- Welcome to Desktop Deployment Essentials,
our new series to help you prepare
for your shift to Windows 10 and Office 365 ProPlus.
In the next few minutes,
we'll explore the next step in our deployment process wheel
by reviewing the tools and options for you
to migrate user files and settings at scale.
Now this includes common approaches used as part
of a task sequence based automated deployment,
manual approaches available to backup and restore files,
and a new option using the Cloud and OneDrive
called Known Folder Move that helps you move your files
to the Cloud and increase information protection
and governance over those files.
Now one of the trickiest and often most manual parts
of large scale deployment is transferring user files
and settings to new PCs or backing up and restoring files
as part of a PC refresh or re-imaging process.
First, let's look at your automation options.
Task sequence based deployment automation tools,
like Config Manager and MDT,
leverage the User State Migration Tool, or USMT,
as part of an end to end deployment process.
USMT captures user accounts, user files,
operating system settings, and application settings
then migrates them to the new Windows installation.
You can use the tool for both PC replacement
and PC refresh migrations.
It can give you the advantage
of controlling exactly what gets migrated.
And optionally you can exclude unwanted file types,
like audio and video files or executables.
USMT also allows for migration stores to be encrypted
to reduce the risk of data being compromised
while temporarily being stored on file servers.
Also, for PC refresh cases,
where the primary Windows partition is not formatted,
you can use hard-link migration with USMT.
Now this process preserves the user state
while the old operating system and apps are removed.
And because the restore process is actually coming
from the same local partition,
it significantly improves migration performance
and reduces network traffic.
Now everyone is different when it comes
to deciding on what to keep when moving to a new PC
or a new version of Windows.
Some users might wanna keep everything,
while other users might want to use this opportunity
to clean up their drives.
Because of this, a lot of IT departments
actually handle user file migration manually.
Sometimes this is done by visiting the user
and other times by setting up places for users
to bring their PCs to IT.
Now that way, users can also help decide what to keep.
Now the scale of manual migration is obviously limited
to the time and physics involved in working directly
with those users to understand their needs,
copy files off their PCs, and return them back
to the new PC or new install of Windows.
If this manual process is what you're currently doing,
you might want to calculate
whether this is going to be a potential bottleneck
in terms of meeting that January 2020
end of support timeline for Windows 7
and look into maybe other options
or requests for more people to help.
Next, while both the automated and manual methods
that I just described are commonly used,
one new option with OneDrive called Known Folder Move
is a great way for you to align both IT and user needs
reducing the need for manual migration.
Now if you're already using OneDrive,
you'll know that users can select the folders
and locations they'd like to sync
from OneDrive or SharePoint to their device.
And, of course, they can move the files they want
into OneDrive into those sync locations on their PC.
But that effectively puts the burden on the end user
to set it all up.
Now with Known Folder Move, you can actually
target documents, desktop and pictures folders
within a user profile.
This can be done either as the user
or, even more importantly, as a system administrator
you can enforce group policy settings
and determine whether file sync happens silently
in the background or if it's visible to end users.
The nice thing here is that users don't need
to change their workflow before, during,
or after the file sync.
Then after the user takes delivery of that new PC
or refreshed PC, these files are available
on the device or future devices once the user signs
into their OneDrive account.
They can even reach their files securely
from a phone or another device.
OneDrive compared to local network based
file migration option provides additional flexibility
using the Cloud to synchronize user files
and enable secure access on new or refreshed PCs
as part of the hardware refresh cycle.
Note that in all cases authentication is powered
by Azure AD so you can also easily
enable multi-factor authentication as part of the process.
To optimize for network bandwidth
in a large scale deployment, you can use policies
to control the amount of bandwidth used
for both upload and download processes.
You can also phase the rollout
of Known Folder Move using group policy settings
for additional control or limit file sync
to domain joined PCs if you prefer.
Now remember, OneDrive is designed to sync
and protect files and folders
but does not sync applications or Windows settings.
So those are the options to migrate user files
and settings between PCs, but in many cases,
you'll also wanna configure standard layouts
and settings on your managed PCs.
In fact, many of you will want
to personalize Windows 10 Start and taskbar settings,
like what's default pinned in the taskbar
and what users see in their Start menu.
In Windows 10, you won't be using
the copy profile method you might be using now.
In Windows 10 Pro, Enterprise, and Education,
you can use group policy, MDM,
Powershell or provisioning packages
to deploy a customized Start and taskbar layout.
No re-imaging in this case is required
and the layout can be updated simply
by overwriting an XML file
that contains the layout.
Windows 10 also includes many first-party apps
as part of the standard installation.
In some cases, you might want to remove those apps.
For example, things like Xbox or Zune Music
from managed PCs and configure your installation
also to prevent those apps from returning back.
You can remove unwanted apps either from a running copy
of Windows using PowerShell
or an off-line Windows image using DSM commands.
So that was a quick run through of your options
for migrating user files and settings
as part of your desktop deployment.
Next up on the deployment process wheel,
we'll cover your considerations for security
and compliance controls as you shift to Windows 10
and Office 365 ProPlus, along with the things to keep
in mind, if you're coming from Windows 7.
And to learn more about what we covered today,
visit the Modern Desktop Deployment Center
and keep following our Desktop Deployment Essentials
series here on Microsoft Mechanics.
Thanks for watching.