Windows 11 deployment methods: in-place vs reimage / fresh install

[Emelia Obiri]

We are a local government and in the process of upgrading Windows 10 to Windows 11 and need advice, guidance or best practices for deployment methods that others have used.

I am managing the W11 upgrade and the technical guy in project team have been working on in-place upgrade and have several issues. The senior management do not want us to do re-imaging or fresh installs as that may mean bringing their devices to be reimaged



Below are some details and questions I have. I will really appreciate it if anyone can help with my questions or provide guidance or best practice.

• We are using SCCM for our builds, pushing out updates, that's our managed tools
• We will not be using InTune to push out W11 upgrades due to our environment/infrastructure
• what is the best method to push the update to users
• is there a way we can push out small updates to users
• currently it's taking 4 hours for the upgrade process via a VPN
• Depending on the connection you are on - other test has taken about 24hrs
• We tried 2 methods so far - used a 14Gb enablement package (Windows Update) which is a large file, this failed when trying to push over the VPN
• Will it be good to push package out to users out of business hours (from 6pm UK time?)
• Is any local council who have used in-place method for W11 upgrade reach out to me please?
• Can the upgrade be speeded up in any way by pre downloading the file?
• What are the impact of deploying W11 that will give a better user experience and less impact to IT staff
• Are there other methods for upgrading
• Most of our end-user devices are Dell Latitude 3420 - 3440

Thank you

 

[ChatGPT]

Hello Emelia, Upgrading from Windows 10 to Windows 11 in a controlled, large-scale environment requires careful planning and execution. Based on your details, here are some specific recommendations that might help streamline your process using in-place upgrades via SCCM: 1. Best Method to Push the Update Considering you are using SCCM, leveraging the Task Sequence for the in-place upgrade method could be very effective. This allows you to manage the upgrade seamlessly, including pre- and post-upgrade tasks such as driver updates and application migrations. Here’s a high-level flow:

• Create a Windows 11 upgrade task sequence in SCCM.
• Distribute the task sequence to required distribution points.
• Ensure the target machines meet hardware requirements for Windows 11.
• Deploy the task sequence to a device or collection in SCCM.

2. Pushing Out Small Updates Breaking the upgrade process into smaller, incremental updates can alleviate network stress. Leveraging Delivery Optimization can help reduce bandwidth consumption by allowing peer-to-peer content sharing. 3. Time Management for Upgrades Scheduling upgrades outside business hours is indeed a good practice. This minimizes disruption. Given your mention of a 6 PM UK time, automate the deployments to start post this time frame. 4. Speeding Up the Upgrade Process You could pre-download the necessary files to client machines before initiating the upgrade. In SCCM, you can use the "pre-cache content for available deployment" option, which allows the content to be downloaded before the task sequence execution. 5. Dealing with VPN Constraints VPN can indeed throttle the upgrade process. For remote users, you can enable split tunneling to prioritize upgrade traffic outside the VPN (if security policies allow). 6. Consider Cloud Management Gateway (CMG) If your VPN continues to be a bottleneck, consider deploying a Cloud Management Gateway (CMG) which allows SCCM clients to communicate through the public internet instead of a VPN. This can significantly improve the update process for remote users. 7. User Experience and IT Impact To improve user experience, clearly communicate the upgrade timeline, steps, and expected downtime with end-users. Create detailed documentation and a helpdesk plan to handle any upgrade issues. Implementing user self-service options through the Software Center can allow users to trigger the upgrade at their convenience. 8. Dell Latitude Devices Given that your end-user devices are specific models, ensure you have the latest drivers and BIOS updates for those models before initiating the upgrade. Tools like Dell Command | Update can be handy for this. 9. Additional Considerations If you find in-place upgrades remain problematic, a phased rollout plan would mitigate large-scale disruptions. Begin with a pilot group representative of different user profiles within your organization and collect feedback before a broader roll-out. To conclude, here is a summarized table for quick reference:

Issue	Recommendation
Best Method	In-place upgrade via SCCM Task Sequence
Small Updates	Delivery Optimization, pre-cache content
Upgrade Time	After business hours
Speeding Up	Pre-download upgrade files, use CMG
VPN Issues	Split tunneling, Cloud Management Gateway
User Experience	Clear communication, proper documentation, user self-service
Dell Devices	Update drivers and BIOS using Dell Update tools

Best of luck with your upgrade! Feel free to reach out for further assistance. Kind regards, ChatGPT