# Windows 10 settings / stuff you can turn off for music?



## JohnG

Adjustments to Windows 10 PC Slave [edit: updated BIOS changes Feb 11, 2016]


Hello all,


Thanks to everyone who chimed in on two threads. Here's what I did to 3 different PC slaves, all running Windows 10, VE Pro standalone, and each having Kontakt 5 and PLAY on them. In aggregate, these changes conspicuously improved performance.

Remember, you may not get good results doing these things and may have better ideas -- I am just recording what I did, not telling anyone else what he or she should do. Windows 10 is brand new and will likely change a lot over the coming months, so whatever is here (November 2015) may be unhelpful down the road.

*SOME OF THESE THINGS ARE RISKY, LIKE BIOS STUFF!! *

If you don't know what you are doing with the BIOS you can wreck your computer.

*A. Tested system to see if I needed to bother (I did):*

Downloaded latencymon (seems to have been updated for Windows 10 based on what's on their site): http://www.resplendence.com/downloads

Basic fixes and interpreting results of Latencymon:

https://www.native-instruments.com/.../windows-78-tuning-tips-for-audio-processing/

*B. BIOS alterations -- remember, these are RISKY, especially turning off thermal throttling and other CPU protections*

1. Updated BIOS (on my computers needed USB flash drive formatted for FAT):

2. Turned off Speedstep

3. Turned off Turbo boost / Advanced Turbo

4. Turned off Thermal Throttling / CPU Thermal Throttling [but turned it back on]

5. Turned off CPU C States Support and / or individual C-states related to CPU

6. Disabled onboard audio from motherboard (I'm using separate audio card so don't need it)

7. Turned off Isochronous whatever-it-is. I quote from an internet post: _"Isochronous refers to time-bound processes, such as synchronizing audio and video in a multimedia stream or ensuring that data is transferred across a network or data bus (like a northbridge or southbridge on a motherboard) with similar constraints. It prioritizes threads or calculations between the IOH and ICH. So basically, the more important tasks will be determined and executed in Isochronous Mode. So if it's enabled, it means time bound processes are given priority first while if it is off FIFO rule applies. I think all these "features' on the board are just marketing crap and don't really show any real world advantage or disadvantage. If you're OCing, best to keep it disabled!"_

8. I checked the BIOS and the "Advanced CPU Features." The CPU Clock Ratio was set to 15, which yields a CPU speed of 2.00 GHz. I changed it to 23 (max is 24) and now the CPU Frequency is 3.06 GHz, approximately what it's rated.

9. Turned off hyperthreading on at least one computer -- honestly can't remember if I did this on all of them.

10. Chimuelo (if I understood him correctly) recommends turning off EIST

*C. Windows 10 Adjustments*

Followed Native Instruments tips on issues like power settings (see second link, above, for Native Instruments suggestions). Most of these are familiar from Windows 7/8 or earlier.

Turned off Energy Efficient controls of Network adapter card (this was a big one for me):

1 Windows Explorer, This PC

2 Right click, manage

3 Device Manager

4 Network Adapters (open)

5 Right click your adapter, Properties

6 Power Management – get rid of the power saving options (I also got rid of wake on LAN and other stuff)

*Windows 10 “Settings”*

1. System –

a. Turned all the rubbish off (notifications, multitasking, tablet mode)
b. Set all power to “Never” or otherwise full power

i. Additional Power settings: High Performance (then change sub-settings under “Change plan settings”)

2. Devices – turned pretty much all the toggles off

3. Privacy – since this is just a slave and won’t be used for email or anything like that, I turned off a lot of stuff but especially everything under “Background apps,” which is a fairly long list of applications that are running all the time if you don’t disable them. Left “Settings” on.

