Users can be a godsend
I recently started as Tier I support for a financing company and I quickly learned that we have a lot of users who work directly at home for underwriting. As such, we image and ship out desktops that consist of Windows + bare essentials (drivers for example) and the single application used to connect to our cloned VM (user content separated by VHDs). Due to a failing hub and lack of a prebuilt Windows 10 image ($company decided to say let's upgrade them to Win10), we had to install with our Win7 image and do the series of updates until we could safely upgrade to Windows 10. Process takes 18+ hours for each system because of dying hub. I created a remedy to this by downloading all of the KBs and creating a big WSUS batch to update Win7 then upgrade to Win10.
Two weeks later I get a call from a new underwriting user inquiring about getting set up (we generate a temporary password for first time users). After $UW and I get all set up with his account, he makes this remark:
>$me: Looks like everything's good to go here. Did you get your computer assembled without an issue? >$UW: Yeah, though I noticed that I had to install the drivers for Windows 10, it was running the old Windows 7 drivers.
Oops.
>$me: Oh! Did you do it yourself? >$UW: I was going to, but I didn't know what the restrictions were and wanted to make sure I didn't break any rules. >$me: Between you and me, these OEM systems give you local admin rights. The computers only serve one purpose, and that's to run the Receiver application so you can connect. >$UW: So does that mean I could do this on my own computer? >$me: Yeah, but we won't able to support your personal computer if you have issues. >$UW: Sweet! So I could go on vacation and work wherever I'm at! Thanks Kitlia!
I felt giddy that a simple underwriter knew enough about computers that he was able to set things up by himself. He even knew that our setup was run by Virtual Machines. He didn't call it the $workspace that the other staff knows, he referred to it as a VM. It makes me wonder how much he knew. Needless to say, it saved probably about two hours of my time as that's how long it may have taken to diagnose an issue. And with me being the only person in the office at night, it can be quite a bit of a workload.
Users, they come in all types. I'm glad one of the newbies knew enough to save about 2-3 calls in diagnosing issues.
Footnote: First Reddit post! Be gentle.