Windows 10 or 7 for new practice

[johnny13oi]

Hi everyone,

I am building out a brand new practice and am very knowledgeable on technology. I would assume that compatibility for Windows 7 is better than Windows 10 but since this is a brand new practice and support for Windows 7 will officially be ending soon from Microsoft, would it be best for me to go to Windows 10 Pro? For the Windows 7 versions I was considering either 7 Pro or Ultimate and only Ultimate because it supports Bitlocker for full drive encryption but it is so much more expensive than 7 Pro or 10 Pro.

Does anyone have any problems currently with Windows 10 Pro and is Enterprise actually needed? I have read many articles in terms of HIPAA and Windows 10 but nothing has been very conclusive.


Thank you.

[drtech]

We use 10 pro for most of ours...even home version is fine really on workstations that don't need encryption as long as you don't set up a domain and just doing password protected simple network access for your workstations to your server. Windows 7 is way too old, don't go with that, but you can upgrade to 10 if you find deals on refurbished computers with 7 pro and then just upgrade to 10 pro.

[jsalmon]

My personal opinion is Windows 10. Also, it shouldn't matter what OS you use in order to be "HIPAA" compliant as long as there are security patches that are continuously coming out (a.k.a. I wouldn't use an OS that is about to go on the chopping block).

[bpcomp]

Windows 7 will hit it's end of life on 01/15/2020. After that point, it will no longer be considered HIPAA compliant because it is not receiving regular security updates. You could use 7 for a couple of years and then switch to a newer OS but why go through the hassle of a conversion that you could get over 7 years out of Windows 10. Windows 10 end of life is 10/14/2025. I'm looking at what it's going to take to migrate our office away from Windows 7 and over to Windows 10 in the next couple years.

Unless you plan on storing patient data on the workstations then I personally feel there is little need for drive encryption. If you unplug a workstation from the network and fire it up, there should be nothing of interest that a malicious user could get to because all your patient data and xrays are stored on the server. Pay attention to securing your server and having encryption there and then set up your office in such a way that patient data doesn't end up on the HD of the workstations.

That's my two cents.

[mafiaxxx]

I would recommend windows 7 until the programs run stable on windows 10.
As a tech you have to tweak the 10 os to get windows to use the mapped drives. Other than that I find 10 confusing to use.

[Hersheydmd]

I'm not a tech, and my workstations aren't new, but I don't have any problems with Windows 10 Pro. Most stable build of Windows yet. All my programs work with it. Why start with an OS that will be obsolete before you turn around?

[stjames70]

I think the consensus is Win 10. Windows 7 has always been a dog in our computers (which are 2008-2009 vintage) and they never ran really well with it. Win 10 in contrast, has zero issues with our older computers.

Windows 7, pretty, but inefficient.