4. Update and Security

a. Windows Security, Virus & Threat Protection, Virus & Threat Protection Settings [scroll down] - under "Exclusions," decided to exclude all folders with samples, plus the software I use a lot. I turned Defender off completely because the PCs are never connected to the internet.

b. Windows Update - I ran this repeatedly, based on advice from someone else, who said Windows 10 is still changing rapidly. This may or may not be helpful, but that's what I did. Once I put the PC back to work, it will be completely unplugged from the internet anyway and so will not be updating. [Note: not sure if this is still true but -- If you want to have some influence over updates, it appears you have to buy the Pro version of Windows 10. I did.]

c. (after updating) Turn off Windows Update – Control Panel, Administrative Tools, Services (double-click), Windows Update =>disabled and stopped.

[EDIT: Have heard that, unless you have Windows 10 Professional, there is no way to really stop automatic updates, and even then, using Group Policy, it still may not be permanent. In light of that, the best way to prevent updates is to unplug your PC from the Internet.]

*Other*

This was posted by mirrodin, another member:

Another thing worth mentioning is actually hardware related. If you use NVIDIA graphics card(s) and do not use the Stereoscopic displays, or use a SHIELD tablet, disable these 2 services:

1. Nvidia Streamer Network Service (latest version of driver services)

2. Nvidia Streamer Service (older, may still be present if drivers are just updated over previous and not clean installed)

3. Nvidia Stereoscopic 3D Driver Service

4. Open the task manager, go to the services tab and right click on any service, and select "open services.”

5. Locate the Nvidia Services (listing should be alphabetical), and you will find these services.

6. Right click on one and select Properties.

7. In the new dialog window: under startup Type select "Disabled"

8. In the service Status, if it is currently running, click on "Stop."

9. Repeat for the other services mentioned above.

10. Whenever another driver update occurs, these services will be restored to their default state (most likely active). You will want to check that these services are disabled after each update.


----------



## SpeakPianissimoAndCarry..

I turned off the same things as Windows 7 and it is fine. Plus, install and run this...a must!

http://pxc-coding.com/de/portfolio/donotspy10/


----------



## Gerhard Westphalen

One issue to be careful of is that when I turned off the update service it made me unable to use the Windows store so if the store isn't working for you after you've tried making some changes to Windows, that could be it. 

The only tweak that I've made is the background services one and I haven't run into any performance issues yet.


----------



## SpeakPianissimoAndCarry..

That was no problem for me. I installed in such a way that I am not connected to the Windows store, nor the Microsoft cloud nor connected to anything Microsoft. Autoupdates kept trying to update my drivers for all of my hardware and screwing up my system. Now that I am on manual mode, I can choose which updates to install. I just have to check myself once a week.


----------



## D.Salzenberg

Auto updates are the work of Satan!


----------



## Audio Birdi

Make sure your sample drives are excluded from Windows Defender within settings. Your samples will load slowly otherwise. I scratched my head over this for a while and then realised later. Since Microsoft Security Essentials and Defender are both integrated into Windows 10 now.


----------



## Blakus

KaBirdi said:


> Make sure your sample drives are excluded from Windows Defender within settings. Your samples will load slowly otherwise. I scratched my head over this for a while and then realised later. Since Microsoft Security Essentials and Defender are both integrated into Windows 10 now.


OMG, Thank you - this has been stumping me! My template load time in Windows 10 was twice as long, for no apparent reason that I could find. This fixed my problem perfectly. Thanks!


----------



## SpeakPianissimoAndCarry..

Do Not Spy 10 disables Windows Defender and Security Essentials entirely (if you tick the boxes). I use Eset Nod32. I don't need all of that crap-ware from MS. And amen D. Salzenberg on the Satan comment. Actually, it was controllable from Windows 7 so I used it with my settings. If it is on with Windows 10, Microsoft does whatever the heck that they want, evil demon stuff.


----------



## Audio Birdi

Blakus said:


> OMG, Thank you - this has been stumping me! My template load time in Windows 10 was twice as long, for no apparent reason that I could find. This fixed my problem perfectly. Thanks!


You're welcome Blakus! it was annoying the crap out of me for a whole day , I hadn't realised that Defender actually scans your drive(s) nowadays too, so I'm glad I've helped others to have super fast loading again! :D


----------



## SpeakPianissimoAndCarry..

Blakus said:


> OMG, Thank you - this has been stumping me! My template load time in Windows 10 was twice as long, for no apparent reason that I could find. This fixed my problem perfectly. Thanks!



