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Windows 8 To-GO

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I spent last night at the Microsoft officer here in Indianapolis with the Indiana Windows Users Group.  We had a demonstration on Windows 8 To Go and a lot of pizza.

This new feature of Windows definitely opened my mind to some new potential work scenarios.  Since it is bootable on any hardware certified to run Windows 7 or 8, you can load it on most clients.  Windows to Go (WTG) isolates the local drives to prevent cross data contamination.  This is nice feature while on the go.  You can even allow BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) for temporary employees. Just provide them with WTG and you can manage their computer while they are working on your system and they can have there computer back when they boot normally.

One of the questions from the crowd was how to handle deployment and patch management.  The response was to simply continue to use your current methods and manage the WTG installations as any other workstation.  Deployment is a bit different, but you can use either the installation media or a custom WIM image.

A lot of potential uses for the mobile and temporary work force with WTG.  Just a word of warning.  The WTG certified memory sticks get very hot after an hour or two.  If you are going to use WTG for longer periods, consider a WTG certified USB 3.0 hard drive.  Remember, it must support WTG.  The hardware must appear to the OS as a fixed hard drive.  Standard USB hard drives appear as removable.

Have fun and thank you to IWUG for another fun evening.

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