By Rosemarie Monaco, Group M
Windows 10 upgrade not meant for production servers. Or the faint of heart.
You may have noticed an announcement from Microsoft that says you can upgrade from Windows 7 or 8 to version 10 through your automatic Windows Updates. According to the announcement, starting 29 July you'll see a popup that says "Get Windows 10." I've already seen the notice on my computer and it's only 15 July as I write this. If you see this gracious update offer pop up on one of your production servers, do not click OK without checking with the server/software provider.
If you do, be prepared to cripple your digital front end, maybe even render it useless. I heard one horror story where the DFE had to be rebuilt entirely from scratch.
According to Fiery DFE maker EFI, you should always check with your vendors before upgrading. Better yet, leave the upgrades to them. That's because most servers combine the operating system with special custom software and electronics. So you are not operating in a pure Windows environment.
To help its customers avoid an unnecessary nightmare, EFI offers a software patch that prevents the automatic upgrade. Find out more and get it here: http://fiery.efi.com/disable-windows10.
The company also recommends that you perform a full backup of the system image on a regular basis, so that in the event of an accidental Windows 10 update, you can restore your Fiery server.
At one time or another we've all been upgrade victims. If you've never experienced the trauma, write to me and when I have a free day I'll tell you about what happened at my company after a recent accounting software upgrade clashed with Windows. Was not pretty.
Be smart. Talk to your product manufacturers or suppliers before making upgrades.
Rosemarie Monaco is an award-winning marketing and communications expert with a specialty in graphic communications. Both her technology and marketing articles are published around the world by both trade and mainstream publications. She conducts seminars at industry events on a variety of marketing and management topics. Contact her at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..