So why not just turn it all the way off? Why disable it on only your sample drives? What it is doing is worthless compared to what other 3rd party software does without interference to your music production. I have a bachelors and masters in computer science, BTW. I do music as a hobby. Windows Defender is a virus in itself. It does more harm than good. Turn it off!


----------



## EvilDragon

SpeakPianissimoAndCarry.. said:


> Autoupdates kept trying to update my drivers for all of my hardware and screwing up my system.



That can be disabled, but the other updates can continue going (which is usually the smart thing to do).

https://davescomputertips.com/how-to-prevent-automatic-driver-updates-in-windows-10/


----------



## SpeakPianissimoAndCarry..

EvilDragon said:


> That can be disabled, but the other updates can continue going (which is usually the smart thing to do).
> 
> https://davescomputertips.com/how-to-prevent-automatic-driver-updates-in-windows-10/



Thanks ED. You have really been educating me this week. I appreciate all of you replies to my recent posts. Sometimes my thinking is not entirely correct, but I am willing to learn ☺ and you are a good teacher. I'll look at that post, but I am religious about the computer tasks. MS pushes big updates once a month and I check once a week. Anything in between that is a major risk, they push to everyone, no matter the settings. It's been that way since XP. Again thank you so much for your recent education on all of the posts. You are a good and wise Human being.


----------



## EvilDragon

That's why people should have Professional, not Home edition. Yes it's more expensive, but you can switch yourself to a slower, 3-month update track. Much preferred IMHO.


----------



## SpeakPianissimoAndCarry..

EvilDragon said:


> That's why people should have Professional, not Home edition. Yes it's more expensive, but you can switch yourself to a slower, 3-month update track. Much preferred IMHO.



I always used Professional for other reasons. I know nothing of Home edition other than the networking limitations that I read about.


----------



## Mystic

Saving this thread for when I have to reinstall Win 10 in a couple weeks for new computer.


----------



## kitekrazy

KaBirdi said:


> Make sure your sample drives are excluded from Windows Defender within settings. Your samples will load slowly otherwise. I scratched my head over this for a while and then realised later. Since Microsoft Security Essentials and Defender are both integrated into Windows 10 now.



also exclude Defender from scanning itself.


----------



## chrysshawk

Thread might deserve a sticky.
Did install W10Pro on master+slave this weekend, and there are currently glitches in C8 while playback and worse during playback+recording (on W8.1 P this did not happen). For Win 8.1P I used IOBit's suite to uninstall a ton of the Windows applications which run in the background and cannot otherwise be uninstalled, will also do this on Win10.


----------



## paaltio

I don't turn off anything. Most of the "optimize Windows for audio" guides are outdated, and I've even seen some that are pure nonsense, so I would steer clear of them.

The essential thing on a new Windows install is to check with LatencyMon that there aren't misbehaving drivers. After that you're basically good to go. If something else is causing problems I would address that on a case-by-case basis.


----------



## Lannister

Never used OSX, but do people go to such lengths on that OS too? I only ever read about it with regard to Windows.


----------



## D.Salzenberg

paaltio said:


> I don't turn off anything. Most of the "optimize Windows for audio" guides are outdated, and I've even seen some that are pure nonsense, so I would steer clear of them.
> 
> The essential thing on a new Windows install is to check with LatencyMon that there aren't misbehaving drivers. After that you're basically good to go. If something else is causing problems I would address that on a case-by-case basis.


Well, I don't normally mess with Windows settings too much, but after reading this thread I turned Defender off and my samples load much much faster when I load a project.


----------



## samphony

chrysshawk said:


> Thread might deserve a sticky.
> Did install W10Pro on master+slave this weekend, and there are currently glitches in C8 while playback and worse during playback+recording (on W8.1 P this did not happen). For Win 8.1P I used IOBit's suite to uninstall a ton of the Windows applications which run in the background and cannot otherwise be uninstalled, will also do this on Win10.



