News
Avanite warns of risk of poor user experience following Windows 10 migrations
December 2018 by Avanite
User profile and web data management specialist Avanite is warning companies of the risks of significantly longer user logon times and the impact on user experience following migrations to Windows 10, because of changes to the way that Windows 10 stores data for the Internet Explorer and Edge browsers, and Universal Web Platform applications.
If left unmanaged, the web data generated by users impact performance and business productivity, and can lead to increased calls to IT helpdesks as users react to their PC’s slowdown. WebCache databases on Windows 10 PCs are over double the size compared with previous versions of Windows. This constantly grows if not addressed.
According to Avanite, even modest web browsing by users can cause rapid user profile bloat. WebCache files of 300MB or more can cause a business with 1,000 employees to lose an average of 233 working hours per month in waiting to log on to web resources. When IT administrators choose to roam web data to retain items such as internet cookies and browsing history this web data is the primary cause of slow logons, representing up to 90% of the overall logon time.
With Windows 10, web data is integrated with other core functions, leading to WebCache sizes double those seen in Windows 7. Windows 10 stores all web cookies within the WebCache database, and it also has full integration with the Microsoft store and many traditional apps and utilities, such as Cortana. In addition, Microsoft Edge stores its own set of data within the WebCache, independently of Internet Explorer.
Peter Jones, Avanite CTO said: “Windows 10 user profile bloat poses a real performance and user experience problem to companies. It builds up quietly, but quickly becomes a drain on IT resources – wasting time, costing money, and putting sensitive information at risk.”
“Avanite WebData Control is the only software available today which has been designed specifically to address these issues, reducing the negative impact of user profile bloat on business. Using WebData Control, customers have reduced logon times by over 80%, and the number of cookies in a typical WebCache from typically 10,000 or more to just a few hundred, freeing up storage and bandwidth whilst providing users with a good experience”
WebCache bloat also presents a security risk, as it can contain sensitive information such as usernames and passwords to critical systems that store personal identifiable data. It’s also not possible for organisations to track how third-party tracking cookies share employees’ data, which can threaten a company’s GDPR compliance.
Avanite offers a free WebData Data Analysis tool to gain visibility of the web browser data that resides in their networks and the issues it is creating. The tool supports all common Windows browsers and displays the number of known advertising and tracking cookies found on the system.
