Windows 10
I know that there is work ongoing to sort a windows 10 compatible version of Cortex but is there any possibility of that becoming available before the 29th July deadline for the "free" Windows 10 upgrade passes ?
This may be an option for some - we recently did it in work...
1. Take an image of your current OS Cortex machine (we used Acronis True Image)
2. Go ahead and do the free upgrade to Windows 10
3. Take an image of the Win10 setup
4. Roll back to your previous image until Cortex update available
There have been no licensing issues we've seen with this so far but check it out before you try it.
M.
If you are running Cortex on Windows 8 then their is every chance it will run after updating to Windows 10.Originally Posted by M.Harrison
That actually happened unitentionally to one customer.
However I don't recall if we had to tweak anything.
On Windows 10 systems we do have the current Cortex running as new installs and being used by customers and ourselves.
Some issues may be experienced with Skype depending on what MS change.
Getting Cortex working on Windows 10 should be similar to procedure used for Windows 8. See
http://www.idratek.com/support/downloads/ about 8 lines down in first paragraph
The UAC has to be turned off.
Cortex.exe needs administrator privileges and its properties edited. Updates are OK after editing.
For Cortex to startup automatically you need to place a new shortcut file in the startup folder.
To locate Windows 10 startup folder look at this.... http://www.howtogeek.com/208224/how-...n-windows-8.1/
It will be something like
C:\Users\Me\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Star t MEu\Programs\Startup\
A CortexStart.bat file should be created in the c:/program files (x86)/Idratek/Cortex folder
The CortexStart.bat file needs to contain the text
Start Defibrillator.exe
Start Cortex.exe
So a shortcut to CortexStart.bat is placed in the Windows 10 startup folder.
-----------
The Cortex development referred to by Mark is an ongoing development.
It uses a newer compiler.
It uses internally newer third party software.
It will support future internationalisation (Unicode).
It has a newer licencing system. An update fee is expected.
It does not access the registry.
Some obsolete features will not be supported.
Xpl,
X10,
Scripting (has not been supported for some time).
PCA Interface (Rs232).
It should..
Appear virtually the same as current Cortex.
Accept existing databases with some changes.
Allow UAC not to be turned off.
Cortex bridge objects replaced with newer API based access.
It is still being tested and a new installer prepared,
Viv
Viv Hi - thanks for that. My installations are on Windows 7 but I l'm going to take a look at upgrading the backup PC first before doing the primary PC.
think I understood all of that, apart from UAC - no idea what it refers to !
even so, should we update to Win10 - OK it's free, but that's just the upfront cost - if it doesn't go smoothly, then could be a nightmare, and how do you cost that ?
no idea what MS will charge later, but they've usually got away with murder - OS & Office ...
Last edited by chris_j_hunter; 18th July 2016 at 11:24 PM.
Chris - It's the User Account Control. That annoying dialog box that pops up every time you try to do anything that may affect a system action. Can be turned off in control panel but do remember if you do then it allows other users/programs to make changes to your system as well...
Allegedly MS claim that there will be no future editions of the OS to have to pay for upgrades which is the incentive to upgrade but like you say I'm sure they'll find some way of making us pay for something. The other thing to bear in mind that they will kill off support and fixes for Win 7 very soon (only still happening due to large commercial use of 7) and I'm sure they'll quickly follow that with Win 8/8.1
My personal opinion is that you have to view your Cortex PC as a control box and not as a general purpose PC. So, unless there is some particular advantage to Cortex or some kind of connectivity to your system of going to Windows 10 then why should you move to Windows 10?
I have some systems still running on Xp for over 10 years. They do their particular job and that's that. I'd say fairly good lifespan for a control box. When the time comes to change these I will probably be faced with having to use a W10 box (or will there actually be something beyond at that time ? :-) ) but otherwise why move the o/s on the old ones (even if I could)? I also administer some other systems using W7 and W8.1. Basically if they are working happily I have little incentive to change the o/s.
Karam - Good point - guess it really comes under the good old "if it ain't broke don't fix it". So really should be thinking of is it really worth the effort ??? and by the time I'm forced into having to do something about OS upgrades then the current hardware that my Cortex PC's are using wouldn't support whatever the current OS is at the time anyway...
I personally think its not a very good idea to leave these systems running on operating systems that are long past their support life cycles. If these were systems that were not connected to the internet or have any external accessibility then I would probably leave them as they are but in this day and age where most things are connected to most things, the OS needs to be kept up to date at all times. Sure we can look at them as control boxes but they have a vast array of sub processes that have very complex interactions that have nothing to do with what Cortex is doing. An OS is so complex now I doubt even the manufacturer fully understands every aspect of their application.
Things change very rapidly these days ... Viruses, malware, other types of attacks are developed all the time and the machine that is running Cortex (in my case any way) is vital to the proper operation of my home, so I do my best to make sure that it is protected as best as it can be. Sure it can be a pain in the backside sometimes but I think its part of the cost of having something like Cortex on non-proprietary hardware.
Yes security is obviously a very important consideration. I am by no means an expert so this is just an opinion/for discussion:
Undoubtedly OS's get ever more complex over time and I personally also believe the comment about their manufacturers not fully inderstanding every possible permutation and indeed inroducing new vulnerabilities as they go along. In my mind I make a distinction between user inflicted vulnerabilities (e.g due to opening malicious e-mail content, surfing to a malicious site, downloading apps with trojans or other malware and that sort of thing) as opposed to those which can be exploited by a directed or even robotic external attack. So I think treating the platform as a dedicated control box helps minimise or even eliminate the former. An antivrus application, perhaps a 3rd party firewall and a decent router with some time taken to maximise the latter's set up for security will probably help (though I have not, in my limited experience, seen an antivurus application catching anything new on a dedicated box).
When it comes to OS vulnerability itself, well when I looked into this briefly some time ago, firstly I was quite surprised to find all sorts of remotely accessible vulnerabilities listed for all popular OS's i.e. including iOS and Linux. Until then I had the misplaced belief that the latter were safer than MS Windows for example. Supported OS patches of course close up vulnerabilities once they become known so would be hackers have to find something new, but the fact that there is still a steady stream of new vulnerabilities means that your latest OS is never super safe - it just means that an amateur hacker has less chance to use something already known and unpatched. Which brings me round to this:
The question is also about motive. In other words the question of whether/why someone has a motive to deliberately attack your system, or is the concern some kind of robotic hacker scanning arbitrary IPs and ports and seeing what it can get?. If a competent hacker is keen to attack your system specifically then my guess is that it is probably difficult to defend against, judging from what I have seen to date. However why would such a person want to expend the effort attacking your particular system unless you are some high profile target? In some ways this is why I don't have such great confidence in aggregated computing services (such as cloud or hosting providers). Despite them being supported by professionals and no doubt all sorts of security features I feel they represent nice fat targets.
Like I say just opinions..
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