Windows 10

[Gumby]

It looks like I am going to be forced to build a new Cortex PC for my secondary after discovering issues with virtualisation. Windows 7 licenses are now awkward to obtain. Is anyone using Cortex successfully on Windows 10 Professional?

[Paul_B]

Just setting up a new machine myself and running Windows 10 Pro. Haven't moved the network over to this machine just yet but Cortex is running and updating

You'll need to disable UAC (looked for whitelisting but nothing easily and reliable available so just had to turn off UAC)
Had to run Cortex.exe and Defibrillator.exe using compatibility setting of Run As Administrator
Followed*Vivian's instruction for running*Cortex under Windows 8 -http://www.idratek.com/public/software/cortex/Installing%20Cortex%20on%20Windows%207%20or%208.1. pdf

HTH

Paul

[Paul_B]

BTW Gumby,

I'd be interested how you get on transferring your registration details, I always find this process a complete pain in the rear and always ends with my system out of action whilst I wait for a new key to be generated by Karam or Vivian.

Paul

[Paul_B]

Hey Gumby,

How is the new PC progressing?

I've now switched over completely to my new PC running Windows 10 and so long as the caveats around UAC, admin rights, etc. are taken into account it seems to be running very well for me. I decided to go with an ultra lower power Fitlet PC, it is small, robust, fanless and consumes only 4.5W. I included a small UPS which will keep the PC running for around 3 hours. It is not*the cheapest of PC but having used a FitPC before they are well made and the system and drivers rock solid

fitlet-rm-i-600x450.jpg

[chris_j_hunter]

4.5W is pretty good, though presumably would be upped a bit by IDRAnet & the UPS (?) ... we're way above that, because we wanted to allow headroom for cameras etc, too - we might have over-done it, because we find Cortex currently takes around 10% CPU (plus minus 3%, depending on what it's doing, that being with so-far seven 640x480 cameras in operation), plus TeamViewer & Windows downloads & Task Manager, which between them can double / treble that, when in-use ...

Chris

[Paul_B]

I don't have any cameras so that drastically reduces my computer horse power needs. Keep meaning to plug in a*Watt Meter to see how much power is really being drawn. In the future I'll probably buy a Idratek UPS as I don't have one at the moment, plugging the Fitlet into the protected circuit. One problem*I have is even though the Fitlet stays up*during a power failure the return of power to IdraNet is not well handled and I still need to do a*network*stop and start.

[chris_j_hunter]

we do use the Idatrek IPS - it works well ... after a while, we swapped to larger batteries, but didn't see the benefit, for reasons not discovered, yet !

with our previous miniITX PC, our separate UPS gave around three hours cover but, since we swapped to the ZooStorm, this is now a lot lot less ...

recently the UPS told us to replace its batteries, which we did, so that might have been part of the story ...

must check the manual to see if adding more batteries is possible ...

of the six batteries, that came out of the UPS, one had lower voltage than the rest, so it might be just that one has failed (we remembered hearing a pop a few days before, and the plug on that same battery was loose) ... so one option might be replace just that battery & add the old set to the new - but maybe that's a bad idea (?)

the miniITX stopped working & is gathering dust - we did get a multimeter to it, but couldn't fathom a cause ... that was a while ago, now, but recent thoughts have suggested maybe the power supply had failed, so we might try getting a new one of those and, if it then works, redeploy it as a back-up PC (ISTR doing that will need an extra license) ...

[Gumby]

Well, struggling to pick TBH. Currently Cortex fits OK on a D510 Atom, but a bit more oomph for interactive use would be nice. Been looking at some of the small barebones boxes and the other option is mini-itx. I prefer fanless as one less thing to go wrong, but many run too hot to go in the roof. Adding a fan to a fanless is actually quite a good idea. The other blocker is needing RDC access, which adds the cost of a Win 10 Pro licence, annoying when often they seem to come with a licence. My actual plan is to bring the PC out of the roof, but I'll need a more up-to-date monitor in my office to plug it in to. Still, with backup Cortex on the VM on the Mac Mini I think I can limp on for a while. It's not too bad, just picked a bad time to go wrong when I was away for a week on business before Christmas :-(

Hey Gumby,

How is the new PC progressing?

I've now switched over completely to my new PC running Windows 10 and so long as the caveats around UAC, admin rights, etc. are taken into account it seems to be running very well for me. I decided to go with an ultra lower power Fitlet PC, it is small, robust, fanless and consumes only 4.5W. I included a small UPS which will keep the PC running for around 3 hours. It is not*the cheapest of PC but having used a FitPC before they are well made and the system and drivers rock solid

fitlet-rm-i-600x450.jpg

[chris_j_hunter]

our miniITX was far from cheap, by the time all the essential extras were included (case, power supply, disk, etc) - and it didn't last many years - suspect it was the power supply that failed (yet to confirm), and that having a fan would have extended its life ... our current ZooStorm has a fan & was not as expensive - it's much more powerful & runs at much lower %CPU, but uses more power ... it'll be a few years before the cost of that power matches the difference in purchase price ...

[Gumby]

Yup, that happened!

I am not entirely sure how, but I ended up with registration details that did not work. At least one gotcha is that the user that Cortex is installed by is a factor, even if you install for all users. So if you want to run with a user other than OS default, get that all configured before installing Cortex.

BTW Gumby,

I'd be interested how you get on transferring your registration details, I always find this process a complete pain in the rear and always ends with my system out of action whilst I wait for a new key to be generated by Karam or Vivian.

Paul