If you are running Windows 7 or Windows 8.1 on your imaging computer--BEWARE!!!!
Last night I setup a sequence to do some imaging of M82 while some friends and I did some visual observing using the other pier in our observatory. I started the sequence and made sure that the object was properly centered. I then watch the first autofocus run which gave the best V curve I have seen so far with my AT6RC. I shut of the monitor and spent about 2-1/2 hours doing visual observing with friends. Around midnight I fired up my laptop and used Teamviewer to examine my progress. I was stunned to see a message on the screen telling me that my observatory computer had bee upgraded to Windows 10. There was only one button on the dialog and that was a "Next" button. This happened even though I had disabled all "automatic" updates on this computer!
Trying not to blow a head gasket, I pressed the next button and I was presented with a dialog asking that I accept the Windows 10 user agreement. I then got a message saying Windows would try to restore my previous version of Windows (Windows 7 Pro 64). After about 10 minutes my computer restarted in Windows 7 but of course SGP and PHD were not running. I then restarted SGP and PHD2 but both were having trouble connecting to my cameras, mount and focuser. I had to power everything down and restart before I could get everything re-connected. SGP knew where it had stopped so it was able to continue the sequence where it had left off. THANK YOU SGP!
Have others had this problem? Also, if others are running Windows 10 do you know if the follow hardware will operate under Windows 10:
Moonlight Focuser
Orion Star Shoot Autoguider
SBIG STF 8300C
iOptron CEM60
I may allow one of my other computers to upgrade to Windows 10 so that I can verify all my hardware before I encounter this rude Microsoft behavior again.
All I can say is I hope there are no commercial airplanes running under Windows 7 that get updated while I'm on board!! Maybe this explains why two planes have mysteriously have dropped out or the air in the past few years! (just kidding).
I am really upset that Microsoft would push a new OS unto a computer while is actively involved in significant activity. I'm sure they probably popped up some sort of dialog but the default action should have been not to update the computer if no one responded to the dialog. This is VERY irritating.