Have windows 10 & Smart SDR 1.5 pass all compatibilities tests??

YV5WZ

I'm planing finally upgrade my Windows 8.1 to Windows 10  as well as My Smart SDR from 1.4 to 1.5.

I decided to wait a little time without any rush for doing this step. Many questions were posted.... complaining, asking for help, requesting advises, etc.... after millions windows 10 upgraded and a hundreds Smart SDR Upgraded........I should confess I felt scared about to touch that big "windows 10" pop window opened every time I start up my PC, and more scared after reading coleague's  posts complaining about  DAX channels, COMs Ports even HRD, WXJT-X; FLdigit and DDUtil  minor events....

So now here my questions would be: Which are your recommendations or suggestions for doing this "big step" tomorrow on Halloween Day?

All comments are very welcome and appreciated

Have a wonderful Halloween day & 73's


George

YV5WZ

DH2ID

Hola George,

even if Win10 passes every compatibilty test, it will not work with all your programs
and drivers. There will be a big update "at the end of the year" and Win10 still has
a lot of bugs. I would recommend to wait for the big update or stay with Win7, as I do.

BTW are you sure that doing the "big step" on Halloween is a good idea?
You could be in for some bad tricks and smelly treats ;-)

The official response by Tim W4TME is here:

https://community.flexradio.com/flexradio/topics/official-windows-10-compatibility-with-6000-series-...

I have a test setup running Win10 on a notebook and it works quite well with SmartSDR, but I have a lot of problems with drivers for diverse peripherals and I have had to set up all virtual ports and soundcards again.
Also I could not get some of my older programs to run.

I am going to stay with Windows 7 as long as possible and mind the old adage:

NEVER CHANGE A RUNNING SYSTEM !

Saludos,

Alex DH2ID

Mark_WS7M

As a professional software engineer for close to 35 years now I am faced with this dilemma regularly.  Luckily some of it is defined for me.

I work in the biomedical field so before a "release" system is configured everything must pass V&V.  Knowing that a new OS could potentially cause issues rarely are we allowed to upgrade.

On the other hand our development systems we are actually encouraged to try out the newest OS so we become in effect our own phase 1 testers.

My needs for Ham radio are few.  I want the SDR software to run and my basic utilities to run such as my compiler (M$ sees to that), source control system (they have every reason to support new OS) etc.  So I upgraded to Win10 the day I could.

For me it's been just fine and WAY better than Win 8.1 which I really disliked.  I don't think it is as stable as Win7 but it is not far off.

I think your decision should be based on the following:

1) Does Win10 have something you really want or need that your existing OS does not have?  (this would be a pro)
2) Does Win10 have something you will wish you didn't have (a con)
3) Is your system running pretty much perfectly now (a con if so)
4) Are you interested in some tinkering to get things to work the way you want? (a pro)

So you go down a list like this adding up the pros (for upgrading) and the cons (against) and see where you end up.

As I said I'm running Win10 and it's fine.  I also run Win7 in VMs, A Mac etc.  So I have lots of environments.

Walt - KZ1F

I'd suggest staying with what you are used to. Why do you feel compelled to switch?

W7NGA

George, I have had absolutely NO issues with SSDR and Windows 10. Indeed, I really like Windows 10. I have several iMac's, Macbooks, and MacBook Airs, and I am finding that I prefer using Windows 10 over OSX. I have had no issues running my mathematics and engineering software on Windows 10 including Mathematica, Matlab, C compilers, LTSpice, Arduino IDE.

DAX has run flawlessly for the digital modes ...  I am very pleased. Good luck!

W7NGA  dan
San Juan Island, Wa.

Peter K1PGV

I 'm pretty much a Windows guy (ask Walt KZ1F), but I haven't been impressed with Windows 10 at all. I, personally, found Win 8.1 to be far more stable. I would NOT recommend you upgrade without a specific pressing need. I use Windows 10 about 9 hours a day at work and on one of my home systems, but my shack computer still runs Windows 8.1. The new browser that's the default in Windows 10 (named Edge) can be charitably described as a "work in progress." While MSFT claims Win10. Is faster, my colleagues and I have all experienced odd, unexplained, slowdowns. At the very least, if you want to upgrade to Win10 I recommend you wait (just a few days) until the Windows 10 Novemver Update (what people are calling Windows 10 build 1511) is released. By doing this, you will avoid lots of potential annoyances. There are very significant updates to the Edge browser in this release. Contrary to previous statements, properly written drivers that work on Windows 8.1 should work just fine on Windows 10. There are few basic architectural changes at that affect the I/O subsystem and driver compatibility. All my driver code that runs on Win8 works on Win10 without any change. The identical binary works on either OS. Peter K1PGV

W7NGA

I forgot to mention that I have been programming for 2100 years, invented electricity and the internet, and have never, ever, participated in an amateur radio contest.

Tim - W4TME

"...and have never, ever, participated in an amateur radio contest."

Variety is the spice of life.  Try it sometime.  It does hone operating skills if you have 100W and marginal antennas.

Walt - KZ1F

Just so you'll know Peter, I have a lot of respect for people that are that knowledgable about a subject, as you clearly are with Windows. Yes, I don't happen to like it but I certainly respect and admire your level of expertise on it. I'd like to think I had that level of expertise on it in the late 80s to 2000 timeframe. Maybe, maybe not. Clearly not currently. On all things Windows now, I certainly defer to you.

