Hello,
Actually I have decided today to spend some time on Windows 8 migration today. I
try to just report my results without any intention to start a war about user
interface discussions. So if you're going to reply please focus on technical
discussion of issues.
Here's a summary of my findings:
I did install WPKG Client 1.3.14 64-bit on Windows 8 Professional 64-bit. I have
used wpkg.js version 1.3.1-RC12.
The configuration I have used is the same as for Windows 7. This includes some
post-installation changes I typically use:
sc config wpkgservice depend= NSI/Tdx/Afd/tcpip/LanmanWorkstation
sc config wpkgservice start= delayed-auto
This will run the service delayed and usually works fine even for network
adapters reporting link ready even if the driver is not ready yet (see
discussions on the list for Windows 7).
My configuration also includes service termination after execution so the
service is not permanently running.
Overall the migration to Windows 8 was very smooth. The only thing I really had
to adapt was to create a new profile for Windows 8 machines which exclude some
packages. In my case:
- Exclude FlashPlayer Active-X
(embedded in IE 10, so I prefer it to be updated via Windows Update;
although the version embedded currently is outdated)
- Exclude installation of Microsoft Security Essentials
MSE is actually integrated into Windows Defender now. It won't install on
Windows 8 and report incompatibility
- Exclude installation of Internet Explorer as IE10 is included already
And that's it basically. WPKG will just deploy all the packages fine.
Some issues:
- CAUTION: I found that the WPKG service is not restarted when you shut down the
machine and re-start it. This is due to the new Windows 8 session resume
feature. During shutdown Session0 will not be terminated but will be hibernated
instead. So when the machine is powered on again the system session is restored
from hibernate rather than fully booted. On one hand this provides very short
boot times but on the other hand services are not refreshed. So crashed
(unexpectedly terminated) services remain dead and also WPKG service is not
re-launched as some people might expect.
Please also note that if you initiate a REBOOT rather than shutdown/restart,
then session 0 is actually terminated completely and then of course also WPKG is
re-launched then.
So if your users always just shut down properly, then you might have issues
getting WPKG re-launched without putting a task scheduler entry which (re)starts
the WPKG service based on schedule.
You have to expect that such installations will run WPKG basically once a month
(after Windows Update installation and required real reboot) unless you're going
to disable the feature entirely:
- (Desktop) Control Panel > Hardware and Sound > Power Options
Click "Chose what the power buttons do" and disable "Turn on fast startup"
But I do not recommend this since fast startup actually provides really
accelerated startup on many machines (especially those without SSD).
I will have to check how WPKG-GP complies with Windows 8.
- Only partially a WPKG issue but I found Windows 8 creating pinned "Start"
items for every installed application installed for the user which installs
them. When additional users log on to the machine they will find empty "Start"
panel so users will have to pick all the programs from the "All apps" menu only
found when right-clicking in the start screen. I am working on a script which
pins most important applications (Word, Excel, LibreOffice, Firefox...) to the
start panel for new users via RunOnce registry key. So on very first login the
start panel will not only contain app tiles.
Overall WPKG seems to work pretty well on Windows 8 without any changes.
Although packages might need some updates and new profiles will have to be
defined in some cases. The good thing is that we won't have to care about app
deployment as they are installed and updated via the store. Not sure if it would
be even possible to deploy apps via command-line from sources other than the
market or install them globally. I found already strange that in a multi-user
environment user A won't see apps installed by user B at all even if the appl is
free (well, might be license policy driven). As far as I know Microsoft at least
promised providing tools to deploy apps in corporate environment to all users
but I guess it requires a system management center installation which is perhaps
a bit overkill in smaller networks or at smaller schools.
Pending:
- Try WPKG-GP
- Get informationa bout app deployment and policies
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