Tweak Win-XP for pro audio software
Tweaking Windows 98 and win-ME
can be found HERE
Windows
is very in-efficient in the way it operates, especially in the way it
handles streaming large files to and from a hard disk, such as the demands
that audio and video recording and editing software place on a hard
disk. When you need all the available power in your computer to finish
off a large multi-track project, you will need every last bit of grunt
out of your daw unless you begin making destructive edits. The following
advice are safe and proven tweaks for win-xp on how
to make your pc run better for both video and audio recording applications.
Keeping windows as close to standard as
possible should be your goal, unless the default choices effect the
way a DAW operates. I won't list all tweaks that can be applied to Win-XP
as quite often they have adverse effects for DAW uses or effect your
system stability. I would warn people away from applying tweaks that
are not listed here from other sites as I have found many of them to
have adverse effects to your system. Don't play around with "services"
at all as you create many potential problems if you do that are very
difficult to fault find. Disabling services only results in a slightly
faster boot up time and wont effect the way windows operates once booted
although some of the following win-xp tweaks will indirectly
disable some services. If your interested in playing with services despite
my warning a good
site to visit is this one.
DISCLAIMER
The owner and writer of this page takes no responsibility for any loss
of work and/or damage to work, equipment, persons, family cat or any
living or non living entity that may result directly or indirectly from
using the tips that the following pages contain. Use at own risk. By
continuing to read you agree that any negative effects from these tips
are entirely your own fault and in no way mine. blah blah blah...
WARNING
Some common sense may be needed when deleting files and
carrying out other tweaks contained in my pages. ;-)
Contents
First things first
Before beginning to tweak windows it is very
important to first ensure that your Audio card and any other
bus mastering devices do not share an IRQ with any other
device besides IRQ steering or holder. Secondly you need
to make sure that all your hard drives are using DMA mode
to complete all transfers as this results in almost zero
CPU overhead leaving more power to effects Details
on both of these can be found HERE I have not included
them here as I don't see them as a tweak but as an ESSENTIAL
part of installing the drivers of your hardware.
Background Services
Why Change ? ASIO and all
DirectX, VSTi etc. are classified as background tasks. With the computer
optimized for background services, FX, virtual instruments and synths
are given priority over graphics animations and other less important
stuff. Changing this will without a doubt help lower latency and also
greatly increase the amount of real-time processing of audio that your
computer can handle.
How to change ? This is found
by.... START>CONTROL PANEL>SYSTEM>ADVANCED>PERFORMANCE SETTINGS>ADVANCED
This is the ONLY tweak you need to perform to win-xp,
all the rest only give you small improvements if any at all, hence why
I recommend you only apply this tweak if you are unsure of using windows
xp and applying tweaks. Also make sure you check DMA and IRQ's which
are found explained
HERE.
I don't classify irqs and dma as tweaks are they are so essential they
should be done on all computers.
Disable
transition effects.
Why disable ?
Because these effects draw extra CPU power right when you need that
power for other things. For instance.. You have Logic open for audio
and midi sequencing and Gigastudio open at the same time for high quality
midi sounds. As you multitask between the two applications windows wants
to take heaps of CPU power away from your audio app's just to draw pretty
little animation's of the window smoothly popping up. This will quite
often result in glitches in playback. This tweak is essential if you
use a cheap 8MB video card.
How to disable ?
Right hand click on the desktop and select properties. Next select the
Appearance tab, then press the Effects button. Disable everything in
here as it all takes up CPU power which can be used better elsewhere.
Another area to disable effects is this area.. START>CONTROL PANEL>SYSTEM>ADVANCED>PERFORMANCE
SETTINGS>VISUAL EFFECTS> and select "adjust for best performance"
if you like the look of win xp you can then re-tick the "Use visual
styles on windows and buttons" which gives you back the windows
xp look, and does not cause any problems doing so.
Disable Automatic updates
Why disable ?
Windows is not very smart when it comes to deciding when
to update the OS and install new and wonderful things that
you'll never need. If you leave it enabled then there's
a good chance that you'll lose a take from windows wanting
to search for an update. You can manually update from the
windows update icon which is found on the START>PROGRAMS
and up the very top.
How to disable ?
START>CONTROL PANEL>SYSTEM>Automatic Updates> then
select the manual option.
System Restore
System restore is a feature of windows that monitors any
changes you make to your system and allows you to roll back the computer
and undo those changes if they have an undesirable effect. This sounds
great at first but once again windows can do this at the most annoying
times, not to mention the amount of wasted disk space. The less free
space on a drive the slower the drive is. More on that here...
If you like this feature you can always manually add snapshots of your
computer at any time. Norton Ghost is also another much better tool
for doing this sort of thing, one which I trust much more than MS system
restore..
START>CONTROL PANEL>SYSTEM>system
restore> and then tick the box to disable.
Disable Remote desktop and assistance
This two features of windows allow other people
to connect to your computer and control your computer. For security
reasons it's a good idea to disable these two features.
START>CONTROL PANEL>SYSTEM>REMOTE> untick
the two boxes.
