InfoBits – Windows 10 News You Can Use May 2018

h – or so, I try to  find a short list on Windows 10 related topics which would be of  interest to you and specially your customers.    

Please feel free to share below items with your peers and customers!

Windows 10 represent a great opportunity to change the way customers deploy and manage devices, however it also represents a big challenge for many customer.  We continue to visit customers, and there are still a lot of them  deploying Windows 10 without understanding of its capabilities or new Windows as a Service (WaaS) cadence.  

We can help them in this journey to Modern Device Management!  It is not trivial or easy… We have lots of experience on this topic…

(  As always, if you have received a forward of this email, or If you prefer not to receive these updates, just let me know and I can add/remove you.   I completely understand and will respect your request.)

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Jorge’s Win10 InfoBits:  May 2018

Windows 7  End of Extended Support date: January 14, 2020 :     

Days Remaining to migrate your PC fleet:    

     Total Calendar Days:  601 

     Business Days: 410

Call to Action:  Ask your customers – how are you doing with your Windows 10 adoption ? Will you be fully migrated by the end of 2019?

Effectively it is less than 18 months from now!    

If they are buying new machines with ProDeploy Client, Please ask:   How are you updating existing devices.

Windows 10 v1803 Released

After a bit of a wait,   Microsoft released Windows 10 version 1803  to consumers on April 30, 2018 (about 4 weeks ago).   If you are using Windows 10 at home, then you probably have received the update already, if not, you should shortly.    Corporate and Enterprise customers  should be deploying within their IT and begin the process of testing critical applications, create communications and begin the process of reviewing their deployment rings. 
As with every Feature Update, this update contains all features and fixes included in previous cumulative updates to Windows 10, version 1709.

Out of the several items included in this version, I believe a couple of them are good call outs for your customers:

1)     From Microsoft’s announcement:
Windows Autopilot is now available with Surface, Lenovo, and Dell. Other OEM partners such as HP, Toshiba, Panasonic, and Fujitsu will support Autopilot in coming months.

2)     Deploy and manage kiosk devices with Microsoft Intune in single and multiple app scenarios.  (Includes Kiosk Browser)

3)     Subscription Activation supports Inherited Activation. Inherited Activation allows Windows 10 virtual machines to inherit activation state from their Windows 10 host.

4)     Windows Update for Business now provides greater control over updates.

5)     Windows Hello now supports FIDO 2.0 authentication for Azure AD Joined Windows 10 devices.

6)     new security baseline for Windows 10 version 1803 has been published.

7)     Windows Defender ATP has been enhanced with many new capabilities

Further reading at:

• · What’s new in Windows 10, version 1803 for IT Pros

Windows 10 v1607  now end of life!

Many customers implemented Windows 10 v1607 for their first deployment of Windows 10.   Even more of them are on v1703.

More importantly Windows 10 v1703  will end of life: October 19, 2018 !!!   Are you planning your upgrade

Here is Microsoft Windows 10 version history:

Windows 10 version history	Date of availability	End of service
Windows 10, version 1803	April 30, 2018	November 12, 2019
Windows 10, version 1709	October 17, 2017	April 9, 20192
Windows 10, version 1703	April 5, 2017	October 9, 20182
Windows 10, version 1607	August 2, 2016	April 10, 20182
Windows 10, version 1511	November 10, 2015	October 10, 20172
Windows 10, released July 2015 (version 1507)	July 29, 2015	May 9, 2017
Windows 10 Enterprise 2016 LTSB Windows 10 IoT Enterprise 2016 LTSB	August 2, 2016	October 13, 2026
Windows 10 Enterprise 2015 LTSB Windows 10 IoT Enterprise 2015 LTSB	July 29, 2015	October 14, 2025

Source:   https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/13853/windows-lifecycle-fact-sheet

Note:   Enterprise and Educational versions of Windows 10 version 1511, 1607, 1703 and 1709 will continue to receive monthly servicing updates at no-cost for a period of 6 months past the end of service dates.

Random Items

• New Jorge’s Blog Post(Internal):   Dell Windows 10 Generic Image / No Bloatware – This post explains why the Windows 10 Generic Image still contains “value added bundled apps”
• Dell’s Internal Windows 10 Support Internal Page can be found here:   https://inside.dell.com/docs/DOC-279037
• Unofficial Datasheet on Dell’s Windows AutoPilot can be found in this blog post 
• Windows Autopilot is a hot topic of conversation right now.   Many customers are very interested!  More on this on a future post.
• Configuration Services:
  • Windows 10 AutoPilot SKU  365-1639  (includes Generic Image and Windows Autopilot Registration)
  • Win 10 Provisioning by Airwatch App ( Airwatch SKU 379-8595)  – Not the same as Windows Autopilot!