Server Version#: Newest
Player Version#: via webpage directly (which I prefer) or Plex App that is most recent
DOES Win10 Work Well with PLEX? I fear the FORCED Auto-Updating will screw up my Server
I have been reluctant to switch my PMS from Win7 to Win10 for fear that it will reboot my PC/Server on its own unexpectedly and that I will have to go reset it everytime that happens. I know my Win 10 PC I use daily gets updated out of the blue and I lose all my open Windows that I may have been working on from the previous day so I figured it would do similar to my PMS Server on Win7. Does anyone have any suggestions on what to move to since Win7 is no longer safe or should it be safe since I do not use it for anything but PMS? Any advice is appreciated. I have the Sever set so it doesn’t need a PW in case it reboots, it still connects after but with Win10, do they force you to use a PW or PIN for each restart? Thanks in advance for any help -TD
Edit: If you mean Windows 10 updates, these can be postponed in Windows settings for up to two weeks. This lets you decide when to download & install such updates. You can also disable the Windows Update service via services.msc. I’ve never tried the latter, so unsure of implications. Also, the service probably has to be re-enabled, at least temporarily, for the “Check for Updates” function to work if/when you want to manually search for and install updates.
What forced updating?
Choose “Ask Me” in Server Settings → General → Server Version Updates
Server version updates
When an update for Plex Media Server is available, choose how that update is handled. Available options:
Ask me : You will have to manually choose to apply the update. Plex Web App and some other apps can prompt you when an update is available.
Automatically during scheduled maintenance : Choose to have an available update applied automatically during the server’s scheduled maintenance time.
I have been running Windows 10 on my server computer pretty much since it came out. I allow updates as needed and do nothing special at all.
Windows 10 is so much better that any previous version that it is nearly impossible to enumerate what is better.
The auto updates do nothing to interfere except that while the update is happening Plex, or anything else, or the server does not work.
Windows may cause problems in the future but, for now, there is zero problems with my setup.
I am pretty convinced that those that have problems allow there server to preform other tasks. Servers should serve and little else except what is directly needed for server support. Servers also should not sleep or hibernate except for the display. In fact there are many people that run servers with no monitor attached at all.
My recommendation is to update Windows to the latest version and allow Windows to keep itself current so it is as safe from hacks as possible.
BTW: On your server I recommend you turn off the useless pieces like Cortana and the other garbage Windows throws at us. It is just overhead that your server can do without. Also I recommend you do Plex maintenance on your server from another computer on you network. Also FireFox and Chrome are much more reliable than the crappy Edge browser that Microsoft pushes on us.
This has been my experience. Switched from macOS to Windows 10 about 2 years ago (decided to build a custom server and wasn’t interested in a hackintosh setup). No real issues with the OS, only hardware. Updates have occasionally auto-applied, but you can limit those. Plex has performed extremely well on the Win10 rig.
For a production setup, sure. For a home server, this is overkill. The ability to run multiple tasks on a home server is dependent on the operator’s ability to manage the interplay of hardware and software therein. Keeping things as simple as possible is always preferable, but not necessarily keeping things simple, period.
Mine is a home server and I allow no remote access but my server does not have any non-server related tasks. I am the only user except when my granddaughters visit. You can get a server computer perfectly able to run Plex for less that $300.00 and the problems that avoids more than offsets the cost. The cost of storage does not change based on where it is mounted.
Each to their own but I fail to see why a Plex server needs other duties with the price of hardware so low.
Absolutely, hopefully that didn’t come off as knocking your setup, simplicity is beautiful. That’s what’s compelling about building your own server. In my case, I had two main drivers–needed massive CPU power for x265 encoding and to get PMS off of my aging 2010 Mac Mini.
Building a dedicated encoding rig, then a separate PMS was duplicative for me. I was able to design and build a rig with ample CPU, GPU, and RAM to let me run a rock-solid stable PMS, while still being able to churn out batch x265 encodes pegging the CPU at 80-90% for weeks on end. Everything was selected to match the task load and is working in relative harmony.
Hardware has evolved in tandem with modern OSes. For the same reason one can find a quality PMS setup for $300 (whereas 10 years ago that’d be ludicrous) one can also spend more to do more on one rig. That does come with management considerations, but nothing earth shattering if you’re used to it.
