InControl by Gibson Research Corporation

[Nightspore]

I only run Ubuntu and macOS now. I haven't run Windows for some years. I wondered if being able to control OS upgrades might be useful for imagers. I know sessions can be ruined by impromptu Windows upgrades/updates. Another good reason to run Ubuntu if you ask me lol. GRC also have a browser forensics analysis:

 

GRC Web Browser Cookie Forensics

 

Always useful to check if you are being tracked with third party cookies.

 

 

 

GRC Homepage for InControl

[TerryMcK]

I’ve used GRC facilities for years especially their Shields Up service to test your firewall for intrusion.

[Nightspore]

Yes, GRC seems very useful. I've been setting up a new laptop and I like to check my browsers with cookie forensics. 

[dwc]

Very interesting, thanks for posting.

This had been a real problem for me over the past year and a half. One particular major update kept failing on my observatory laptop, it would download for 30 minutes or so, then start installing, then fail with one of those impenetrable windows error messages. It would do this pretty much every time I started up, meaning I needed to switch on at least an hour before I wanted to do anything. I worked out how to disable the update service (setting it to manual didn’t help), except that windows would periodically override that setting and check for updates anyway.

I eventually managed to find a log message that indicated it was caused by a disk error, one that I couldn’t resolve by the usual chkdsk means, and finally it gave up completely and forced me into replacing the system with a mini pc.

Having a utility like this could have saved me many frustrating hours, though of course wouldn’t have prevented the eventual disk failure.

[Nightspore]

3 minutes ago, dwc said:

Very interesting, thanks for posting.

This had been a real problem for me over the past year and a half. One particular major update kept failing on my observatory laptop, it would download for 30 minutes or so, then start installing, then fail with one of those impenetrable windows error messages. It would do this pretty much every time I started up, meaning I needed to switch on at least an hour before I wanted to do anything. I worked out how to disable the update service (setting it to manual didn’t help), except that windows would periodically override that setting and check for updates anyway.

I eventually managed to find a log message that indicated it was caused by a disk error, one that I couldn’t resolve by the usual chkdsk means, and finally it gave up completely and forced me into replacing the system with a mini pc.

Having a utility like this could have saved me many frustrating hours, though of course wouldn’t have prevented the eventual disk failure.

 

One of the reasons I stopped using Windows was because of Microsoft's sneaky way of re-activating automatic updates. 

[ApophisAstros]

10 hours ago, Nightspore said:

I only run Ubuntu and macOS now. I haven't run Windows for some years. I wondered if being able to control OS upgrades might be useful for imagers. I know sessions can be ruined by impromptu Windows upgrades/updates. Another good reason to run Ubuntu if you ask me lol. GRC also have a browser forensics analysis:

 

GRC Web Browser Cookie Forensics

 

Always useful to check if you are being tracked with third party cookies.

 

 

 

GRC Homepage for InControl

You can schedule for during the day ,  or even turn off updates in Windows 11 , it very easy.

Roger

[Nightspore]

7 hours ago, ApophisAstros said:

You can schedule for during the day ,  or even turn off updates in Windows 11 , it very easy.

Roger

 

Maybe. I just don't trust Mickeysoft anymore though. I always preferred Unix anyway. I wouldn't want to return to Windows for a variety of reasons, principally architecture and security. Overall Unix was always the better OS. It's a fluke that Windows dominated the desktop market. The vast majority of the internet is run on Linux servers. 

[dwc]

I’d used many flavours of Unix long before Linux, and at the time my desktop of choice was Mac. You needed to be very technical to use Unix. In the end, at home anyway, we switched to Windows because that’s what the kids’ school used, even they preferred Macs at the time. 
I did have a gen 1 RPi controlling a Meade ETX a few years ago, more as proof it would work than anything else. I wasn’t much interested in imaging.

[Nightspore]

Ubuntu has come a long way, admittedly there have been controversies (Unity, Snaps) but I find it fairly straightforward. 

 

[ApophisAstros]

On 2/20/2022 at 3:11 PM, Nightspore said:

 

Maybe. I just don't trust Mickeysoft anymore though. I always preferred Unix anyway. I wouldn't want to return to Windows for a variety of reasons, principally architecture and security. Overall Unix was always the better OS. It's a fluke that Windows dominated the desktop market. The vast majority of the internet is run on Linux servers. 

In 1979, Microsoft formed an agreement with AT&T Corporation to license Unix from AT&T. And then Microsoft licensed out its renamed Unix to OEM vendors, including Intel, Tandy and SCO. Those companies then ported it to their own hardware architectures and requirements.

 

Sorry mate...

Roger

[Nightspore]

6 hours ago, ApophisAstros said:

In 1979, Microsoft formed an agreement with AT&T Corporation to license Unix from AT&T. And then Microsoft licensed out its renamed Unix to OEM vendors, including Intel, Tandy and SCO. Those companies then ported it to their own hardware architectures and requirements.

 

Sorry mate...

Roger

 

When I was using the term 'Unix' I was referring to the Unix-like systems that are more or less directly descended from the Berkeley Software Department development. Also known as BSD and now available as FreeBSD. This system was the original basis of macOS and Linux (including Debian/Ubuntu). Windows is still a very different system. It's interesting that Android and iOS are now the dominant mobile operating systems. Android, along with ChromeOS (Gentoo based), are both Linux, iOS having its roots in BSD (Darwin). They're all still more secure than Windows, and in my opinion far superior. I've never regretted waving goodbye to Windows. 

Edited February 22, 2022 by Nightspore