I'm going to get a slave PC soon. Would you recommend staying away from 10 or won't it matter at all for VEP?


----------



## paaltio

D.Salzenberg said:


> Well, I don't normally mess with Windows settings too much, but after reading this thread I turned Defender off and my samples load much much faster when I load a project.



Doesn't seem to make any measurable difference here, but I guess it's worth trying out, since it will depend on the computer configuration what kind of a hit Defender (or MSE for the Win7 guys) has.


----------



## rgames

paaltio said:


> I don't turn off anything. Most of the "optimize Windows for audio" guides are outdated, and I've even seen some that are pure nonsense, so I would steer clear of them.
> 
> The essential thing on a new Windows install is to check with LatencyMon that there aren't misbehaving drivers. After that you're basically good to go. If something else is causing problems I would address that on a case-by-case basis.


That's my experience as well.

I ran Win7 stock and now I run Win10 stock (on a laptop - away from the studio for a year). I've tried all the tweaks and never found any that made a difference on any practical measure. I've run across some weirdness in Win10 but nothing that causes any meaningful change in my workflow. I'm assuming it's just new OS weirdness.

As you say, there used to be some things that you could do to make *tiny* differences in performance. People forgot to stop worrying about them...!

rgames


----------



## chrysshawk

Update; W10Pro+C8Pro+VEP on slave seems to trigger ASIOGuard issues similar to what Cubase had before the maintenance update(s). Not sure if this is just my build, but it's certainly a pain in the ass.


----------



## JohnG

rgames said:


> I've tried all the tweaks and never found any that made a difference on any practical measure.



I know what you mean, Richard, but I am getting really terrible performance on Windows 10 so I'm going to try something.

Anyone else using Do Not Spy software? It looks pretty invasive itself; not that I'm skeptical of the motivations of the people who wrote it but it looks as though it gets way into how Windows 10 works. I am wondering if it could have unintended consequences.


----------



## jacobthestupendous

JohnG said:


> Anyone else using Do Not Spy software? It looks pretty invasive itself; not that I'm skeptical of the motivations of the people who wrote it but it looks as though it gets way into how Windows 10 works. I am wondering if it could have unintended consequences.








Not exactly on the main topic, but you reminded me of this.



Lannister said:


> Never used OSX, but do people go to such lengths on that OS too? I only ever read about it with regard to Windows.


Yeah, there are some people who get a stable situation with their Mac DAW's and never upgrade, because all OS updates can have unintended consequences and incompatibilities.


----------



## JohnG

Jacob, I look EXACTLY like that. Uncanny resemblance.
-----------------------
Just realized that, under "Settings" "Privacy" "Background apps," Windows 10 by default turns on about a dozen apps (including Weather, Maps and Xbox) that are not needed for music, as far as I can see.

I turned them all off.

I would not have expected to find these under "Privacy," so that's why I mentioned it.

There are lots of other functions under Privacy I've also turned off, but these were at the very end and hadn't previously noticed them.


----------



## JohnG

Other than the obvious, I am not going to try to tweak this OS for a while. I spoke with VisionDAW and they said Microsoft are spitting out hundreds of updates a week, including fixes of previous updates. That, plus the clear effort to integrate somewhat disparate-looking functions, makes me loth to start turning a lot of stuff off, even updates, because it's difficult to guess which ones might somehow affect audio / asio / stability / CPU.

Normally I like to be a bit of a cowboy on excising unwanted Windows functions, but under the circumstances I plan to put up with (most) of Microsoft's shenanigans for a while.


----------



## RCsound

JohnG said:


> Anyone else using Do Not Spy software? It looks pretty invasive itself; not that I'm skeptical of the motivations of the people who wrote it but it looks as though it gets way into how Windows 10 works. I am wondering if it could have unintended consequences.



I tried similar software because i feel some paranoid with windows 10 and, for whatever reason, always ends with the CPU at 90-100% with nothing loaded, so i back to old setups, old school, deactivate everything that use your HDD and/or create conflict with your libs and that's all.

