HS 3 and Windows 10...Works!

[TechHA]

Well, I've never been one to just sit back and let things run so I bit the bullet and upgraded my HS machine to Windows 10 today. As you can see in my signature I have lots of plugins and extra hardware attached to this system and everything just works! No hassles whatsoever. Pretty amazing.

[CFGuy]

Maybe you can confirm something. I don't remember where but I thought I read that in Windows 10, you can't turn off the automatic updates.
That could be really bad on my HomeSeer computer. That's all I need is for the updates to start and not start my morning routine on a work day.

[TechHA]

There seems to be two ways around updates. There is an option to defer updates so they won't update for months after available and there is also a update preventer that allows you to 'hide' certain updates that you don't want. The second is a separate download. http://www.wired.com/2015/07/stop-wi...-auto-updates/

Oh, there is also an option to not automatically install and restart called 'Notify to schedule restart'

[randy]

Well, I've never been one to just sit back and let things run so I bit the bullet and upgraded my HS machine to Windows 10 today. As you can see in my signature I have lots of plugins and extra hardware attached to this system and everything just works! No hassles whatsoever. Pretty amazing.

This has been one of the smoothest Microsoft upgrades that I can remember seeing. I was called to update 25 computers at a corporate account I serviced years ago. It went so well that they wanted me to do the entire office. I ended up doing 64. Not a single hitch.

I updated my physical HS3 server yesterday. Today I did both desktops, three laptops and a couple of Foxcon mini PCs. All went very smoothly.

On a side note Edge works MUCH better than IE did, I'm using it instead of Chrome for now. It renders HS3 pages slightly faster than Chrome and MUCH faster than IE.

[TechHA]

I agree, I've done the 3 window machines here and all went perfectly smooth. I played around with the new edge but haven't dug deep into it yet. Chrome is just too convenient having all my bookmarks go between all computers, tablets and phones in the house (all android here).

Every windows machine is running like new again even though they were only upgraded. Can only imagine what a fresh install of 10 would do for them.

[ServiceXp]

This has been one of the smoothest Microsoft upgrades that I can remember seeing. I was called to update 25 computers at a corporate account I serviced years ago. It went so well that they wanted me to do the entire office. I ended up doing 64. Not a single hitch.

I updated my physical HS3 server yesterday. Today I did both desktops, three laptops and a couple of Foxcon mini PCs. All went very smoothly.

On a side note Edge works MUCH better than IE did, I'm using it instead of Chrome for now. It renders HS3 pages slightly faster than Chrome and MUCH faster than IE.

Assuming all those computers where part of a DC, how did you update them?

My office has a small 7 computer network utilizing a 2012 R2 DC, wasn't sure how to update those.

[randy]

Assuming all those computers where part of a DC, how did you update them?

My office has a small 7 computer network utilizing a 2012 R2 DC, wasn't sure how to update those.

This was not on a domain. They are still using a 2008 server, strictly as a file server. Their firewall is a hardware appliance. I built 6 thumb drives and did them sequentially. I could have done them faster with 12 thumbdrives, because at the end of the process there is a lot of down time. I also didn't know when I could pull the drives out. I probably could have after the first reboot.

I haven't dealt with a domain yet. My home is set up without using the WSE 2012r2 Domain. While a DC is installed by default, I connected the clients without having them join the domain.

[ServiceXp]

This was not on a domain. They are still using a 2008 server, strictly as a file server. Their firewall is a hardware appliance. I built 6 thumb drives and did them sequentially. I could have done them faster with 12 thumbdrives, because at the end of the process there is a lot of down time. I also didn't know when I could pull the drives out. I probably could have after the first reboot.

I haven't dealt with a domain yet. My home is set up without using the WSE 2012r2 Domain. While a DC is installed by default, I connected the clients without having them join the domain.

Wow, with that many workstations, I would have bet there was a DC with AD involved.. I would have lost that one..

I'm just learning 2012 R2E myself.. It's astonishing just how easy it is to setup and that's with joining the domain. All of the heavy lifting is completed by the setup wizard.

It does seems like WSE wants to be the DNS though, so the server would need to be on 24/7.

[randy]

Wow, with that many workstations, I would have bet there was a DC with AD involved.. I would have lost that one..

