Windows 7 on existing machines
Posted: Wed Jan 19, 2011 5:20 am
I haven't heard anything about replacement computers for our stake so I will assume it isn't planned for this year. The existing hardware seems to be working fine but I'm wondering if there are plans to allow a refresh of the machines to Windows 7? In my experience Windows 7 seems to get a bit more performance out of existing hardware and is a bit more user friendly than XP.
Recently the mission office received a handful of new machines along with a DVD to reimage to 7 and the existing machines that weren't replaced were simply upgraded to Windows 7 in place - the older machines are similar if not identical to the ones installed in the wards. The upgrade process went flawlessly (except when the church servers went down for a few hours) and took about 3 hours start to finish (including backing up existing data). FM could save a lot of money and push replacements back a ways if instead of new computers they provide additional RAM and the machines are re-imaged. Is such a path available?
One advantage that I see is Windows 7 would make it extremely easy to back up data between ward computers that are in the same building: set up an encrypted share so the clerks in the other unit can't access the files on each machine and run an automated backup of my documents to the other machine. Not quite as good as an offsite backup, but if a machine dies then you know you have a recent backup onsite for easy restoration.
Recently the mission office received a handful of new machines along with a DVD to reimage to 7 and the existing machines that weren't replaced were simply upgraded to Windows 7 in place - the older machines are similar if not identical to the ones installed in the wards. The upgrade process went flawlessly (except when the church servers went down for a few hours) and took about 3 hours start to finish (including backing up existing data). FM could save a lot of money and push replacements back a ways if instead of new computers they provide additional RAM and the machines are re-imaged. Is such a path available?
One advantage that I see is Windows 7 would make it extremely easy to back up data between ward computers that are in the same building: set up an encrypted share so the clerks in the other unit can't access the files on each machine and run an automated backup of my documents to the other machine. Not quite as good as an offsite backup, but if a machine dies then you know you have a recent backup onsite for easy restoration.