Windows 8: Making it work in the enterprise

Industry watchers have repeatedly questioned how business users will take to Windows' radical new look, but will its new security and BYOD friendly features be enough to make it a hit in the enterprise?

Windows 8, the latest incarnation of Microsoft’s flagship operating system, is set to drop tomorrow, but debate over how diehard Windows users will take to the revamped OS continues to rage.

Much has been made of Microsoft’s radical overhaul of the operating system’s look and feel, which has seen the firm replace the Start Menu with a new tile-centric Start Screen and introduce a new gesture-based navigation style.

Market watcher Gartner said Microsoft was taking a “big gamble” with the launch of Windows 8 back in September, claiming the new look OS could struggle to win favour with risk-adverse CIOs.

Meanwhile, Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen recently admitted to finding aspects of Windows 8 “confusing,” taking issue with the software’s tendency to flip between desktop and tablet mode (a feature known as Bimodal View) when users access apps and documents.

A new Start

The new user interface is designed to appeal to both tablet and desktop users, but Clive Longbottom, service director at IT analyst house Quocirca, expressed concerns to IT Pro about how he thinks business users will react to the changes.

“The lack of Start [Menu] makes starting an application so much harder and the multiple different ways of doing things [in tablet and desktop mode] just make this too much for an organisation to consider,” said Longbottom.

A Microsoft insider, who has worked closely with the Windows development team, admitted to IT Pro that Windows 8 is a “complicated beast” and a “bit of a headscratcher” when you first start using it.

The source, who asked not to be named because of his close professional ties to Microsoft, has been using Windows 8 for 10 months and said, at the moment, he would not recommend it to anyone that is not particularly tech-literate.

“It is, essentially, two operating systems bolted together, linked by the Start Screen, and – if I was a typical end user and not as well-versed as I am in Microsoft’s products – I would consider it to be a very complicated beast,” he said.

Businesses that have already adopted Windows 7 have no need to upgrade to its successor, added Longbottom, but companies that are still sweating it out on decade-old Windows XP should at least consider it.

“XP is going to be unsupported soon [as it is set to enter end of life in 2014] and companies that are still on that ancient operating system will soon find themselves [at increased risk from] new security attacks and [will hear their staff] bleat ever louder that they are finding the system impossible to use,” he warned.

“Moving to Windows 7 will not be easy as Windows 8 will be the de facto offer made by systems integrators and PC manufacturers when it comes to upgrade.”

Despite this, our Microsoft insider cast doubts on the suitability Windows 8 for enterprise users.

“[Microsoft] has not really designed it with the enterprise in mind, but they have ticked most of the boxes they needed to [make it fit], but they haven’t really gone out of their way to make it an enterprise product,” said our source. “But, then again, neither did Apple.”

What’s up with IE10?
According to a Microsoft insider, who has extensively bug-tested Windows 8 for 10 months, some enterprise users might encounter problems with Internet Explorer 10 to start with.


“The problem is that large areas of the internet don’t seem to be ready for it yet, as some of the web pages you visit in it look weird, and I’ve experienced problems uploading documents to Sharepoint and posting comments on forums,” said our source.

“Once Windows 8 launches, the internet should catch up and those problems should be solved.”

Even so, companies that do decide to take the plunge with Windows 8 will need to make sure their IT departments know how to support it, and train their staff in how to use it.

This is a view shared by a Microsoft supply chain source who works at a prominent B2B reseller of Microsoft products. He agreed to speak to IT Pro on condition of anonymity.

“With Windows XP, Windows Vista and Windows 7, you could give someone a brand new PC and they would instantly know how it works, but that’s not the case with Windows 8,” he said.

“A customer is not going to pay for brand new PCs and for their staff to be trained in how to use them when they’ve never had to do that before,” our source added.

However, Richard Gibbons, software manager at Microsoft reseller Bechtle Direct, said, in his experience, it does not take long for users to get to grips with Windows 8.

“Because it’s visually different [to other versions of Windows], I think a lot of people assume it will be difficult to use and not worth the hassle,” Gibbons suggested.

Wiltshire-based Bechtle recently hosted a Windows 8 event to show businesses and IT buyers how to use its main features.

