Deathknell of Windows 8.1 for business / Enterprise use

jimbo45

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Hi there
I don't know what Ms is playing at -- maybe tomorrow's (Thur 11 jul) re-organisation announcement might shed some light on this - but the current 8.1 offering will really not persuade a SINGLE business to adopt W8.1

1) There's no ENTERPRISE version so that immediately makes corporate deployment a huge pain in the you know where.

2) The hoops and rings you have to avoid in order to set W 8.1 up to use a LOCAL account -- the idea of users having (by default) to have a Microsoft id is just going to go down like a lead balloon in business environments.

Ensure you aren't connected to the Internet when installing W8.1 to get the Local account option BTW - but even here the notorious UAC problem comes back to bite you -- shades of the VISTA problem !!!

Afraid Ms you've bombed big time on this one -- you need to sort this out PDQ or be stuck with supporting W7 for far longer than the 6 years envisaged (up to 2020). W7 will last longer than XP at this rate.

A decent DESKTOP OS is MANDATORY for a business -- we don't need or want anything to do with "App Stores" etc. We don't also need FULL SCREEN Metro junk - especially as we are all being kitted out with HUGE monitors (as are a lot of workplaces these days).

I'm surprised that the management at Ms can't see the totally differing needs of Home and Corporate users -- there's always a SMALL overlap of course but in general the two environments have very different needs.

I haven't given up totally on this yet but I'm not too hopeful. - I'm now using W7 on my main computers again.

For Home usage the whole W8 type of interface could make sense - but not for a workplace.

Cheers
jimbo
 

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@Jimbo :ditto:

You can make W8 do what you want. But you can also cross the Atlantic by swimming ... or row boat ... or liner ... or catch a plane. It's not a case of being able, it's being able in the most efficient way.
 

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1) There's no ENTERPRISE version so that immediately makes corporate deployment a huge pain in the you know where.
As far as I know, they are going to release 8.1 Enterprise. Did they make some announcement that they won't have it anymore.

2) The hoops and rings you have to avoid in order to set W 8.1 up to use a LOCAL account -- the idea of users having (by default) to have a Microsoft id is just going to go down like a lead balloon in business environments.
I don't recall any issues when I setup 8.1 on my test box at my office. It's using a local account and I installed from scratch. In corporate environments we would use images or WDS anyway for deployment.

Ensure you aren't connected to the Internet when installing W8.1 to get the Local account option BTW - but even here the notorious UAC problem comes back to bite you -- shades of the VISTA problem !!!
Perhaps I wasn't plugged into the network when I installed on my test box. Maybe I will run through the install again with a cable connected to see what happens.
 

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Other people (on EightForums) have reported that you must not be connected to a network, if you want to use a local account.

I don't have W8.1, so I can't confirm if this is accurate.
 

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For Home usage the whole Windows 8 type of interface could make sense

To whom? Or who to, if you prefer.
 
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1) There's no ENTERPRISE version so that immediately makes corporate deployment a huge pain in the you know where.
As far as I know, they are going to release 8.1 Enterprise. Did they make some announcement that they won't have it anymore.

2) The hoops and rings you have to avoid in order to set W 8.1 up to use a LOCAL account -- the idea of users having (by default) to have a Microsoft id is just going to go down like a lead balloon in business environments.
I don't recall any issues when I setup 8.1 on my test box at my office. It's using a local account and I installed from scratch. In corporate environments we would use images or WDS anyway for deployment.

Ensure you aren't connected to the Internet when installing W8.1 to get the Local account option BTW - but even here the notorious UAC problem comes back to bite you -- shades of the VISTA problem !!!
Perhaps I wasn't plugged into the network when I installed on my test box. Maybe I will run through the install again with a cable connected to see what happens.


Hi there.

There hasn't been even a "Sniff" of a pronouncement on Enterprise W8.1 -- I would also assume that some sort of preview would be available for Admins etc to test it out before deployment. There may well be some version later but there isn't anything as of now so if you were thinking of doing an upgrade from XP as a Corporate you need to plan well in advance and can't afford to wait until (or even IF ) Ms releases an Enterprise version of W8.1.

You CAN use a local account but if you are connected to the Internet at install time this option doesn't appear (or at least I couldn't find it). You can delete the Ms account afterwards and set up a local account but it's a real hassle and if you are mad enough to try out the store the whole thing goes bonkers and the old UAC gets in the way again. Simpler to install via NOT using the Internet. !!

As far as Windows 8 being able to do anything one wants -- OK It's not THAT difficult -- but I'm talking of a Corporate environment where the install process is rather different to typical home users.

I don't mind W8 as a HOME user -- when I'm using it at work is where it gets messy -- for instance the IE 11 screws up the whole web services I need when using things like SAP CRM software -- the IE browser hoses up the very commonly used Internet services / Webgui called "Web Dynpro" big time and the whole back end GUI fails. If your customers / suppliers can't perform their online ordering you are totally screwed up. !!!

There's going to be some serious issues here --for instance SAP is almost as big a player in I.T as Microsoft is -- but in the Corporate world.

(Note -- running IE 11 in Compatibility mode doesn't fix the issue either - this is only ONE of several very serious show stoppers for W8.1 or even W8 adoption in the business).

Cheers
jimbo
 

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Just as with the original Windows 8 betas, there hasn't been an Enterprise build made available, but it exists and 8.1 will have an Enterprise version.

I'm working in a business environment that is migrating to 8.1 and allow Microsoft accounts to be linked (and this is a "secure" facility). Risk assessments were done and it was deemed, at least here, to be safe enough to do.

As to the local account, I know of few enterprises that are using 8 or 8.1 outside of a domain environment, making this less an issue. Also, if you are using proper imaging and deployment tools, the OOBE experience is quite different and this is not a problem either at that point.

As to IE and SAP, this has been an issue with every upgrade since IE6 to IE7, so blaming MS for SAP coding to specific IE versions is a bit misplaced. SAP is going to likely have more issues with this if Microsoft starts releasing quicker as well, and perhaps SAP will be forced to actually write decent web apps instead of relying heavily on page controls.... One can only hope. If it's an enterprise environment, though, upgrading to the absolute latest browser without providing appcompat testing (which would find this issue) would be a sin anyway. Not every business runs SAP, and while it may be common in your field, it's not as common across the board anymore as you might think.
 

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