Microsoft is hoping to ease Windows 10 adoption in the enterprise with a new tool designed to show IT admins if their PC fleets are ready for the new OS.

The tool is called Upgrade Analytics and was released in preview on July 22. It’s part of Microsoft’s Operations Management Suite (OMS), a cloud-based IT monitoring, automation and data protection software offering for hybrid cloud environments.

Microsoft has come in for quite a bit of stick over the amount of user data it collects via Windows 10. The new OS comes bundled with its data slurping Cortana digital assistant, and has numerous other features that report back to Redmond about user’s activities, system health, device settings and more. Privacy advocates have given Microsoft hell over its data slurping, but the company insists the main reason it collects so much is to improve the quality and security of the OS.

With regards to enterprises though, the telemetry data Windows collects can be useful for companies looking to upgrade, Microsoft reckons.

“In order to drive a Windows Upgrade project efficiently, customers are looking for data that allows [them] to evaluate their application and driver ecosystem using a risk balanced approach,” explained Marc-Andrea Klimaschewski, a program manager on Microsoft’s Windows Compatibility team, in a blog post. “While some applications are business critical and need to be validated before upgrading the operating system since they are widely deployed and frequently used, some applications may only be deployed on a handful of machines.”

Using Upgrade Analytics, IT managers can effectively take an inventory of all the applications and drivers in their organization, and this includes user data. A typical enterprise might use hundreds of different apps, which makes testing for each one of them an arduous and expensive task, which explains why many enterprises simply haven’t bothered to do so yet, Klimaschewski said.

So Upgrade Analytics provides organizations with an easy way to do so, and should help encourage more companies to consider Windows 10. Using the tool, admins can understand current application and driver issues, and obtain mitigation strategies before the upgrade. The tool also provides a per-computer readiness report that allows IT managers to focus on specific machines to be upgraded. Lastly, admins can also track an application or driver so they’ll be notified once its Windows 10-ready.

Organizations that wish to deploy Upgrade Analytics and get testing can download the tool as an add-on for their existing OMS workspace. Alternatively, they can also sign up for new workspaces with the offering already enabled. Microsoft has written a second blog post explaining how to get it up and running.

“Data generated by Upgrade Analytics is not counted towards your OMS quota, so you can use a free-tier OMS workspace for Upgrade Analytics,” said Klimaschewski. “There will be no extra charges generated by Upgrade Analytics data if you are using a Standard of Premium tier workspace.”

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