HTPC OS

[oxygene]

Just a quick question here.
I have a HTPC, hardware is all fine works like a dream. I have had it running for a couple of months now perfectly. The current OS is windows 7 upgraded to windows 10, set to boot straight in to Kodi.

Unfortunately, despite me disabling all updates it still pops up randomly telling me updates are available. This is getting on my nerves as my entire control system is my phone with Kore (Kodi remote) and to remove the alerts and continue using the system I need to Teamviewer in to it. On top of that the graphics drivers started doing the same thing despite me disabling updates and popups. Grrrr!

Main issue: Two days ago it came up with a warning a file was corrupt somehow and to restart. Restarted and blue screen on startup. Attempted to fix with the windows 10 recovery usb stick and somehow that got corrupted as well...

My main thought now is, I am happy to put in the effort to fix windows 10, but reinstalls from scratch on 10 dont register properly do they? As I think the code is tied to the motherboard.
OR
I could go down the route of OpenELEC.
Now I have zero experience of linux and troubleshooting any issues would be difficult, so 10 is preferable. But if it really is an easy set up and install for the same results it may be worth it.

What are peoples thoughts on this? What do people use as their HTPC OS and for what reasons?

Many thanks!

 

[enigma27]

A fresh windows 10 install should activate with the motherboard..

If it does not then just make sure you have all the latest updates installed for windows 10 and then you should be able to activate with you windows 7 key.

as for the popups sounds like although your turning off automatic updates you also need to turn off the notifications.. for graphics card notifications you will probably have to open up your notification options in windows and turn off the individual apps you don't want notifications for.

 

[oxygene]

A fresh windows 10 install should activate with the motherboard..

Ahh so it links to the motherboard and activates based on that, thats good news!

If the popups are that easily solved I will definitely go back to 10 then. Its just driving me up the wall hehe, you sit down for a nice relaxing tv session and BLAM! some random update. Wish windows had a DND mode where nothing would pop up ever.

 

[Scottland]

I've always found windows to be fine, but Kodilauncher makes it much nicer as it loads Kodi as the shell and I very rarely get any popups from Windows telling me to install updates. It does sometimes not install updates though, so it's worth booting into explorer now and then to manually do an update.

A lot of people like Openelec and similar Linux based options for a HTPC, but for me Windows is much more versatile.

 

[oxygene]

I've always found windows to be fine, but Kodilauncher makes it much nicer as it loads Kodi as the shell and I very rarely get any popups from Windows telling me to install updates. It does sometimes not install updates though, so it's worth booting into explorer now and then to manually do an update.

A lot of people like Openelec and similar Linux based options for a HTPC, but for me Windows is much more versatile.

Now that is something I wish I had heard about before! Sounds exactly what I need.
Basically so long as I can turn on the pc, have it boot to Kodi, map to the NAS for media, and be remote controlled by my phone I am happy to ignore everything else, or even disable parts where necessary. But I do still want to have the functionality to Teamviewer in if theres issues.

 

[Scottland]

The only difference is that Kodi replaces explorer as the shell, as long as teamviewer is set to startup at boot it should be fine. I don't use teamviewer but do the same thing as you with Chrome Remote Desktop, and that works fine. The only think you may need to do is exit Kodi before connecting to teamviewer, as Kodi is a D3D application you'll see a blank screen.

I have mine configured so that when the machine sleeps it exists Kodi, and then launches it fresh when you resume from sleep. I've found this better as it will scan for new media on startup, also Kodi can get a bit dodgy if you leave it open when going to sleep with it open etc.

 

[NeverWinter]

I've recently switched my HTPC from Win10 to OpenELEC, haven't looked back since. It even works fine connecting to the MySQL server which is on a Windows based server.

It's a hell of a lot faster booting and resuming (from SSD) and in general usage around the menus.