Windows 10 Is Coming: Meet Your Customers' User Profile Challenges Now

By Jed Ayres, SVP Marketing, AppSense

Windows 10 is around the corner and solutions providers no doubt are already getting inquiries and concerns from accounts about migration issues. It’s great fodder for reviewers debating its relative superiority — or lack of — to Windows 7. Adding to the fun is the critical take on Windows Mobile Build 10149, expected to be in full release later this year.  While the pundits continue their debate, there is one critical factor solutions providers can address now to help their customers ease the migration to Windows 10, and that is the user profile issue. Windows 10 introduces yet another new user profile version — v5, while Windows 7 and Windows 8 use v2. 

Profile version compatibility only supports one desktop and one server, for example:

• Windows 7 profiles are only compatible with Windows Server 2008 R2
• Windows 8 profiles are only compatible with Windows Server 2012
• Windows 8.1 profiles are only compatible with Windows Server 2012 R2

Windows 10 Demands New Approach To User Profiles

These different profile versions — and the advent of Windows 10 — beg the question: Just how many user profiles do your customers want to manage? Soon it may be common to have three or four different profile generations in use at the same time. As a result, roaming users that alternate frequently from virtual to physical desktops, or will use a Surface tablet as well as their virtual workspace, will cause your customers’ IT teams a great deal of pain as users question why their personalized desktop is different, device to device.

Please log in or register below to read the full article.