W7NGA

Geez ... it's difficult to talk about this, but I tend to disagree about contesting benefiting operational skills. The absolute worse, unequivocally so, the poorest operating and signal integrity seems to surface during contesting.

Variety may be a spice in life, but so is free choice. I have chosen not to embrace contesting and indeed, it's anathema to me as I view amateur radio. I can however, fabricate a PL-259 connector blind-folded with one arm behind my back, explain the non-linear time-variance of an AM signal, run a ****-good Fourier transform on most any signal, design antennas with a Smith Chart, send and receive about 35 WPM on CW, and have for the last fifty years been able to call CQ on AM and CW without operational issues.

I feel my amateur radios skills, in general, are reasonably well-honed.

Back on topic, it would seem upgrading to Windows 10 is a worthwhile venture. Yes, out of the millions of installations some will experience some problems, and others will work thru them and garner the benefits. Someone will ask what the benefits may be. I say ... proceed forward with a contingency plan. Be prepared to be pleased.

I know a ham who is still using DOS 3.1 and loves it <grin>

W7NGA  dan
San Juan Island, Wa.

Peter K1PGV

Thank you, Walt.  That's very nice of you to say.

Peter
K1PGV

Tim - W4TME

We can agree to disagree.  Yes, there are bad actors out there, but contesting (and operating DX pileups) is a demanding environment and if you do not a bazillion watt amp and stacked tribanders at 200', learning how to complete a QSO under these conditions can (not will) make you a better operator.

W7NGA

I think contesting makes you a better contester.
Whether or not that is a good thing .. will be an exercise for the reader.

Burt Fisher

Playing video games hones skills in playing video games. But to what end? Contesters do not even bother to give honest reports. Assume a contester participates in delivering emergency messages at some point, will he change the message to make the exchange go faster?
I owe my life to contesters, In November 1999 I was in a coma for six months after a terrible car crash, the nurse turned on a ham radio it was tuned to the 1999 November Sweepstakes Contest. I got up and turned the radio off.

Mark_WS7M

My wife just reminded my I have been programming since the dawn of time.  I guess she thinks I'm kinda old... sigh...

Bill Roberts

Tonight, I figured how to upgrade my Windows 8.1 dedicated PC to 10 and did so.  I've had such good luck with my other system going from Win 7/64, really wanted to try.  Used the Media Creation Tool... really slick.

Anyway, it's all good. Smart SDR 1.5.1 works fine with my 6300.  The somewhat new issue with having to start the radio twice to have it recognized has gone away.  Also have the Free HRD (5.24?) and the Woodbox Radio S-Meter working fine  AND IT'S SOMEWHAT FASTER.  sliding across the bands is smoother.  There appears to be much less latency.   Smart SDR audio drops out immediately after closing as opposed to lingering for .5 second (est.).

HW here is a Dell 8700 I7 4th generation, 12 GB RAM, cheap NVIDIA 635 card driving two 24 inch monitors and a D-Link gigabit router.

Bill / K8DXX

Bill Roberts

One thing I've found helpful in getting the 6300 to work reliably across Ethernet (with no dropouts on the network quality meter) is to disable all the Al Gore "green" features on the network card.  In other words, don't let the system try to save power, especially on the network card. Using Device Driver, check out ADVANCED features.   

One guy's opinion.  Your results may vary.

Simon Lewis

Burt you really are boring with the same sad song jeez

KY6LA_Howard

I have been net control in several major disasters over the last few decades. Most recently the 2007 San Diego Fires. Invariably the Contesters are by far the best EMCOMM operators, Why? Contesters have lots of practice handling traffic under high speed, and high pressure situations where absolutely accuracy of the transmitted message is paramount. Yes Contesters are by far the most accurate traffic handlers because they must copy a message exactly for the points to count in a coontest. And YES....Unlike Burt's sarcastic comment. I personally know several people whose lives and property were saved by Contesters

Burt Fisher

Howard said, " absolutely accuracy of the transmitted message is paramount." So when a contester gives a station with a 44 signal a 59, that is absolute accuracy?
Simon tell me where I personally insulted you?
I did not start this dialogue on contesting in this thread.

Simon Lewis

No Burt but you can't help yourself with your inane **** comments. We all get you don't like contests but do you really seriously have to post in practically every thread that contains discussions on contesting, the same boring message about your view of contests. Get over it, its not going away.  It's not even slightly useful so please give it a rest will you.  

Burt Fisher

Simon, Simon, Simon, I will not start any thread on contesting, but if others start it, I react. So if you comment they are applicable smart and inspired but if I comment they are inane **** comments. Why do you feel compelled to attack personally? I am confident you are very intelligent based on other comments, please react only to my opinions without resorting to a personal attack, thank you.

Tim - W4TME

Ethernet switches have the same features.  If your switch is manageable, turn this off too.  There are numerous reports on the Interweb from gamers where green Ethernet degrades throughput performance.  As a standard practice, I turn it off on all my Ethernet devices too.

Tim - W4TME

This post has degraded into a discussion that has strayed soooooo far off topic and is taking an adversarial tone, so I am closing it.