Windows 7 Migration Plan Guide Using Lite Touch Deployment :Part 1 ( The Assessment Tools -Microsoft® Application Compatibility Toolkit (ACT) )
Migrations ,what an interesting topic each and every one of us will do it eventually , currently I am working on several projects (secure endpoint) ,a part of this projects is windows7, this post series will help anyone interested in migration to windows 7 , in easy steps .
So the first part of this series is the assessment
This part is one of the important parts because if you don’t know what you have, you will not know how to fix it. We will be using a several tools to do our migrations
we will be using one server 2 GB Ram and 160GB disk space throughout this series
The Assessment Tools
Microsoft® Application Compatibility Toolkit (ACT)
The Microsoft® Application Compatibility Toolkit (ACT) 5.6 enables software developers, independent software vendors (ISVs), and IT professionals who work in a corporate environment to determine, before deployment within the organization, whether their applications are compatible with a new version of the Windows® operating system. ACT also enables such individuals to determine how an update to the new version will affect their applications.
You can use the ACT features to:
- Verify your application’s, device’s, and computer’s compatibility with a new version of the Windows operating system, including determining your risk assessment.
- Verify a Windows update’s compatibility, including determining your risk assessment.
- Become involved in the ACT Community, including sharing your application assessment with other ACT users.
- Test your applications for issues related to User Account Control (UAC) by using the Standard User Analyzer (SUA) tool.
- Test your Web applications and Web sites for compatibility with new releases and security updates to Internet Explorer®, by using the Internet Explorer Compatibility Test Tool.
For better understanding of Application compatibility please visit http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee461265(v=WS.10).aspx
You Can download ACT from
prerequisites
· Dot net 3.5.1
· Install SQL 2008R2 Express
You can download it from
Making Basic configuration Enable TCP/IP and Named pipes
1.1.2. Installing ACT 5.6
Type in the server name and the name of the database (the database can be anything)
Set a folder that will receive the logs from the clients
Staring the management console and creating a data collector
The Label will be used if you want to create more than one package for each department and later you need to filter based on that .
Saving the created package
Creating a GPO to auto install that package over our environment
First we place the package inside a share that all clients can access with read only
Create GPO that apply to windows XP only
We create a GPO with WMI filter attached (we don’t need to install the package on windows 2003 or any other version of windows)
Windows versions for you reference
- · Windows 2000 Server =5.0%
- · Windows 2000 WS =5.0%
- · Windows server 2003 =5.2%
- · Windows XP =5.1%
- · Windows server 2008=6.0%
- · Windows Vista = 6.0%
- · Windows server 2008 R2 =6.1%
- · Windows 7=6.1%
As you see in the above versions it only different in windows 2003 and xp the rest Is the same
So to hit another OS we will need to add ProductType =/<> "1" in the WMI statement
Examples
- · OS Windows 2008 server
SELECT * FROM Win32_OperatingSystem WHERE Version = "6.0%" and ProductType <> "1"
- · OS Windows Vista
SELECT * FROM Win32_OperatingSystem WHERE Version = "6.0%" and ProductType = "1"
To explore the WMI we download a tool called WMI explorer
You can download it from http://www.ks-soft.net/hostmon.eng/wmi/index.htm
We create a WMI filter in the GPO with our select statement
Next step we import the ACT MSI file to the GPO software installation section
We change the WMI filtering to the ACT filter (windows XP )
Now every XP machine that will restart will install our collector package
Note: it might take several restarts for the package to be distributed properly