“We were able to run through the basics of Windows 8, and the people who attended were able to jump in and feel more confident using it,” said Gibbons.

“Within 48 hours we were getting feedback from customers who had gone home, downloaded the preview, and had linked up their mail client to Office 365 or were managing VMware through this connector on a Windows 8 machine, for example.”

Despite what people say, Gibbons said there tends to be some form of learning curve for users when all new versions of Windows drop. And, where supposedly problematic features like Bimodal View are concerned, the IT department can usually offer a fix.

“A lot of users won’t be doing much when it comes to settings on their local machines [because that will be] taken care of centrally by the IT department through group policy and Active Directory,” he said.

An example of this is the Start Menu, which our Microsoft channel source said IT pros can easily reinstate by pre-installing Stardock’s Start8 software on every Windows 8 PC they rollout across their business.

The $4.99 product, our source predicts, will go on to become the “best selling Windows 8 add-on.”

“For many IT pros, it is only after installing Start8 that Window 8 makes any sense to them,” said our source, before taking aim at the operating system’s reliance on keyboard shortcuts.

“You have to remember keyboard shortcuts to do things quickly, but some of my customers can’t even remember their passwords to log in, so that’s going to be fun,” he added.

Windows of opportunity

Aside from companies that need to make the break from XP, there could still be a place for Windows 8 in companies that have already upgraded to Windows 7, thanks to the Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) trend.

“Windows 8 is a great tablet operating system and I expect to see quite a few execs expensing a Windows 8 tablet, slate or hybrid laptop and telling their IT departments to just ‘make it work’,” said Quocirca’s Longbottom.

To accommodate this, IT departments will need to get up to speed with Windows 8, but can do so at a more relaxed pace than if a company-wide rollout were taking place.

“Once [the IT staff] are retrained, then the users who make the most noise about wanting Windows 8 can be given it as the support infrastructure is already in place,” he said.

Bechtle’s Gibbons said he is already seeing evidence of companies that are planning to keep their desktop devices running on Windows 7, but introduce tablet devices that feature its successor.

“Microsoft has done a lot of work to ensure the two operating systems integrate with each other, meaning everything that runs on Windows 7 runs on Windows 8,” said Gibbons.

“Some firms would probably prefer not to run two operating systems side-by-side, but it is really not a hard thing to do.”

This multi-device approach is something Microsoft seems to be encouraging, if the introduction of its Companion Subscription License (CSL) programme is anything to go by.

Only firms that have Windows 8 with software assurance can qualify for a CSL, but it allows users to access their corporate desktop from up to four “personally” or “corporate non-x86 devices.”

What’s Windows To Go?
This feature of the Enterprise edition of Windows 8 lets users securely boot up a copy of their desktop using a USB or external hard drive.

In the past, end users that wanted to access their Windows 7 desktop from other devices would have to purchase a separate license for each one, explained Gibbons.

“Even if they never planned to use that device again, they would still need to buy one, just to be correctly licensed,” he said.

He calculates that the introduction of CSL means organisations can now embrace BYOD for around a “quarter of the price” that they could with Windows 7.

“Not many people really get into it [licensing] so the CSL doesn’t always get as much attention as it should do, but I certainly think – for the bigger organisations – this could be a deciding factor in their adoption of Windows 8,” he added.

Making its debut on the Enterprise edition of Windows 8 is Windows To Go, which Gibbons said should also encourage adoption of the OS across multiple devices.

This feature allows end users to securely boot and run their business desktop from a USB drive or external hard disk on their home PC, explained Gibbons.

“Everyone, users and techies, said Microsoft should move towards a more user-centric model across all their products, and [Windows To Go and CSL] are going a long way towards that,” he said.

Another new feature that might persuade end users to upgrade is the inclusion of Microsoft BitLocker hard drive encryption in Windows 8 Professional.

“When Windows 7 came out, this was only available in the Enterprise edition and everybody said it should be included in the Professional version because every company needs encryption,” said Gibbons.

“Microsoft have listened to that feedback and, if you’re on XP, I’d say that alone is worth moving to Windows 8 for.”

IT Pro approached Microsoft for comment on this feature, but was told that no-one from the Windows team would be available to interview.