Upgrading to Windows 10 for NetMotion Mobility Users

William FulksSystems Administrator
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...all I can say is that my life is pretty plain. I like watchin' the puddles gather rain...
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If you use NetMotion Mobility on your PC and plan to upgrade to Windows 10, it may not work unless you take these steps.
One of my clients has a Microsoft Surface Pro 3 tablet that originally shipped with Windows 8.1. The machine is configured with the NetMotion Mobility VPN client so that users can connect back to the office and access their desktop and files from anywhere that they can get a wireless connection. Recently, the client requested that our IT department upgrade the Surface Pro to Windows 10.

The first attempt to install Windows 10 via Windows Update failed. It reached about 75% progress and then gave an error saying a critical process had failed. For the second attempt, we connected a USB to Ethernet adapter and went through the entire download and install process again, hoping the hardwired connection would provide better bandwidth. It also failed after reaching the same progress level. We then used the Microsoft media creation tool to make a flash drive into installation media and then tried again, and it failed again.

It turned out that the problem was related to the NetMotion Mobility client. While the version we had worked fine with Windows 8.1, it was not compatible with Windows 10 and so the upgrade process treated it like a bad driver error and stopped the install. According to NetMotion's site, there are known issues when it comes to Windows 10 upgrades from either Windows 7 or 8.

NetMotion recommends that Windows 8 users upgrade the client to version 10.72 or higher prior to installing the Windows 10 update. Windows 7 users should uninstall their client before upgrading to Windows 10. We opted to completely remove the client and then the Windows upgrade completed as normal. We then installed the newer Mobility client version made to work with Windows 8/10 and were able to get the Surface Pro fully upgraded without any other issues.
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William FulksSystems Administrator
CERTIFIED EXPERT
...all I can say is that my life is pretty plain. I like watchin' the puddles gather rain...

Comments (1)

William FulksSystems Administrator
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Commented:
Thanks! My first attempt was using Windows Update. I should make a quick edit to specify that. I went through all the usual measures and they all failed until I removed NetMotion. I wasted a whole afternoon on that machine!

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