Windows 10

[Nad]

Finally got around to rehousing the Cortex installation on to the new Windows 7 machine

All in all, it was relatively painless, the license transfer worked like a charm with no issues what so ever. I did make sure I had the licence output of the original installation as you have to make sure that the owner and company are exactly the same else you end up with "bad key" issues. Besides that it was the usual disabling of the UAC and the need to run as admin. Like Paul I did my best to keep UAC active but there was no practical way to get around the issue. It would be nice if Cortex ran as a service ... hint hint for version 28

As for the hardware; I've been running the install off an old Acer Revo (Intel Atom 1.6GHz) and it's been coping OK, even with a camera on there (around 60% utilization) but the intention was to have multiple cameras so a machine with a bit more omph was needed. In the end I decided to go down the DIY build path using hardware that was as power efficient as I could get (within reason) and that are readily available in the event of a hardware failure.

Final system comprises of a Intel Core i5 6600T with a Noctua NH-L12 cooler, Gigabyte GA-H110m-S2, Kingston SSD, 4GB DDR4, 300W 80+ Gold PSU and HTPC case. I also had to add a WD Purple 4TB drive for the video recording side of things. The power meter I have is showing the system running at 20-22W with Cortex and the video management system running (around 19W at idle) and a stress test showed that it will pull a maximum of 50W. I was curious to see how much power the WD drive was taking and it was around 5W when busy which is spot on to what the specs said. There are also multiple 120mm case fans to keep temperatures in the little cupboard under control. It's no where near the 4.5W of the FitPC but I already have a 3MP and a 4MP camera on there with plans for additional 4MP cameras in the not too distant future.

I'm quite pleased with the outcome and it makes working on the system so much more bearable than on the Revo (it was running a SSD too, I don't think I could have worked with it if it didn't have a SSD).

One thing I did notice after moving the databases over to the new machine was that the lighting scenes didn't go over. Everything else seems to have gone over but all the lighting scenes were blank.

Thanks,
Nad

[Viv]

Like Paul I did my best to keep UAC active but there was no practical way to get around the issue. It would be nice if Cortex ran as a service ... hint hint for version 28
Nad

Cortex uses the registry and all its source files and the application data files are in C:\ProgramFiles... As such, after XP, windows protects applications writting to these directories so UAC has to be turned off.

When the Windows 10 version of Cortex is released (Not a normal upgrade) it will not use the registry and application data will reside outside the program files area. This means UAC can be turned on. However when a user updates Cortex via the AutoUpdate process UAC will prompt to authorise the update (unless UAC is off).

Viv.

[Paul_B]

Viv,

Sounds good and appreciate the effort to refactor. Is Cortex still predominantly written in Delphi?

Paul

[Karam]

Viv,

Sounds good and appreciate the effort to refactor. Is Cortex still predominantly written in Delphi?

Paul

Yes it is Delphi

[Gumby]

So with an increasing frequency of complete freezes on my current main PC, I finally pulled my finger out and got a little Jetway 323 from Mini-ITX. Based on the various reports here, I went with Windows 10 Pro. After WannaCry, and with Win 7 harder to get hold of, it seemed a reasonable option. All my existing licences are OEM and hence not transferable to new hardware. Cortex is up and running, although not connected to the network yet, and the PC is OK. I have not yet transferred the licence.

However, Microsoft's policy with updates would have given me pause for thought if I had known about them. By default, you have no control over updating, and at best are allowed to define a 12 hour busy window when rebooting will be avoided. Great but I really need this to happen during the 8 hour sleep window, if at all.

Some hacks to the pro edition are reported, but no longer work in the Anniversary edition. The Creators Edition is now downloading, which apparently gives you "control" via an enormous screen-sized unignorable pop-up. So that'll work on a headless machine :-(.

[Karam]

For W10 Pro there was a way to change the settings via Windows | Run | gpedit.msc and Computer Configuration\Administrative Templates\Windows Components\Windows Update. Don't know if this is what you mean has been taken away in Anniversary edition as I don't have Pro to try it at present. Another way to stop updates entirely is by accessing the services (Windows | Run | services.msc) and go to the Windows Update entry, Stop the service and also change Startup in Properties to Disabled. You would then have to re-anable on occasion and manually do a search for updates from the Windows settings page in order to manually look for and install any updates.

[Gumby]

Thanks Karam. I found the group policy stuff, but the option to allow local admin control did not seem to then enable any controls in the settings dialog. The webpage I was looking at had an update saying this no longer worked, but I haven't had the computer operational for long enough to assume updates should have occurred. However, the option to download and notify is there, so I am trying that. It seems that Microsoft have rowed back from their hardline "we own your computer in return for the privilege of using our OS" position somewhat in the Creator edition. Time will tell.

[Gumby]

An update:

1.
My fears on updates have been unfounded, the creators update gives a greater degree of control, but I still have to schedule regular "maintenance" look-sees at the Cortex PC to see if updates are pending, etc. This has been the case anyway, since most consumer software is not written with unattended/headless machines in mind - so backup software, anti-virus etc has always created issues if not attended for months.

2.
Licence transfer: Since this PC has at least not crashed for 3 weeks (!) I have transferred the licence. I found that despite Cortex acknowledging the transfer, on restart the new key was not present and it had reverted to unlicensed/trial mode. In the end I found that I could paste the key into Computer\HKEY_USERS\blahblahblah\Software\Idratek\ Cortex\Application and it seemed to work. Cortex is set to run as admin, but also in Win 7 compatibility mode (I can't recall why) so perhaps this is why it apparently could not update the registry.

So far pretty happy with the little Jetway 323.