Write Caching
By default, Windows is set to enable disk "write caching"
which basically means that rather than writing files to the hard
disk immediately, Windows puts the (audio and other) data in RAM
first, waiting for a chance to write it to disk. Unfortunately,
if you're recording a lengthy bit of audio, this "chance"
may never come, and Windows will simply run out of RAM and try
to dump any audio (or other) file/s currently in RAM to your hard
disk. This can potentially cause data loss, audio glitches and
other "fun" stuff.
To
turn off write behind caching in WINXP... DEVICE MANAGER>DISK
DRIVES> and for at least the hard drive you use for audio disable
the write caching in the drives settings.
Turn Off Power Management
By
default, Windows will shut down your hard drive after a period
of inactivity. This feature can cause significant slowdowns, because
your drive then has to power back up the next time it's accessed.
The delay can easily be a second or more. This delay will be noticeable
if your disk cache has been working well and your system hasn't
had to access the drive for a long period of time, but a sudden
change of events makes the system look to the drive. Read above
what the Vcache does.
The
wisdom of turning off hard drives in order to save power is questionable
anyway. This practice causes them to wear out much more quickly, and
the amount of money you save will be pennies per year, if that--the
amount of power a modern hard drive consumes is that negligible. Reducing
the life span of a useful drive that will cost $200 to replace in order
to save a dime just doesn't seem like a wise move.
In
laptop computers, the situation is a little bit different since
your primary concern is battery life, rather than performance
or longevity. You have little choice but to use power management
on your laptop; however, keep it turned off on your desktop computer.
Start
> Control Panel > Power Management > Power Options>
Home/office desk > Turn off hard disks > Never.
Disable the "Guest"
account. Rename the "Administrator" account
This is for security reasons and
is not necessary to do.
This is only valid for Windows XP Pro:
Administrator Tools --> Computer Management
--> Local Users and Groups --> User folder -->
Right click "Administrator" and select "Rename."
Do NOT disable this account. You may need it someday.
This is only valid for Windows XP Home:
Everyone on XP Home, by default, has Administrator
privileges and the User name is "Owner." If I
know that, so does everyone else on the planet... change
the name and password your account.
How?
Start --> Control Panel --> User Accounts
--> Choose "Owner" --> Select "Change
my name."
Also, you should (will) place a password on
your account.
Start --> Control Panel --> User Accounts -->
Choose "Owner" (or what ever account you named it above) -->
Select "Create a password."
Most, if not all, recording software, games and applications
require you to have "Administrator Privileges" to install
them and sometimes to use them.
Enable APM
This is not necessary, however
if you install windows as "Standard PC" you may
find that windows will not turn off your computer for you
when you tell windows to shutdown. This is easy to fix by....
right hand click on the desktop>select
properties>SCREEN SAVER>POWER>APM> and tick the box to enable.
Now windows will turn off your computer after selecting "shut down".
Removing Messenger / MSN
Click on the start menu and select Run.
Copy and paste "RunDll32 advpack.dll,LaunchINFSection
%windir%\INF\msmsgs.inf,BLC.Remove" into the text box
and click on OK.
Let the process complete and MSN will be gone after a reboot.
Fast-User Switching
Available on XP Home Edition and on Professional when it's
not part of a domain, fast user switching lets users of
the same computer switch between accounts without logging
off. It's a great feature when Mom, Dad and the twins all
share the same computer, but keeping multiple user accounts
active is a burden to a Pc's memory usage.
When more than one user is logged on, each user's settings
remain active and the programs activated through his or
her account remain open--even if someone switches to another
user account. Sally left Word, Excel and Barbie Fashion
Designer open and Bobby comes along, switches over to his
account and attempts to play Red Faction, he will notice
a definite degradation in performance compared to the last
time he played it when Sally wasn't logged in.
Windows XP automatically disables fast user switching during installation
if the computer has 64MB of RAM or less. For best performance, make
sure only one user is logged in at a time, and if that becomes a nuisance,
disable the feature altogether: go to Control Panel\User Accounts, click
the "Change the way users log on or off" button, and uncheck
"Use Fast User Switching".
Lose the Screen Savers
The
need for screen savers evaporated in the early 1990s when monitor refresh
rates increased, but people continue to buy them. There is absolutely
no compelling reason to use them; from a technical standpoint, they
do far more harm than good. The real danger with monitors is not the
picture becoming permanently etched onto the screen; it's the phosphors
wearing out from being overworked. Many screen savers have nearly as
much movement as a fast-paced video game and make the monitor and CPU
work about as hard as well. If your system is doing routine maintenance
like scanning for viruses, checking hard disks for errors and correcting
them, or de fragmenting hard disks--things it should be doing automatically,
a screen saver interrupting those tasks will make them take much longer.
If you're waiting for the computer to finish some time-intensive task,
the screen saver steals valuable RAM and CPU power from that task. It
also creates one more task for the computer to juggle--and one more
reason for it to crash. Some screen savers have been known to crash
systems.
Using
the Blank Screen screen saver that comes with Windows is
a good idea; it doesn't use any CPU power, and it gives
your monitor's phosphors the opportunity to really rest,
saving wear and tear on the monitor and reducing its power
consumption. If you want to protect your monitor, use Blank
Screen and give it a time-out period of 30 minutes. The
use of any other screen saver causes more harm than good.
