Windows 10 Licencing

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I am an IT Manager for a small company; 12 months ago we upgraded our network from Workgroups to a Domain. All workstations have Windows 7 Pro retail licences. As the Workstations are now on a network we do not get the Windows 10 upgrade icons etc.
If at some point in the future we wanted to move to Windows 10 what would be the correct way to upgrade bearing in mind we have paid for the full Windows 7 Pro licences. We have several machines that are still in a workgroup (seen as home users?) and these get the Windows 10 upgrade icons.
My initial thoughts were to remove workstations from the domain, do the upgrade and then add them back onto the domain, but wasn’t sure if being on Network whether they would receive any further MS updates or not.
The Windows 10 licencing rules are a tad confusing so any help gratefully received.

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Use the Media Creation Tool at Get Windows 10.

If you have Win7 Pro you’ll be upgraded to Win10 Pro. Be sure to have a good image backup of each PC before beginning the upgrade process for that PC.

Joe

--Joe

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All our Workstations are imaged using Windows 7 System image to a dedicated Server so that side shouldn’t present a problem.

Kev

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I would avoid 10 until MS have demonstrated a consistent mechanism for upgrading within a domain – could be a while given the current state of play.
Upgrading is probably not the right solution anyway, maybe a test with new hardware as you will likely be using the OEM license that came with the machine. Then if all is well you can use 10 on all new hardware and run the 7 machines until retirement.

cheers, Paul

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We have just upgraded most of the Workstations so there will be limited (None probably) funds for any further upgrades. I was looking at upgrading before the end of the free upgrade period, find it hard to belive that MS have’nt sorted this upgrade mechanism out yet!

Kev

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I would also wait there are network problems in Windows 10 that need to be fixed especially when you hate a mixture of different Windows versions.
Joe

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Rather than wait, I would follow JoeP517’s suggestion including making a backup image first on one PC and evaluate the upgrade. If it goes well, do the others. Yes some people have had some issues with the Windows 10 upgrade but the majority went well.

Jerry

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I’d wait until at least after the holidays as you will be training people in the new OS. Who wants that for a Christmas present?

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If you’re a small business, do you run Quickbooks for accounting?

If you do, stay with Windows 7. QB 2016 is a train wreck under Windows 10.

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