In March 2017 I blogged a method to allow you to forcefully upgrade your Windows 7 or Windows 10 computers to the latest version of Windows 10 using a popup (HTA) that gives the user some form of control (5 deferrals).
Note: if you want to see how many days of support are left for Windows 7 extended support click here.
This was very popular and spawned different versions of the same original concept by other MVP’s and the community at large. I always wanted to update mine, but never had time, however what I have done is incorporate bug-fixes and features, and rewritten the original VBS wrapper code to PowerShell. In the next version I’ll replace the HTA with a PowerShell gui.
So how about listing the features of this solution.
Designed to run as required
Runs before the task sequence starts
Shows the user a popup with options
Can run on Windows 7 or Windows 10
Allows deferrals
After deferrals run out, starts a 4 hour timer
If the user ignores the popup, subtracts one deferral after 8 hours
Checks for Power
Checks for hard disc free space
Checks for Supported Model
Checks for VPN
Is easy to Brand with your company details
Has several checks to ensure it won’t run by accident
So that’s enough of the features, here’s a look at what it will look like to the end user running either Windows 10 or Windows 7.
Time to upgrade
In the above screenshot, the user sees the popup daily at a time that you decide eg: 11am. The user has a number of choices:
Upgrade now by clicking on the box ‘my files are backed up’, and then selecting Upgrade now
Upgrade later by clicking on Defer
Cancel, by clicking on the X in the top corner, this will remove one deferral. Note that this verifies how many deferrals are left and if there are none left, will start the task sequence
Do nothing. The popup will auto close after 8 hours and remove one deferral.
Kill it with Task Manager, this will remove one deferral.
If the user runs out of deferrals the 4 hour timer will start.
If the user still does nothing, when the 4 hours runs out the task sequence will begin. They can of course click the checkbox and select Upgrade now to start it at any time.
Branding
So how can you add your branding to it ? start with the banner.png. Open it in MSPaint and replace the windowsnoob logo with your own, try and keep it to 500×65 pixels otherwise you’ll need to edit the Upgrade.HTA code also.
Next, open the wrapper.ps1 in PowerShell ISE. Edit CompanyName in line 15 to suit your Company Name.
Save the changes, next, open upgrade.hta in Notepad ++. Edit CompanyName in line 50 to suit your company name.
edit line 395, and put your company name in
Troubleshooting
The popup creates 3 log files in C:\ProgramData shown below
Windows10RequiredUpgradeHTA.log
Windows10RequiredUpgradeWrapper.log
Windows10RequiredUpgradeStart-Upgrade.log
The process creates registry keys (and deletes them upon successful closure of the HTA before starting the task sequence).
For more details about how to set this up in your environment, please see the following blogpost. I’ve updated that blogpost to include the new files and the PowerShell wrapper.ps1.
Note: To download the files included, you need to be a registered member of windows-noob.com
cheers
niall