very few people who don't use a single, solitary one of them (though those few do exist).

 

[nlinecomputers]

And, in my opinion, long overdue. We're missing a lot of the advantages of new hardware by maintaining full backward compatibility with stuff that has not been produced in decades (plural).

If Windows 11 so happens to be able to work on the odd piece of old hardware that it wasn't designed for (much like Windows 10 has been) then, fine. "Accidental" backward compatibility is bound to exist for certain hardware. But there is a lot of old hardware out there that should have been retired long, long ago. Although many computers could run for decades (and have) that doesn't mean, in the PC market in particular, that they should. We're not talking about designed obsolescence, either.

Ah yes and no. Intel hasn’t made significant changes in the instruction set in years.
So short of a deliberate kill switch, looking for older CPUs, there’s no reason NOT to support older hardware. I have a six year old Lenovo T460 that runs great. Performance is from a human standpoint in line with newer hardware.

 

[YeOldeStonecat]

Just a lowely i5-3470 here....16 gigs, older 2.5" SATA SSD. Quite usable.
Older TPM, w/bitlocker going.

 

[britechguy]

Ah yes and no. Intel hasn’t made significant changes in the instruction set in years.

And I won't, and don't, disagree with that.

Obviously, there are certain times when hardware changes are quite significant, followed by long periods where it's just "gussying up around the edges."

It's clear to me that where Microsoft is, at this moment, putting in its dividing line is truly, entirely arbitrary. But, that need not always be the case. And in this particular instance, as reports here on multiple topics already indicate, these various lines in the sand are shifting right now on an almost constant basis. I have no idea of where they'll end up being by the time Windows 11 is actually released to the general public.

 

[YeOldeStonecat]

As for loving Microsoft, yeah, I do. I've had a heck of a career based on Microsoft products...my hay days where in the first days of broadband, when SBS2000 came out....I really got big into my career and into Microsoft, became an MVP for a few years in a row, was pretty involved. "drink the cool aid"....hey, sure, it was what put food on my families plate, and a roof over my families head. Like I said, my career was based on it. So yes I live and breath in the Microsoft ecosystem....which is mostly M365 Business Premium now, OneDrive, Teams/Sharepoint.

Also I got into linux as a side hobby, but...it's not what makes me money.
And I'm not against Apple either, I actually encouraged my parents to get one when their old Dell WinXP rig died a long time ago. But there's not enough Apple based business out there to make a good living (for me).
I see no advantage of bad mouthing what makes me good money.

 

[britechguy]

Well, I am anything but a Microsoft fanboy. They've made plenty of bone-headed mistakes (and I'll include Windows 11 as one of those, because it's just so clearly a marketing ploy, not a technological one) that I've been unhappy about.

But the fact of the matter is, and it's not only with Microsoft, you take what they make - period, end of sentence. Railing against whatever OS it is that Microsoft (or your favorite Linux distro, or Android, or Apple) puts out is literally pissing into the wind. You don't get to make those choices - never have, never will.

Operating systems, all of them, are not bespoke software meant to please you and fit you like a glove. They're multi-purpose tools meant to run computers in a smooth, efficient way for widely divergent user demographics with widely differing needs and wants. None of those demographics gets everything they want, and all of those demographics deal with compromises imposed by the fact that something they want would screw up other bits for too many other users.

I've been working with Microsoft products since the DOS days, and have on occasion cursed them up and down over specific things (e.g., the forced wedding between Cortana and Bing - and to a lesser extent, Bing in general - and absolutely massively with regard to Edge "original" which was just so unnecessary and bone-headed). But, you have to go to whatever's being put out. It's not a choice, at least if you don't want to fall hopelessly behind and become utterly irrelevant and have your skills become encased in amber.

 

[Porthos]

Unless something changes with 11, most (95%) of my clients are on 5th gen processors and older and using MBR boot not UEFI so I have to be concerned.

 

[River Valley Computer]

Unless something changes with 11, most (95%) of my clients are on 5th gen processors and older and using MBR boot not UEFI so I have to be concerned.

Isn't it sad that their computers do exactly what they want. Many of our clients are retired or semi-retired and don't have the extra $$$ to just up and but the latest state of the art computer.

Even many of our business customers are in the same situation. Just spend money to spend money does not make sense.

I hate to think this but Linux is starting to look good for many, many users if we could just get a non-technical user interface.

 

[britechguy]

What is the big deal? Windows 10 has almost 4 additional years in support?

No one MUST go to Windows 11 if their hardware doesn't support it. The computer I'm typing from, with an i7 4th Gen, won't. I won't be ditching it just because it's not Windows 11 compatible. It'll keep cruising along with Windows 10.

 

[nlinecomputers]

What is the big deal? Windows 10 has almost 4 additional years in support?

No one MUST go to Windows 11 if their hardware doesn't support it. The computer I'm typing from, with an i7 4th Gen, won't. I won't be ditching it just because it's not Windows 11 compatible. It'll keep cruising along with Windows 10.

And I still say, and would l bet money on, that you will be running Windows 11, and you will be automatically upgraded just like always. So will @Porthos clients on their 5th generation units.

 

[britechguy]

and would l bet money on, that you will be running Windows 11

I don't disagree with you, at all. But even if I'm not and cannot, Microsoft is not throwing anyone with hardware that can't run Windows 11 (under the current specs) under the bus.

Windows 11 is just no big deal. It's marketing puffery and a newly redesigned UI for certain hardware. Rock my world! NOT.

 

[nlinecomputers]

I don't disagree with you, at all. But even if I'm not and cannot, Microsoft is not throwing anyone with hardware that can't run Windows 11 (under the current specs) under the bus.

Windows 11 is just no big deal. It's marketing puffery and a newly redesigned UI for certain hardware. Rock my world! NOT.

Exactly and not only that but such a real limitation, as in not having Windows 11 install on that hardware, would again split the support camps into two groups. One moving to 11 while the older PCs cling onto Xp, I mean 7, damnit 10 with no reason to move on except that it still works. That would completely undo what Microsoft has been doing for the past 6 years.

 

[britechguy]

That would completely undo what Microsoft has been doing for the past 6 years.

Indeed.

But it really does matter whether as part of the intent is "culling the supported hardware herd." There are legitimate reasons to undertake this. If they're not trying to do this by intent, then a Windows 10/11 split goes beyond insane. That's why that little voice in the back of my head is making me think that is a part of what Windows 11 is about.

But MS has been pushing toward one Windows ever since the advent of Windows 10, and I don't think, big picture, that's really changed.

 

[Porthos]

@Porthos clients on their 5th generation units.

MBR might be an issue. But I am waiting to see.

 

[nlinecomputers]

MBR might be an issue. But I am waiting to see.

You can convert to GPT. Windows can do it now and it is nondestructive. *

* Obvious backup warnings as bad stuff can happen on anything.

 

[britechguy]

You can convert to GPT. Windows can do it now and it is nondestructive. *

And it's generally quite graceful in doing so and in ending with success. That doesn't mean that your starred proviso can be blithely ignored, I hasten to add.

 

[nlinecomputers]

Indeed.

But it really does matter whether as part of the intent is "culling the supported hardware herd." There are legitimate reasons to undertake this. If they're not trying to do this by intent, then a Windows 10/11 split goes beyond insane. That's why that little voice in the back of my head is making me think that is a part of what Windows 11 is about.

But MS has been pushing toward one Windows ever since the advent of Windows 10, and I don't think, big picture, that's really changed.

They're not legitimate if the userbase simply ignores it. That was the point of my Xp, 7, joke.