Microsoft have twice published that app compatibility reported by customers for Windows 10 is over 99% (here and here). For most enterprise clients, who today are on Windows 7, that number will cause some raised eye-brows based on their experiences moving away from Windows 7. For many clients that will mean that there are fewer difficult apps to resolve compatibility issues. The 1% for some clients could equate to 50-100 apps or more. That 1% also in many cases highlights an investment issue in replacing apps that may well be complex or have in-house code where the developer has long since left the organization. It is imperative that organizations start to identify those apps and take concrete steps to refresh, replace or re-factor those apps. Its relatively simple now to deploy tools that assess what apps are in an enterprise estate and then assess their compatibility. Gaining insight into your estate is key. This assessment point could also be the point in time that analytics are embedded into devices within the estate to being to gain broader insight into performance, usage, problems and predict-faults.
The danger in this 1% of apps is that those apps prevent the migration to a modern OS that delivers a modern experience with enhanced security. For enterprise clients this 1% is leading them to think carefully about their Windows 10 release cadence (which in turn identifies which branch to use). If care is not take a vicious spiral ensues which results in delays for migration and hence less secure environment and delays in deploying new modern management techniques that can enhance user experience.
Another danger in 1% is a minority of enterprises are talking about deploying Windows 10 Long Term Servicing Branch. This approach needs very careful planning as discussed in the first post of this series.
This blog post is part of a short series of blog posts:
- 99% Compatible – a 1% challenge for Windows 10 Compatibility (This Post)
Stu Downes 
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