At work we still have separate DNS, print, MDM, etc servers, but production needs differ a lot from home (as do budgets). People expect their hardware to do more now than ever, and that trickles into what traditionally has been labeled as the server space. My current rig has a battery backup, but no redundant power supply, so a lot of people probably wouldn’t consider that a server at all. I’d say to them adapt to the times
@Turfking8 I missed the last question in your post, but yes, you can set Windows 10 to auto-login without issue. Most people use netplwiz.exe to do so, but a registry edit can work too. Here’s a guide that should work.
Hi all. Really under the weather at the moment. I appreciate the helpful info. I will respond to each of the posts when I am feeling better. One thing tho for Fordguy… I didn’t mean the PMS Updates, I prefer them to update auto but my Win10 PC always updates on me when I least expect it and I was told uopdates coudnt be turned off as I have ALWAYS preferred to do then 1-2 x’s a month MANUALLY. Hopefully from some of the info I skimmed just now, I can get that figured and configured. Thanks all again. I will be back in the next 2 days to thank you and answer your posts -Turfking8 TD
Get well soon, sorry to hear you’re under the weather.
One thing that popped into my mind about auto-updates is the actual edition of Windows 10 you buy. Only Pro editions used to be able to delay updates, but it appears that changed in the spring 2019 release.
I have the Pro version now and am able to delay updates through Windows Update prefs the following ways:
Pausing updates (up to 35 days from now, showing 6/5/2020 as latest)
Auto-deferring feature/major updates for up to 365 days
Auto-deferring quality/minor updates for 30 days.
I believe those are still Pro-edition-only options. There are also ways using group policies or registry edits to try to more aggressively stop the update process. For me, having some control over when updates are applied is enough. Usually if a week goes by and no major issues have been reported, I’ll apply it.
Hi guys. Yes onekmiles… I have the Win10 Pro edition on 4 OS now. 2 HTPC’s, a Server and my Main work PC where all the hard work is done. I had Win10/Win7 Dual boot on this since 10 came out and I plan on kepping it incase I ever need 7 for ANYTHING. I assume I can’t be hacked in 7 if I have 10 running 99.9% of the time. If I am wrong, someone enlighten me please. Anyhow. Win10 has had its ups and downs for me. I like it now that I have worked out most of the kinks but I have Intel 7260AC Wifi/BT cards (SUCK for BT) in my HTPC’s and the Bluetooth Speakers dont work well at all with the WIN10 Intel7260AC combo, the sound is intermittent and impossible., What I had to do, after WEEKS of trial and error, was to use an old Bluetooth Dongle I had lying around. I think it’s a 3.0 as the problem is the Intel Card is supposed to be backward compatible but it is NOT. I use an iLuv Pro speaker because my couch is about 20 feet from the TV and instead of blaring that to reach across the room, I pop that speaker on and it sounds pretty good for music and movies. But with Win10, the intermittent sound was driving me crazy. I have to REMOVE the speaker and re-add it each time I go to use my BT but I have it down to about 30 secs so it’s not so bad anymore. Once it’s synced it stays until it turns off. I used to be able to just turn on the speaker and it would RE-pair in Win7 but not here. Still is better than spending $ on a New Wifi-BT Card for 2 HTPC’s, especially when money is tight.
The only other issue, and it was a HUGE ONE, was I couldn’t get my PC’s to see each other. After WEEKS of trying to get it to work, I finally had to check the box in Sharing Center that MAKES you use Passwords. It was supposed to be easy without using PW’s but it was HELL and I never would have thought that changing it back to that would have fixed it but it did and now works great so IMPORTANT, If you are new to WIN10 and want to “Homegroup” your PC’s like you are used to in Win7, you MUST use Passwords and have each name of each PC to connect them all, at least that’s what I had to do and I wasted so much time because checking “TURN OFF Password Protection” in Advanced Sharing Settings DOES NOT WORK AT ALL! You must check “USE PASSWORD PROTECTION” and take the time to set it up properly. Well, thanks to all of you. Sorry I got back so late to this convo but everything was such a WIP, I didn’t want to add any info until I knew how it all worked and how I felt about it. I now Like Win10 aside from a few Glitches that hopefully I have saved someone time from wasting themselves. Cheers all. Be Safe and Be Well -TD