All off (as minimum), ok, this is my system and its only use for DAW so do no neet some stuff:

Windows search, Windows defender, Windows Update, background intelligent transfer ,Superfetch, Prefetch, readyboot, Hibernation. No antivirus installed. No Internet access (only to activate licenses).

If you need some functions like windows updates, you can enable/disabled this in "services".

And everything related to windows 10 security, always off, there is a lot of pages about this on the net.


----------



## JohnG

RCsound said:


> And everything related to windows 10 security, always off, there is a lot of pages about this on the net.



I don't see any way to completely disable Windows Defender in Windows 10.


----------



## kitekrazy

JohnG said:


> I don't see any way to completely disable Windows Defender in Windows 10.



There's really no point in doing that. It's not a resource hog. I disabled stuff I would not use like Cortana.


----------



## RCsound

If you run Win10PRO you need to edit a local policy to disable windows defender, this put windows defender to start in manual mode.


----------



## JohnG

Here's what I actually did to my own PC slaves -- it helped them:

http://vi-control.net/community/thr...dows-10-to-boost-pc-slaves-performance.49640/


----------



## kitekrazy

Some would say turn off Windows 10, turn back on Windows 7.


----------



## valyogennoff

KaBirdi said:


> Make sure your sample drives are excluded from Windows Defender within settings. Your samples will load slowly otherwise. I scratched my head over this for a while and then realised later. Since Microsoft Security Essentials and Defender are both integrated into Windows 10 now.


WOW! Thank you very much for sharing this! I'll do it the minute I get home later today!


----------



## kitekrazy

JohnG said:


> Other than the obvious, I am not going to try to tweak this OS for a while. I spoke with VisionDAW and they said Microsoft are spitting out hundreds of updates a week, including fixes of previous updates. That, plus the clear effort to integrate somewhat disparate-looking functions, makes me loth to start turning a lot of stuff off, even updates, because it's difficult to guess which ones might somehow affect audio / asio / stability / CPU.
> 
> Normally I like to be a bit of a cowboy on excising unwanted Windows functions, but under the circumstances I plan to put up with (most) of Microsoft's shenanigans for a while.



I best most of those updates reset everything you touched. Unfortunately none of my systems are identical so I could create or use benchmark tests to see how how W10 fares against W7. You would think W10 would be better because of needing less resources. The other part could be that many drivers/apps from W7,W8 work in 10 and developers aren't really optimizing software for W10 unless something isn't working. I've read there were issues with Focusrite 1394 interfaces and some Roland units.


----------



## mirrodin

another thing worth mentioning is actually hardware related. If you use NVIDIA graphics card(s) and do not use the Stereoscopic displays, or use a SHIELD tablet, disable these 2 services:
NV

Nvidia Streamer Network Service (latest version of driver services)
Nvidia Streamer Service (older, may still be present if drivers are just updated over previous and not clean installed)
Nvidia Stereoscopic 3D Driver Service

Open the task manager, go to the services tab and right click on any service, and select "open services.
Locate the Nvidia Services (listing should be alphabetical), and you will find these services.
Right click on one and select Properties.
In the new dialog window: under startup Type select "Disabled"
In the service Status, if it is currently running, click on "Stop".
Repeat for the other services mentioned above.
Whenever another driver update occurs, these services will be restored to their default state (most likely active). You will want to check that these services are disabled after each update.

There are numerous reports on Nvidia's forums that the Streamer services were taxing their OS drive's read with contiguous access, and experiencing various other operating system slow-downs. 

The Stereoscopic driver while unused can still eat up valuable task scheduling time when left active and trying to communicate with the graphics card to detect the connected screen(s) status(es). For realtime performance it can mean the difference between a buffer dropout and smoother performance.


----------



## chimuelo

Here are some ways to get back space on a 128gb SSD that houses OS + Apps.

