IT department finds BYOD policy pits it in eternal war with Windows 10

It seemed like such a good idea at the time: Implement a BYOD policy that puts the responsibility of laptop maintenance in the hands of the users, offload maintenance and have happier users. And then Windows 10 happened.

"Half a year ago we decided we did not want to upgrade to W10 because of compatibility problems with some of our apps and and have asked our users to refuse the upgrade," a IT admin recently complained. "But that doesn't work anymore. Laptops are being forcefully upgraded, and since the users/clients are not in a domain and do not use WSUS, we do not have a way of stopping all these malicious W10 related KBs."

And things just keep getting worse as Microsoft keeps modifying how it handles updates.

"We're fighting an eternal war against Windows 10, and we're losing," the admin wrote. "We're at the point where our users are removing their laptop batteries when a W10 update starts every day." 

It's not the most sympathetic position: There's a reason IT has fought BYOD policies for years, and an even bigger reason that Windows Server Update Services (WSUS) exists and is happily used by hundreds of thousands if not millions. Opting not to use administrative services and then complaining about administrative headaches, well, you made your bed, so to speak.

On the other hand, I'm sure that user is also not alone, particularly among smaller businesses in which the head of IT also wears a number of other hats and is given very little/non-existent support budget.

But there's light: Theoretically, this "eternal war" at least has an end date: The end of July, when Microsoft has stated that the updates will no longer be free and, one would guess, will no longer be pushed so aggressively. Til then, employees better keep practicing removing those batteries.

Or just have everyone install Never 10,  but then that would be making things easier on themselves, which this department seems determined not to do.