Some
monitors eliminate the need for any screen saver altogether. If
your monitor has digital on-screen controls, it may also have
its own power management. If that's the case, set your monitor
to put itself in power-saving mode after 30 minutes, which allows
you to dispense even with the Blank Screen screen saver.
Lose the System Sounds and Desktop Schemes
The
Microsoft Plus packs for Windows contain some gimmicks such as desktop
themes than cause icons to spin as they're clicked. Unless you have
an extremely high-end computer turn that stuff off. In many cases, it
takes longer for the computer to spin the program's icon than it does
to load and launch the program.
You
also want to turn off animated cursors and system sounds, as these
toys can steal large amounts of memory and CPU time. If you need
system sounds to warn you of important things like critical events,
program errors, or incoming mail, go ahead and use them, but refrain
from assigning sounds to every event. On the majority of systems,
I go into the Sounds control panel, select the schemes box, and
set it to No Sounds.
If
you want to express your creativity without dragging down your
system or alienating your friends, family, or coworkers, there
are other, less expensive ways to customize your system. Try coming
up with your own color schemes, or changing Windows' font sets
and sizes instead. Right-click on the desktop, select Properties,
and click on the Appearance tab. Use those settings to express
yourself, rather than CPU-hogging cursors and sounds. You can
also try playing around with Lite-Step
Misc
Compressed Drives Don't use compressed drives
for obvious reasons, more power to the CPU.
Virus Protection While it is essential
to have protection, don't leave it running in the background when recording.
This goes for all programs especially ICQ. If u must have programs loaded
then get more RAM, 512 Mb is the bare minimum for win-xp 1 gig is where
its at these days especially with VST instruments or Virtual instruments.
More things that run means more latency is needed and less tracks/effects.
Maintenance
Check Your Free Disk Space
If
the free space on a hard disk falls to below 10% of the size of the
drive, performance slows to an absolute crawl. The easiest way to quickly
check your available disk space is to go START> My Computer>click
once on C: The drive's capacity and free disk space will appear in the
lower pane of the window. In Win-xp holding the mouse pointer over a
Drive in My Computer, will pop up a message with the free space for
you. As you will see by the next few topics free disk space really does
impact your system more than what most people realize because of multiple
factors.....read on.
Delete all .TMP files (temporary files)
Temp
files are where the computer places information temporarily
while it writes that information to disk or waits for you
to tell it where that information is to go. What happens
if you have heaps of TMP files in your computer, is that
the computer goes to create the 00001.TMP file and that
name is already taken up by another file so it then tries
to use 00002.TMP file and if that one exists I'm sure you
can guess what then happens....All this wastes both a computers
time and power... After a year or two of using windows,
you may find heaps of TMP files which waste space and CPU
power.
Start > Search> Files or folders > "*.tmp"
will probably turn up some temp files. Ctrl-A-Shift-Del-Enter
will banish them without sending them to the Recycle Bin.
TIP
Windows XP
now has a program built in which does this for you called. "Disk
Cleanup" and is found with the system tools on the start bar. Manually
checking is still a good idea.
Delete all Temp Internet Files
Internet Explorer cache (I.E. uses an inordinately high
10% of your available disk space for cache by default) and
your Internet Explorer cookies. If you delete the folders
where the cache and cookies are stored, Internet Explorer
will rebuild them next time it's launched. I don't recommend
newbies do this, instead follow the TIP below.
TIP Once again you
can change a setting to stop this from EVER becoming a problem. INTERNET
EXPLORER>TOOLS>INTERNET OPTIONS>ADVANCED tick the option "empty
Internet temporary file folder when browser is closed" If you have
a slow modem then you may wish to decrease the maximum space for these
files instead.
Defragment Your Hard Drive
After you maximize your free space, you want to Defragment your drive
using Start > Programs > Accessories > System Tools > Disk
Defragmenter. Defragment whether Windows reports that you need to or
not. There are strategies for de fragmenting, third-party utilities
such as Norton's Speed Disk normally perform better than windows defrag.
Defragment
your drive after you remove any large quantity of data from your hard
drive. You should also make a habit of de fragmenting your drive once
a month. Before an important recording session is also a good time to
spend the time defragging (and I don't mean playing a quick game of
unreal tournament)*smiles*.
The
less free space you have on your hard drive, the faster your drive
will become fragmented !!! The previous few topics are beginning
to seem not so stupid after all.
Clean Out Your Startup Group
Loading
programs in to RAM will force the computer to use the swap file for
your important programs, see next topic below. I suggest using Startup
Control Panel from this sites free software download area to unload
all programs that load at startup. Virus protection should be removed
or disabled since you can run it when it is needed. i.e.. When your
downloading programs or checking e-mail.
TIP
Windows has
a program which can help although its not as good as the startup
control panel software. START>RUN>"msconfig"....
Use the Startup tab to untick everything except your audio cards mixer
app. Win-xp hides all important programs from the user, which makes
it very easy for newbies.