1: Pagefile is default same as RAM. This means on a fresh install on a computer with 32GB RAM, the page file is 32GB. This is wasted space, adjust as you wish.
2: If you dont use hibernation, turn it off and delete the hidden hibernation file. Whoops, there is another 10-30GB.


----------



## AlexRuger

Lannister said:


> Never used OSX, but do people go to such lengths on that OS too? I only ever read about it with regard to Windows.


Nope. I use both and Windows takes far more to set up, even when you completely disregard the stuff being discussed in this thread. Nature of the beast.


----------



## Quasar

I've decided to stay on Win 7, but have purchased another SSD for the DAW PC, and plan to install Win 10 on this as an alternative boot, at which point I can load the drivers for the audio interface, install Reaper & a few VSTs etc., and see how everything goes in a sort of test environment. If and when it seems like a good idea, I can then port over everything, go through the reactivation stuff as necessary and move into the Win 10 environment properly. But not until it's clear that it won't create problems that I do not have now.

Since my DAW is always offline, I'm not particularly worried about the auto updates in 10. I do updates maybe once per year, and always have the drive imaged before doing so.


----------



## chimuelo

You might be surprised at the way your PC acts as soon as you put the LAN cable back in.
They say you get the option of upgrading but as soon as you see the "we are fixing your PC for you" it's safe to assume you are being "upgraded" as they only want to "help" you, since getting you into their Cloud is what's really the only thing in Windows 10 that's different in regards to music apps, etc.


----------



## JohnG

paaltio said:


> I don't turn off anything. Most of the "optimize Windows for audio" guides are outdated, and I've even seen some that are pure nonsense, so I would steer clear of them.



I don't want to pick on paaltio, but I have had the opposite experience, especially with my older, underpowered PCs. I just updated from Windows 7 to 10 on an Ancient PC

Idle CPU before (no tweaks): over 30%

Idle CPU after (with tweaks): low single digits (1% most of the time)


----------



## Tod

Hi all, I've read quite a few times, about having both Win-7 and Win-10 on your machine. If this is true, and basically how can it be done?

I was thinking that maybe just get another drive to put Win-10 on, but I haven't a clue how that would work?

I've got an i7-4790K with 16 gig of ram.


----------



## kitekrazy

Tod said:


> Hi all, I've read quite a few times, about having both Win-7 and Win-10 on your machine. If this is true, and basically how can it be done?
> 
> I was thinking that maybe just get another drive to put Win-10 on, but I haven't a clue how that would work?
> 
> I've got an i7-4790K with 16 gig of ram.



You have 30 days to revert back to 7. I did this once and it was fine. Make an image of both OS. You can always change back.


----------



## Kevin Fortin

Thanks for this thread! I'll make use of some of the tips here.


----------



## chimuelo

Here’s one that works in conjunction with Windows 8.1 and up.
Snapshots of RAM on powerdown has really sped up boot times.
This seems to speed up boot times, but powerdowns are damn near instantaneous now.
I use a SurgeX Rack for regulation and protection. So I always stood around for 30 seconds or so as I have to power down the Rack last.
Powerdown is liked greased Lightning now.

https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc938581.aspx


----------



## AKM

Here is quite comprehensive guide to performance optimization: google for "Glitch Free" (Cantabile, Brad Robinson)
Still planning to read it one day...

Added: sorry, can't post links yet due to forum settings.


----------



## CoffeeLover

JohnG said:


> I don't want to pick on paaltio, but I have had the opposite experience, especially with my older, underpowered PCs. I just updated from Windows 7 to 10 on an Ancient PC
> 
> Idle CPU before (no tweaks): over 30%
> 
> Idle CPU after (with tweaks): low single digits (1% most of the time)



Its kind of fun,right?
i personally dont tweak much as i did before when things were unstable
i make sure the memory profile in bios is not set to max 
and just go over the bios to see everything there is adjusted
and i do upgrade the motherboard bios always.
i leave windows alone except the power features

and if you say your system is old are you meaning old as in ddr2 period or ddr3? 
you might want to google "ddr3 memory vulnerabilities" if youre not aware, and this applies to ddr2 as well.

