Changes needed after updating XRIT Ingester to Geostationary Ingester

In September 2023 we decided to rename XRIT Ingester to Geostationary Ingester, coinciding with addition of support for Meteosat Third Generation (MTG) data. That uses the NetCDF file format and is therefore not LRIT or HRIT. Other future geostationary satellites are also anticipated to stop using the LRIT/HRIT file format.

All the XRIT Ingester settings are automatically migrated to Geostationary Ingester so the transition should be virtually seamless.

However, Geostationary Ingester uses a different process name and temporary folder to XRIT Ingester, so anti-virus exclusions will need updating. You will also need to update the pinned taskbar icons and, if XRIT Ingester started automatically, the startup programs.

Before adding the anti-virus exclusions, start Geostationary Ingester and close it again. This ensures its temporary folder exists.

To add the necessary exclusions to Microsoft Defender:

1. Click the Start icon (Windows logo) then click Settings.
2. Click the Update & Security icon.
3. Click the Windows Security icon on the left.
4. Click Virus & threat protection. This will open the Windows Security app.
5. Under Virus & threat protection settings, click Manage settings.
6. Scroll down to the Exclusions heading and click Add or remove exclusions, clicking Yes when asked to allow changes to your device.
7. Click + Add an exclusion and select Folder.
8. In the Folder box, enter %temp% and press the Enter key. This will go to your temporary folder.
9. Select the Dartcom Geostationary Ingester folder and click Select Folder.
10. Click + Add an exclusion and select Process.
11. In the Enter process name box, enter Geostationary Ingester.exe and click Add.

You can now start Geostationary Ingester again and check everything works as expected.

You will also need to unpin the XRIT Ingester icon from the taskbar, and pin Geostationary Ingester to it instead.

To unpin XRIT Ingester, right-click its icon in the taskbar and select Unpin from taskbar.

To pin Geostationary Ingester to the taskbar, click the Start icon, select Dartcom, right click the Geostationary Ingester icon, select More, and finally select Pin to taskbar. You can then drag it to the required position in the taskbar.

The Geostationary Ingester update installer attempts to remove the old XRIT Ingester icon from your Start menu, but this isn't always successful. To remove it:

1. Click the Start icon.
2. Select Dartcom.
3. Right-click the XRIT Ingester icon, select More, and finally select Open file location.
4. Delete the XRIT Ingester shortcut.

If XRIT Ingester was set up to start automatically, you will need to set up Geostationary Ingester to start automatically instead. To do this:

1. Click the Start icon.
2. Select Dartcom.
3. Right-click the Geostationary Ingester icon, select More, and finally select Open file location.
4. Right-click the Geostationary Ingester shortcut and select Copy.
5. Right-click the Start icon and select Run.
6. In the Open box, enter shell:startup and click OK.
7. Delete the XRIT Ingester shortcut if present.
8. Paste the Geostationary Ingester shortcut that was copied in step 4.

It's also a good idea to check the all users startup folder in case XRIT Ingester was added to that. This can be done by following steps 1 to 5 above and entering shell:common startup (including the space) in step 6.