The Sentrian One Windows Upgrade Facility is a new feature of our Sentrian One agent to help users manage their Windows Upgrades.
WHAT
Windows Quality Updates
Windows Quality updates are more frequent and mainly include small fixes and security updates.
Sentrian has been providing ongoing monthly Windows patching (Windows Quality Updates) via Microsoft’s ‘Windows Update’ functionality in order to keep Windows workstation/PC as secure as possible in the ongoing fight against unauthorised intrusion. This operation is provided as part of maintenance under the Sentrian support agreement.
Windows Feature Updates / Windows Upgrade
Windows Feature updates are typically released twice per year and include new functionality and capabilities as well as potential fixes and security updates.
Windows Feature updates is also known as ‘Version Upgrade’ or used to be called ‘Service Pack’. These Windows Feature updates are not provided as part of maintenance under the Sentrian support agreement. These updates can be invasive, labour intensive and time-consuming. Normally these are performed outside normal business hours and require an outage on the workstation/PC.
Changes
With the advent of the rolling 6 monthly Windows Feature Updates (Windows Upgrade), the support period for each Windows Feature version is now approximately 18 months. After that time, your computer will no longer receive the Windows Quality Updates. In other words, Microsoft will support the current Windows Feature version and two versions prior. Any older version will no longer receive Windows Quality Updates.
To ensure your computers are secure and up to date, Sentrian is rolling out a new facility with Sentrian One that will remind users who are working on a workstation/PC with a Windows version over 6 months old to perform the required Windows Upgrade at their next opportunity.
HOW
All workstations managed by Sentrian have a ‘Sentrian One’ agent installed, which you can find in your System Tray:
If this is installed and your company is set to receive Windows Upgrade notifications, a reminder Pop-up Message will occur once a week on a designated weekday afternoon advising to perform an upgrade of your Windows Feature version if your system is beyond our scoped Windows Feature version (typically over 6 months old, one Windows Feature version behind the most current).
Pop-up Message
If you choose ‘No’, or do not receive the pop up, you can manually trigger the request Pop-up Message again simply by right clicking the ‘Sentrian One’ icon in your System Tray and clicking on ‘Windows 10 Upgrade’
The Pop-up Message should show up within the next 60 seconds or so. You can select ‘Yes’ and invoke the upgrade. Once invoked, your screen will be covered by a message advising the upgrade could take up to 2 hours to complete, depending on the computer hardware and speed. As such, ensure you have saved and closed all programs before clicking ‘Yes’ as you will no longer be able to interact with the workstation/PC after this point until the upgrade is complete. If the workstation/PC is a laptop, please ensure that it is plugged into the wall power point to ensure it does not run out of battery part-way through the upgrade as this will cause corruption that may require intervention by an expert and downtime for the machine.
Please note that you need to allow at least 2 hours of downtime on your workstation/PC/laptop BEFORE proceeding with the Windows Feature updates.
WHY
Performing these Windows Upgrade (Windows Feature Updates) are a necessary part of keeping your business data safe. It is important to keep Windows within the Microsoft support period and ensuring that Windows Quality Updates can continue to install the required security patches as vulnerabilities are found.
This Sentrian One reminder and the simple method to invoke an upgrade is designed to be as non-intrusive as possible while still providing a simple and effective method to keep your workstation/PC compliant with supportability requirements.
If any issues arise after attempting an upgrade, please contact Sentrian Service Desk on 1300 791 678 https://help.sentrian.com.au/get-support
WHEN
Sentrian will roll this new facility out over the coming weeks.
In the meantime, Microsoft Windows Update provides the same functionality should you wish to upgrade your Windows Feature updates immediately. Please note that you need to allow at least 2 hours of downtime on your workstation/PC/laptop BEFORE proceeding with the Windows Feature updates.