ENTERPRISE LONG TERM SERVICING CHANNEL FOR WINDOWS 10: IE Retirement Solutions | |||
| Recently, Microsoft announced that they are ending support for IE in June of 2022. It’s complicated, but let’s have a look at a few IE Retirement Solutions for Enterprise. Of course, there has been a great deal of concern in the Enterprise IT community over the potential of the legacy compatibility issues that may arise. Browsium announced the summer release of an Edge “IE Mode” compatible version of Catalyst and Ion to ensure customers can seamlessly manage any issues. The news wasn’t unexpected, but by Enterprise IT standards, Microsoft did define an extremely short amount of lead-time to adapt many legacy applications to function in Edge IE Mode. Microsoft did offer a lifeline to enterprise customers that need more time – they will not remove IE from the LTSC (formerly Long-Term Servicing Branch). This raised a question at team Browsium: Why have so few of our customers opted into LTSC? To be sure, LTSC is not for everyone. LTSC is designed for environments where features and functionality changes are not as crucial as a static OS (security updates are still required – thus, there is no reprise for the End of Flash mms.cfg – see below). At any rate, if, as in Windows 1809, SAC updates caused unexpected issues, or if there isn’t enough lead-time to prepare for an upcoming update, LTSC is an option that Enterprise IT should keep in mind. Beating an Almost Dead HorseJuly’s Patch Tuesday release spells the end for Flash’s final workaround (Allow List/mms.cfg), so now’s the time to act! Again, I want to reiterate that there may be some hidden applications in your estate (training videos, as one example) that still require Flash. Keep in mind that we offer a tool for the continued use of Flash (Ion) while ensuring it remains in a “secure bubble”, and a telemetry tool to inventory Flash dependencies and much more (Proton). | Our organization welcomed the static nature of LTSC as Healthcare has its own issues with constant updates (mostly outside vendors). -J Herod | ||
SO MUCH FOR THE “LAST VERSION” OF WINDOWS | |||
| As it turns out, Microsoft never said that Windows 10 would be the last version of Windows. Something to the effect was incorrectly interpreted by many after the comments that Jerry Nixon made at a Windows 10 presentation back in 2015. MSFT didn’t deny what Nixon said but insisted that their OS would be delivered as a service going forward. A couple of takeaways from a Browsium perspective: Opening the Android store to Windows will be convenient, but with its somewhat spotted security history concerning third-party developer content, these applications and utilities may introduce yet another attack surface. Our Ion users tackling Flash EOL were surprised to discover the true extent of their Flash dependence, leaving them initially baffled. ProtonOur Ion users tackling Flash EOL were surprised to discover the true extent of their Flash dependence, leaving them initially baffled. Our telemetry tool, Proton, provides granular data into all the major MSFT compatible browsers*. In the case of Flash, an inventory of every ActiveX instance is being invoked and by each user in near real-time. Add to that web application usage, performance, security, add-ons, Java, dependencies, or any range of data regarding end-user browser activity, and you can suddenly regain the control that you used to enjoy with an Intranet environment! Another takeaway is that Windows 11 will only be available as a 64-bit machine, yet 32-bit apps will still be supported. Somewhat optimistically, MSFT also claims that there will not be any compatibility issues. We shall see if that claim remains accurate regarding browser-based applications, but in the more than 12-year history of Browsium, it has not always been the case (it is, in fact, part of the origin story of Browsium). Many of you recall migrating to Windows 10… Get ready for Windows 11 with Browsium’s service-based support; we’ll guide you through the upgrade and beyond. * Mac platform support coming soon! Edition 4, Volume 1 | “Right now, we’re releasing Windows 10, and because Windows 10 is the last version of Windows, we’re all still working on Windows 10.” – Jerry Nixon, a developer evangelist, Microsoft 2015 | ||
