Windows 7 to Windows 10 in-place upgrade by component

VIDEO  Datto RMM Best Practice: Migrating Windows 7 to Windows 10
Join Datto RMM technical experts Jon North and Aaron Engels to learn how to leverage Datto RMM to quickly build a business case for the best strategy for your Windows 7 to 10 upgrades, and then execute them smoothly and at scale. This session also covers how to manage Windows 10 Feature Updates.

High level summary

Datto RMM can facilitate the upgrade of Windows 7 SP1 to Windows 10 via the use of components. The components available in the ComStore cover the most common requirements, but an additional component has been developed for more specific or niche use cases, such as upgrading from Windows 7 Professional to Windows 10 Enterprise, or deploying a Windows 10 upgrade at scale or across a number of sites.

Please note that all steps within this document assume the endpoints being upgraded are sufficient for the task in that they are powerful enough for the new OS and that they are upgraded as appropriate with tested drivers and applications, compatibility issues identified and resolved, and so forth.

The ComStore components upgrade Windows 7 SP1 Professional or above, including earlier build editions of Windows 10 for either Professional or Enterprise editions. You can upgrade to either the latest build edition available from Microsoft (Windows 10: Upgrade or update to latest Feature Release [WIN]), or one of the previous two build editions (Windows 10: Upgrade via ISO [WIN]). Refer to Patch Management and Windows 10. By default, they both download the ~7GB data required either using the Media Creation Tool model or via disk image (ISO) file to every device that runs the component, although in the case of the ISO component, this can be overridden by providing your own ISO in a network folder and by entering the UNC path into the component as a variable.

There are a number of use cases such as those described above that are not covered by these components, however. For this reason, an equivalent component with more flexibility has been developed in order to fulfill the requirements of more specific deployments. Refer to Component.

When upgrading to the Enterprise edition of Windows 10, your approach will be determined by the editions of Windows you are upgrading from and to.

  • When upgrading from Windows 7 SP1 Enterprise to the latest build of Windows 10 Enterprise, you can use the Windows 10: Upgrade or update to latest Feature Release [WIN] component in the ComStore.
  • When upgrading from Windows 7 SP1 Enterprise to any other supported build of Windows 10 Enterprise, you can use the Windows 10: Upgrade via ISO [WIN] component in the ComStore. You will need to provide an Enterprise ISO image.
  • When upgrading from Windows 7 SP1 Professional to any supported build of Windows 10 Enterprise, you will need to use the component detailed below. You will need to provide an Enterprise ISO image and an Enterprise edition product key as part of the installation process in order for the OS to activate successfully.

In order to use the component below, the ISO file needs to be directly attached to the component itself. This model permits use of local component caches, and thus greatly reduces external network traffic when performing an upgrade of this nature at scale or across a number of sites. Refer to Designate a local cache.

The ISO file you attach to the component can contain any build you like as long it is supported by Microsoft. For example, you could attach an Enterprise edition, an earlier build, an alternative language, your own specific image that has been prepped with injected drivers, and so forth. Attach the ISO file to the component, save (mark it as a favorite for use in quick jobs), and deploy. There are some considerations to bear in mind however, and you’ll need to prepare the ISO file for attachment as outlined below.

Splitting the ISO file for use with the Framework Only component

A Windows 10 ISO with support for 32- and 64-bit architectures runs at over 4GB; the 1809 edition for both 32- and 64-bit came in at 6.9GB. However, the separate ISO files for the individual architectures is much smaller: 32-bit is 2.8GB and 64-bit is 3.8GB. Datto RMM is only able to deal with components up to 5GB, so consideration should be given to the ISO that you are looking to deploy, especially if you have your own ISO image with a number of injected drivers. Additionally, there is a hard-coded limit per attachment. Before you attach and upload a Windows 10 ISO, you will need to split it up into segments and submit them as individual attachments into the component via the Web Portal. The recommended size limit of an attached file is 1GB, so it is recommended that you limit these segments to a 1GB maximum.

NOTE  We recommend the Fsplit tool for this task. You will need to be sure to rename the parts “part<x>.iso” in sequential order before you attach them in order to comply with the syntax of the script.

Installing a version of Windows 10 lower than the latest; non-English languages; and specific builds with injected drivers

The build of Windows 10 installed by the component is dictated by the ISO you attach to it. Use an ISO of an earlier version or in a different language to upgrade to that build instead. You could have multiple copies of this component with different ISO files attached, named accordingly, for different deployment use cases.

This component provides the framework for a direct-attached ISO file. This enables you to attach your own, whether it is an older build, an Enterprise edition, a non-English language, a prepared driver-injected image, and so forth, split into chunks as described above. OSEdition and ProdKey variables allow the use of Enterprise ISO either from Professional or Enterprise and a Reboot variable allows for provisioning only of devices so that you can control the time of the reboot to perform the upgrade. The Cleanup variable will delete the temporary files created by the upgrade. Download the component here.

NOTE  When Cleanup is set to true, it can take several hours to perform due to the number of files created by the upgrade process. The device will sit at 100% when the upgrade is complete but will not reboot until the housekeeping is completed.