Windows 10 Upgrade (Part 2)

 

Start Menu And Roaming Profiles


A couple of more computers got updated to Windows 10. For the most part, these upgrades have been hassle free, just time consuming to perform. As a result, I've been testing Windows 10 more within the lab setting. Most of the time was spent on Start Menu Customization.

The Start Menu
Most of the software that the students use are located as shortcuts on the desktop, and as a result, the only the students interact with the start menu is when they log-off. 

As for most who are familiar with Windows 10, the typical method to log-off is by clicking the "face" icon and click "Sign Out". A little bit of readjustment for those familiar with Windows 7 and having the Start/Restart/Log-Off options in the same location. Not really a complaint, but more of a observance.

There are things that I like and don't like about the Windows 10 Start Menu from a Administrator Perspective. In Windows 7, the Start Menu for a newly-created account is made from the Default User Account. This applies to both local and domain accounts. As a result, I greatly modified the Default Start Menu programs and settings so that the future accounts that are built conform to what the Administrator feels is warranted.

The Windows 10 Start Menu is not built from the Default User Account though. The shortcuts are built from other sources not confined to any particular file locations. Therefore, changing the default user account will do little to change the desktop settings of the other accounts. Also, several aspects of the Start Menu are configured by the group policy as defined on the domain. For Server 2008 R2 (which is planned for a software upgrade as well), most of the Start Menu settings apply for Windows XP and up. There isn't any settings that's Windows 10 specific. Despite this though, the Windows 10 clients still mostly conformed to the group-policy settings in other ways.

For example, in a student account, one will still run across shortcuts to XBox, the Microsoft Store, the Microsoft Gaming Portal, 3D viewer, etc. However, the vast majority of the software refuses to run within the student account, despite the shortcuts being there. I feel that the reason for this has to do with the group policy settings as defined for the domain. Even though they aren't Windows 10 specific, the settings for XP and up still apply. The Control Panel can't be accessed by the students. They cannot shut the computer down either., as they can only log off. The above programs will still launch without issue from the Administrator account when executed. The students won't be able to run these Windows 10 specific programs anyway, so I'm still pleased by this.

The Start Menu for the students is still largely depopulated, something that carried over from my default profile customization from Windows 7. This is different from the Administrator accounts which still operates like a typical Windows 10 profile. The only shortcut in the student account that does actually work is Microsoft Edge. I will do some more experiments with adjusting the group policies on the local machines as well if I can't do customizations through the domain account. 

There are many howtos on the Internet describing how one can export a Start Menu profile to a XML file using a PowerShell Command. This might be needed in the future. As mentioned prevoiously though, the students in the lab hardly interact with the Start Menu anyway. The Windows 10 software that is there refuses to run under these profiles anyway, which is good from a Administrator viewpoint. Also, many aspects of the Windows 10 Start Menu still largely conform to the settings as defined by the domain group policy.

Roaming Profiles
Since Windows 10 is installed on more computers now, I get to see how they operate in a multi-OS setting. I created a text file on one of the student accounts running Windows 10. I then logged of and went to another computer running 10. Sure enough, the text file was on that profile, despite me not creating the file on that particular computer. Roaming profiles working as expected. However, when I went back to a Windows 7 machine and loaded the student profile up that had the file on the desktop created in Windows 10, that file didn't show up on 7. It could be the way that Windows Server 2008 is handling these profiles. This creates a compatibly discrepancy. Despite this though, I don't see anything mission-critical that is affected by this though. Since all the student computers will be upgraded soon anyway, this non-serious issue will go away anyway once the computers do get upgraded.

Dell Backup
As mentioned in the previous article, Windows 10 shows a notification about the Dell Backup utility from the Administrator account. As a result, I told myself that this program would be uninstalled before I proceeded with more upgrades. Sure enough, I did this. However, the only thing that the Dell uninstall program does is remove the entry of the backup tool from the list in the "Add/Remove Programs And Features". However, the core program itself is still there as the Windows 10 upgrade finds it and still displays the notification for it, despite it being "uninstalled". This though is more of a nitpick with the Dell OEM setup for Windows 7 than anything on Microsoft's part. Either way, there isn't anything seriously affected by this little annoyance anyway. Windows 10 still functions the way it's suppose to. 

Office 2013 Issues
As noted, when I did my first Windows 10 upgrade, after the install, Office 2013 refused to launch properly. After a repair though, it functioned normally without issue. When I did the next 3 upgrades though, Office 2013 launched without issue. It was a flawless upgrade. On the final machine that I did the upgrade too, the same issue occurred again. The Office application, regardless of which one was opened, would quickly load, but then close automatically. With this computer, I discovered how to access the traditional Control Panel instead of going through the Windows 10 method of uninstalling programs. I told Office to repair the install. Everything went according to plan until it asked for the product key.

When we first got the Dell computers many moons ago, they came with product keys for Office 2013, as the program was already pre-installed on the computer's hard-drive. With a marker, I wrote down the workstation number on the particular key that I used for that particular machine. There was only one problem. I forgot where I put those keys as I haven't needed them in 5 years! I know that I didn't throw them away. Product keys are like gold! After tearing the supplies room apart, and looking for 20 minutes, I found those keys. Not only that, I found the particular key that I used for that workstation. After re-entering it, Office 2013 loaded without issue. That took long enough.

Final Thoughts And Concerns
As a whole, the Windows 10 upgrade has been very straight-forward and surprisingly trouble-free. I am learning more about Windows 10. I am mostly comfortable with it. There is still more that I want to know about it and how it functions. One area that I will research is checking the group-policy options on the local computers and see how they will interact with the policies on the Server 2008 domain. Also, I needed to do some modifications to VMware Player setup running the Windows XP VM's that provides compatibility with older applications.  

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