I've known the owner of this company for 20 years. We had him on a domain with Windows 2003 servers 11 years ago - he had an Exchange server and all. When he switched to 2008, he outsourced his Exchange to cBeyond, we went simple and low maintenance on his office at his request. 5 years in he remains very happy he made the change. It was easier for me to help him when he was on a domain because I could RDP in to any computer. Now that he has (had) a mix of Windows 7 and 8.1 machines without a domain he has had 0 IT related problems. Don't get me wrong, I like domains and for my own business I would do it again, but I learned a long time ago to listen to my clients and give them what they want. Today he decided he may swap the 2008 Server out for a Synology NAS and save about 10Kwh per day.

I'm just learning 2012 R2E myself.. It's astonishing just how easy it is to setup and that's with joining the domain. All of the heavy lifting is completed by the setup wizard.

It does seems like WSE wants to be the DNS though, so the server would need to be on 24/7.

Bingo! That is one of many reasons why it didn't make sense for me at home. I leave it on 24/7, but I don't have to. I get all of the features I need, without the overhead of a domain. For an office a domain works well, but for home use it is overkill (IMNSHO).

[Mattyjee]

I upgraded my HS3 computer to Windows 10 today and had one issue.

When HS3 started up, it said that port 80 was already in use, and it would fail to start. After 30 seconds of googling, I was advised to disable the W3SVC service (or alternatively use a different port on HS3)

I'm not sure if anyone else had this...

Cheers.

[rmasonjr]

I upgraded my HS3 computer to Windows 10 today and had one issue.

When HS3 started up, it said that port 80 was already in use, and it would fail to start. After 30 seconds of googling, I was advised to disable the W3SVC service (or alternatively use a different port on HS3)

I'm not sure if anyone else had this...

Cheers.

Thanks for this. My HS Development machine is on Windows 10 and I ended up having to move HS3's port to 81. I'll be disabling W3SVC and moving HS3 back to 80.

[Moskus]

I've upgraded all my physical machines and they are all running smooth. I now have 7 virtual machines remaining on Windows 7, and I I'll soon take the plunge.

I do however have one worry. My Belkin "Network-to-USB-adapter" didn't work in Windows 8 (at least not without some driver problems), and as my HS3 setup relies on it very much for both Z-wave (no Z-NET yet ) and a couple of RFXtrx433s, I need to know if it's working first or not.

Perhaps I can just back up the VM, upgrade it and see... That is, after all, the benefit of using a virtual environment.

[Rupp]

I upgraded my HS3 computer to Windows 10 today and had one issue.

When HS3 started up, it said that port 80 was already in use, and it would fail to start. After 30 seconds of googling, I was advised to disable the W3SVC service (or alternatively use a different port on HS3)

I'm not sure if anyone else had this...

Cheers.

This is IIS (Internet Information Service) and you can either shut it down if you do not need it (preferred method) or change the port it starts on via the Computer Management plugin.

[cormanaz]

So what is the bottom line on automatic updates interfering with HS3? Is it a problem? If HS3 is configured to auto launch on startup, is everything good, assuming the update doesn't interrupt an event, or something?

[DevinH]

Assuming all those computers where part of a DC, how did you update them?

All my client PCs are connected to a win2012 R2E domain. I haven't tried any plain upgrades just yet, only fresh installs, and it works just fine. There is an updated Essentials connector for win10, in the form of a windows update file, that must be used in place of the original connector.

So far, I've done this with all personal PCs and the BlueIris PC. The Homeseer PC is the last one I still need to do. My method has been

1. Create a win10 USB drive
2. Remove the PC from the domain
3. Do an in place upgrade (so that win10 gets properly activated)
4. Do a fresh install via USB
5. Reconnect to the domain using the updated connector.

I read somewhere that even if doing just an in place upgrade, you should first remove the PC from the domain and rejoin it afterwards.

It does seems like WSE wants to be the DNS though, so the server would need to be on 24/7.

I've never found this to be much of an issue. I've configured my router to assign the DC as the primary DNS and the router itself as the secondary DNS to each of the client PCs through its DHCP settings. The DC simply looks to the router for any external DNS requests. That way, if the server is down, client machines can still access the internet and resolve local machine names fine.