if i had 2 slaves and a master i think id make those 3 machines into client computers and set up a server/domain controller 
and from there i can take bit deeper dive into these 3 systems and i could have much more control than on a bare windows system.
no security apps in the background,could have kali and redhat linux set up on the domain controler in hyperV or virtual box and manage security from there and so on.
but i dont think ill be doing that unless it would be year 2012 but i think of these things all the time since i do a bit of administrating and networking 
ive stripped down many W10 systems for them to operate for one sole purpose depending on the need and even servers down to their shell/core when you only got command window to operate and no GUI,they become so damn efficient,so i am a bit curious to see how DAW would run with only what it needs?
with GUI ofcourse


----------



## CoffeeLover

AKM said:


> Here is quite comprehensive guide to performance optimization: google for "Glitch Free" (Cantabile, Brad Robinson)
> Still planning to read it one day...
> 
> Added: sorry, can't post links yet due to forum settings.



thank you
i was searching for this but never found it since i forgot the name of the man
thats a comprehensive guide for just digital audio 
i had the idea to create a powershell cmdlet for all that when i have the time,just for fun.


----------



## DAW PLUS

JohnG said:


> *SOME OF THESE THINGS ARE RISKY, LIKE BIOS STUFF!! *
> 
> If you don't know what you are doing with the BIOS you can wreck your computer.
> 
> *A. Tested system to see if I needed to bother (I did):*
> 
> Downloaded latencymon (seems to have been updated for Windows 10 based on what's on their site): http://www.resplendence.com/downloads
> 
> Basic fixes and interpreting results of Latencymon:
> 
> https://www.native-instruments.com/.../windows-78-tuning-tips-for-audio-processing/
> 
> *B. BIOS alterations -- remember, these are RISKY, especially turning off thermal throttling and other CPU protections*
> 
> 1. Updated BIOS (on my computers needed USB flash drive formatted for FAT):
> 
> 2. Turned off Speedstep
> 
> 3. Turned off Turbo boost / Advanced Turbo
> 
> 4. Turned off Thermal Throttling / CPU Thermal Throttling
> 
> 5. Turned off CPU C States Support and / or individual C-states related to CPU
> 
> 6. Disabled onboard audio from motherboard (I'm using separate audio card so don't need it)
> 
> 7. Turned off Isochronous whatever-it-is. I quote from an internet post: _"Isochronous refers to time-bound processes, such as synchronizing audio and video in a multimedia stream or ensuring that data is transferred across a network or data bus (like a northbridge or southbridge on a motherboard) with similar constraints. It prioritizes threads or calculations between the IOH and ICH. So basically, the more important tasks will be determined and executed in Isochronous Mode. So if it's enabled, it means time bound processes are given priority first while if it is off FIFO rule applies. I think all these "features' on the board are just marketing crap and don't really show any real world advantage or disadvantage. If you're OCing, best to keep it disabled!"_
> 
> 8. I checked the BIOS and the "Advanced CPU Features." The CPU Clock Ratio was set to 15, which yields a CPU speed of 2.00 GHz. I changed it to 23 (max is 24) and now the CPU Frequency is 3.06 GHz, approximately what it's rated.
> 
> 9. Turned off hyperthreading on at least one computer -- honestly can't remember if I did this on all of them.
> 
> 10. Chimuelo (if I understood him correctly) recommends turning off EIST


A very late reply, but I am not very active here:
I appreciate the effort of helping people, and I am convinced these settings work for you.
But I think most of these settings are wrong, aside from the fact that different motherboards behave different with such settings. But especially, switching off thermal throttling and manually changing the CPU clock ratio just like that both are very dangerous things to do, especially when doing them at the same time:
thermal throttling means that the CPU clocks down when the CPU reaches certain temperatures. This happens when it runs too hot. If it runs too hot, you WANT it to clock down, otherwise it can be damaged. You need to verify whether the thermal throttling feature kicks in on its bleeding edge (typically around 90°C) or earlier. When earlier, you may want to disable it, but rather make sure the system is properly cooled first. There are different throttling settings on some motherboards, and it pays off to know when they apply.

