{"id":3576,"date":"2013-09-24T12:30:22","date_gmt":"2013-09-24T16:30:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.nccomputertech.com\/?p=3576"},"modified":"2013-09-24T12:30:22","modified_gmt":"2013-09-24T16:30:22","slug":"windows-8-1-offered-early-to-some-businesses-for-testing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nccomputertech.com\/techtalk\/2013\/09\/24\/windows-8-1-offered-early-to-some-businesses-for-testing\/","title":{"rendered":"Windows 8.1 offered early to some businesses for testing"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align:center;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.pcworld.com\/article\/2049157\/windows-8-1-offered-early-to-some-businesses-for-testing.html\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/nccomputertech.com\/techtalk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/09\/missingfromwindows8-1_primary-100044266-gallery.jpg\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Businesses with certain Microsoft memberships and service agreements can now download the near-final version of Windows 8.1 to test with an eye toward deployment, the company says.<br \/>\nTechNet and Microsoft Developer Network members as well as businesses with volume licensing and Software Assurance agreements can download the software.<br \/>\nThe purpose of the release is for business customers to plan whether and how they will deploy the new operating system once the final version becomes generally available October 18. It was released last month to hardware vendors.<br \/>\n&#8220;Testing your operating system for compatibility with existing applications and better understanding what needs to be done to migrate your business especially for those organizations still on Windows XP is paramount,&#8221; says Erwin Visser, the general manager of Windows commercial marketing in the Windows for Your Business blog. He also encourages businesses with Windows 7 deployments to start testing, even though support for Windows 7 is not being ended as it is for XP.<br \/>\nMicrosoft has issued deployment tools to help corporate customers upgrading from earlier versions of Windows\u2014Microsoft Deployment Toolkit 2013 free\u2014or System Center 2012 R2 Configuration manager. Both tools remove the old operating system, install the new one, reinstall applications and restore data and settings captured from the old operating system, Microsoft says.<br \/>\nNew in Windows 8.1<br \/>\nMicrosoft has pushed upgrades in Windows 8.1 as business-friendly features meant to improve mobile performance, management, virtualization and security demands of businesses.<br \/>\nThese include broadened VPN support, embedded wireless support, mobile hotspot technology, and Windows to Go, which enables carrying a Windows 8 machine around on a USB flash drive to run a corporate Windows 8 image on a separate machine. Remote wipe of business data is enabled as are device encryption, fingerprint authentication and antivirus software.<br \/>\nWindows 8.1 supports granting limited access to corporate resources for devices that are not domain joined while at the same time exerting some governance over them.<br \/>\nTo help decide which edition of Windows 8.1 is appropriate, Microsoft has posted a chart comparing them.<br \/>\nvia <a href=\"http:\/\/www.pcworld.com\/article\/2049157\/windows-8-1-offered-early-to-some-businesses-for-testing.html\" target=\"_blank\">Windows 8.1 offered early to some businesses for testing | PCWorld<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Businesses with certain Microsoft memberships and service agreements can now download the near-final version of Windows 8.1 to test with [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center 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2.0 Is Not Required for Windows 11","author":"NCCT","date":"February 11, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"https:\/\/youtu.be\/yjjCbOOpREg On Security Now, Steve Gibson talks about Microsofrt dropping the TPM 2.0 requirement from Windows 11.","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Microsoft&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Microsoft","link":"https:\/\/nccomputertech.com\/techtalk\/category\/microsoft\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/img.youtube.com\/vi\/yjjCbOOpREg\/0.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":9655,"url":"https:\/\/nccomputertech.com\/techtalk\/2021\/03\/09\/fuquay-varina-and-holly-springs-computer-repair\/","url_meta":{"origin":3576,"position":1},"title":"Fuquay Varina and Holly Springs Computer Repair","author":"NCCT","date":"March 9, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"Welcome to our blog. 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Our services\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Technology&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Technology","link":"https:\/\/nccomputertech.com\/techtalk\/category\/technology\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":9428,"url":"https:\/\/nccomputertech.com\/techtalk\/2018\/10\/28\/all-the-presidents-phones-this-week-in-tech-690\/","url_meta":{"origin":3576,"position":2},"title":"All the President&#8217;s Phones &#8211; This Week in Tech 690","author":"NCCT","date":"October 28, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"https:\/\/youtu.be\/pmfcU05twvo IBM buys Red Hat, worst Windows 10 ever, Right to Repair wins, and more. -- What's in store for Apple's big event this Tuesday? -- Tim Cook vs the \"data industrial complex\" -- Amazon's government controversies -- IBM buys Red Hat for $34 billion - the largest software purchase\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Apple&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Apple","link":"https:\/\/nccomputertech.com\/techtalk\/category\/apple\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/img.youtube.com\/vi\/pmfcU05twvo\/0.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":9932,"url":"https:\/\/nccomputertech.com\/techtalk\/2025\/05\/16\/microsoft-makes-70-billion-cuts-3-of-workforce\/","url_meta":{"origin":3576,"position":3},"title":"Microsoft Makes $70 Billion, Cuts 3% of Workforce","author":"NCCT","date":"May 16, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"https:\/\/youtu.be\/L0nyc9O5qYY On Windows Weekly, Paul Thurrott and Richard Campbell try to comprehend the sweeping employee layoffs happening at Microsoft in the wake of $70 billion in revenue. 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