Today's Technology for Tomorrow's Firm.
Issue link: https://cpapracticeadvisor.epubxp.com/i/652065
March 2016 • www.CPAPracticeAdvisor.com 7 FROM THE TRENCHES rather than later. Tis is especially true if you wa ited unti l the last minute to move f rom Windows XP and then just moved to Windows 7. W hat's the problem? b) Windows 7 / 8.1 will not be supported in some systems with Skylake processors. Tis means that if you buy a new PC in 2016, the new chips will likely not be supported on the old operating systems of Windows 7 and Window 8.1. i) We don't know what this means yet. We're not su re i f t he new computers w i l l r u n Windows (but with no support), whether Microsof will block Windows installation, or whether Microsof is just blufng. Only time will tell. ii) Microsof will release confgurations which are guaranteed to be supported on an old OS (e.g. Win 7, Win 8.1) through mid-2017 according to and from its website. Te current list of supported systems running 6 th gen/ Skylake processors through 7/17/2017 is linked at htp://windows.microsof.com/ en-us/windows/skylake-support. Systems from Dell, HP, Lenovo, and NEC are linked as of this writing (1/29/2016), and no other ma nu fac t u rers (i nclud i ng M icrosof t 's Surface PC's) are listed at this time. iii) I nte l S k y l a k e -ba s e d c h ip s e t s h ave a format of x x-6y y y, where x x is i3, i5, or i7, and the model is a four-digit number starting with a six. (1) I3-6xxx (although we still don't recom- mend i3 processors for accounting pro- fessionals) (2) i5-6xxx (3) i7-6xxx iv) Future chipsets will NOT be supported on Win 7/Win 8.1. For example, (1) Intel Kaby Lake, ex pected Q3 2016, assumed to be i#-7x x x models are not supported (2) Q u a lcom m 89 98 (w h ich ha s some involvement with Chinese chip invest- ments, which you can check out posted o n m y Tw i t t e r f e e d o r f r o m T h e Economist, January 23, 2016) (3) A MD Bristol Ridge family 2) How do updates work if you get Ofce 365? Tere are four update branches available to some Ofce 365 users[1]. Tey are: a) Windows Insider – Tis is the BETA channel of updates, and users must opt into Windows Insider on their PC to get these builds of applica- tions. Tis is the least stable platform, and is not recommended for any production systems. Bugs are expected. b) First Release (FR) – Tis is the latest non-beta version of Ofce 2016 applications. Tese will have fewer bugs, but there will still be issues. You can opt into First Release now if you wish to see how your existing apps will perform with the current versions of your apps. Te only people you would expect to see using this in a firm would be people testing the new versions of apps. Under no circumstances would we expect to see this in a production environment. c) Cu r rent Bra nch (CB) – Mont h ly feat u re updates and security updates i) Tis is the default for business plans, and is the slowest update tempo available for Of f ice 3 65 Bu si ness a nd Of f ice 3 65 Business Professional, which cannot use the slower Current Branch for Business. ii) A L L consu mers mu st t a ke mont h ly updates and we understand that if you don't take an update, you can't get security updates in the future (see footnoted links below for more information on this). d) Current Branch for Business (CBB) – Tis option has three feature updates per year. You must take at least two of them, and there are monthly security updates. i) CBB requ ires Enter pr ise Of f ice 365 or Volume Licensing with Sofware Assurance AND you must opt to "delay updates" ii) NOT ava i lable to Business Of f ice 365 (formerly Small/MidSize Business plans) iii) NOT available to retail or OEM purchasers 3) Other considerations include: a) Tere is NO LONG TER M SUPPORT (LTS) version of W i ndows 10 or Of f ice 2 016 i n Ofce 365. i) If you don't want the Ofce upgrades, the only option you have is to buy Office on volume license with sofware assurance, and then use downgrade rights to install the LTS version of Ofce 2013 ii) Tose who rent Microsof Ofce through Ofce 365 will receive push upgrades in late Q3 2016/ early Q4 2016, and can no longer stay on Ofce 2013 afer that date, presumed right now to be October 1, 2016. b) Mainstream support for IE 8-10 is largely over 1/12/2016 c) Support for Win 7 (pre SP1), Windows 8 is over d) And by the way, there is a recall on Surface Pro/ Surface Pro 2 power cables 4) It probably doesn't hurt for you to have access to t he major publ isher's pages on W i ndow s 10 compatibility: a) CCH: htps://support.cch.com/windows10/ b) Intuit: i) QB : h t t p s://c o m mu n i t y. i nt u i t . c o m / articles/1201230-windows-10-faq. We have been unable to get some QB add-on sofware to work with the combination of Windows 10/O f f ic e 2 016 , i nc l u d i n g t he I nt u it Statement Writer, which is explicitly sup- ported only with Ofce 2010 and Ofce 2007. ii) Lacerte: Compatibility for 2015 returns (prepped in 2016) will not come out until afer 4/15/2016. Prior year sofware (TY14 and earlier) may not be updated for Windows 10. See more at htps://accountants.intuit. com/s uppor t/t a x / l acer te/doc u ment . j s p ? p r o d u c t = L A C E R T E _ T A X & i d =INF28064&src;=GS_widget iii) P ro S e r ie s: "s up p or t e d f or W i ndo w s 7, 8 , 8 . 1 " ( b u t n o t W i n d o w s 1 0 ) ht t ps://t a x pro. i nt u it .com/proser ies/ faqs-data-system-requirements/ c) Tomson Reuters: i) Blog post: htps://tax.thomsonreuters.com/ blog/cs-professional-suite/windows-7-8-9- 10-when-will-it-end/ ii) KB article: htps://cs.thomsonreuters.com/ ua/fxa/cs_us_en/kb/windows-10-for-cs- professional-suite.htm iii) P ro duc t- s p e c i f ic g u id a nc e: ht t p s:// cs.thomsonreuters.com/support/system- requirements/ The Water is Deep in This Perfect Storm Over the next few months, we'll investigate some alternative ways of dealing with your technolog y deployments. One of the concerns is that if a hardware feature known as UEFI lock down is enforced, that Windows may not be able to be readily uninstalled from a newly purchased system. We had discussed this issue in an earlier column. Another concern is the way Windows will respond inside desktop virtu- alization on alternate platforms like the Mac OS or Linux. A technology known as Docker may the best hope for having portable operating systems in pack- ages known as containers. Beyond that, there are internal control issues that have surfaced in Windows 10, that are supposed to be patched in early 2016. Further, there are currently indicators that the free upgrade to Windows 10 program that Microsof announced is likely to end by the end of July 2016. Again, a reminder that this column can ONLY be accurate on the day it was writen. Te information can change on the drop of a Microsof announcement. Terefore, our current recommendation is prety plain: if you intend to use a Microsof strategy, then you should plan on deploying Windows 10 between May 1 and July 15, 2016 to get the free upgrades that are available. If you wait until afer July 28, 2016, you are likely to have to pay for upgrades. I have no issue with paying for upgrades, but don't expect to buy new hardware and run the older Windows 7 or Windows 8.1. Running older versions of Windows probably won't be doable on newer hardware. While you're at it, during the upgrade you should probably change to Ofce 2016, consider a change of your anti-virus, and encryption strategy, too. W hew! W here do we get more oars or a bigger outboard engine for this boat? More on all of these topics later.