Tech Forum

Are there any plans to upgrade unit administrative computers, currently running Windows 10 version 1511 (OS Build 10586.962)? My understanding is that Microsoft will no longer provide updates for them past approximately October 2017

Rick Winterton
Stake Clerk
Stake Technology Specialist

The Church already sends Windows updates when it deems necessary. I expect they will make a decision in this case, as well, and send it through in the normal manner if they decide to push it out.

I noticed our stake computer seemed to do a major update just this past Sunday. When I say "major" it took much longer than the normal monthly update.

If you enter "Winver" at the Run menu, Windows will show you the version. Mine are all 1511, which is to be obsoleted soon.

Hopefully, the church administrative software service is running on all your computers. You should have installed Tivoli when you installed those computers.

It's installed. I'm just wondering if the Church is going to allow the software to run without updates?

The Church actively manages the internal desktops used by CHQ employees, the Ward and Branch computers are after-thoughts to what they do. I doubt they are looking at it too seriously.

I had several conversations with Church tech support over updating the 1511 version (the one that installed through bigfix last year). Basically they will give you instructions on how to restore to a "clean state" which most don't need to do unless the computer install gets really messed up.

They did state that MLS should run on any version of Windows 10 (I'm running 1709 on the clerk computer I'm typing this message on). I have upgraded computers to both 1709 and 1703 without issues other than it takes an insane amount of time to download them. The intranet settings mostly block that type of update or the update settings can get a bit corrupted thus preventing a regular update to the latest windows build.

The main option MLS support gave me was to use the windows update tool, but that takes too long on the slow building internet, so I found a way to download the update iso without using the tool. After running the update your computer will come up normally, probably with a different login screen and you should be good to go. You may have to use the check updates over internet occasionally to get the monthly rollups as the church doesn't always keep up on those with their intranet update service (you can get the rollups off the windows update catalog site, works best with explorer or edge browsers).

If you want to download the 1709 update iso, navigate to the following site: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/softwar ... /windows10 using a non-Windows Computer. You can also adjust your Windows browsers to behave like a non-windows browser to get it that way as well. Your other option is to use the media creation tool, either will work fine, but I recommend not using the building internet unless your connection is fast.

Changing Browser compatibility settings: https://www.groovypost.com/howto/change ... er-safari/ (use at your own risk).

I'm a Stake Clerk from Tonga since less then a month ago. After reading all the upgrades on here. I feel that I'm stuck in the dark ages. I'm still using the Microsoft Windows 7 version. The internet connections here are slow and sporadic at times. Upgrading to windows 10 is only a dream from my neck of the woods, but at the same time, I feel grateful to have what we have.

Any tips or suggestions in this post are for Windows 10 computers, if you have a Windows 7 computer in your clerks office do not attempt anything listed here (there was a period last year during the microsoft free windows 10 upgrade window that the church sent through an upgrade that Stakes had the option of downloading, but that is no longer available).

If you have Windows 7, it will continue to work fine with end of life for security updates happening in 2020. Microsoft decided to do end of life on Windows 10 versions every 18 months, so we have been trying to deal with that. New unit computers are issued with a current operating system (currently Windows 10 version 1709).

Long Term Servicing Branch would fix the need to update the Windows version every 6-18 months, unfortunately it is Enterprise Only, which may be cost prohibitive to implement church wide.