Rising the multiplier is the easiest overclock. But when doing this too high, without adjusting the voltage, you can easily turn your system in an overheating state or simply having it unstable, with sudden blue screens. Individual CPUs have different headroom for overclocking, some may easily offer 500MHz more while others, identical models, hardly manage a 200MHz overclock.


----------



## DAW PLUS

JohnG said:


> I don't want to pick on paaltio, but I have had the opposite experience, especially with my older, underpowered PCs. I just updated from Windows 7 to 10 on an Ancient PC
> 
> Idle CPU before (no tweaks): over 30%
> 
> Idle CPU after (with tweaks): low single digits (1% most of the time)


Necro-reply again: I suspect this is due to the power plan change, which is the most essential one.
I benchmarked an almost normal W10 (mainly power settings) vs one where all apps are uninstalled, background stuff disabled and all kinds of services which are not audio relevant. No difference. This was with v1709.

That does not mean W10 cannot be optimized, but the optimization is not in the background stuff and "unimportant services" which are idling anyway.


----------



## Sami

DAW PLUS said:


> Necro-reply again: I suspect this is due to the power plan change, which is the most essential one.
> I benchmarked an almost normal W10 (mainly power settings) vs one where all apps are uninstalled, background stuff disabled and all kinds of services which are not audio relevant. No difference. This was with v1709.
> 
> That does not mean W10 cannot be optimized, but the optimization is not in the background stuff and "unimportant services" which are idling anyway.


I have a very similar opinion to you and disagree somewhat with the proposed settings by the OP. Besides overclocking, enabling XMP and enabling the high performance power plan, there is little I would suggest the average user to do. I have not found disabling native CPU power management (outside features needed for overclocking) or OS power management to make any significant difference. I firmly believe that the impact of DAW optimisation (and ridiculousness such as MMCSS) is much larger than anything that can be offset by disabling C-states or SpeedStep.


----------



## DAW PLUS

Well, although C states don't mess up systems as they used to do, they can still be a mess. It depends on the motherboard & chipset. The logic in those settings is sometimes completely lost.


----------



## JohnG

DAW PLUS said:


> I suspect this is due to the power plan change, which is the most essential one.



I don't think that, in my case, the power plan change was the principal reason for the performance. Actually, turning off all the "background" apps that were automatically switched on in Windows 10 seemed to make a huge difference. The other thing that made an enormous difference was the C-state stuff which, at the time, was throttling back my CPU to half its rated speed.

That said, bear in mind that the initial post was made quite a while ago. Take one example: background apps. Last time I updated Windows, not all those background apps were on, though some were.

*Seems Like Voodoo*

Overall, you have to take all these suggestions with a huge dose of salt. For one thing, people often fail to mention important matters, such as -- they use the computer for gaming as well, or they have some proprietary network thing going on, or they have corporate anti-intrusion software, or whatever.

It also seems idiosyncratic -- as though different combinations of RAM or motherboards or what have you respond differently to such suggestions as turning on or turning off hyperthreading. For some people, an individual tweak improves things, while for others the same tweak does nothing, or even degrades performance.

I'm not using VE Pro's networking feature for midi, for example, because at the time I set everything up, years ago, VE Pro could only accommodate three computers.


----------



## DAW PLUS

Yes, it can be complicated and behave different on different system, also depending what version of Windows is being used.
I actually benched those background settings, but that indeed was last spring, so a very different version. HT always should be advantageous by approx. 25%. If not, typically the motherboard has an issue or a wrong BIOS setting - or a bug, like I once had, where setting RAM speed to automatic would cause HT to give poor performance. Setting it fixed would boost speed by 25%, as expected.
RAM speed itself is nothing to worry about, it is not a bottleneck.


----------



## JohnG

DAW PLUS said:


> it can be complicated and behave different on different system, also depending what version of Windows is being used.



you are correct about variability from system to system, at least from what I can discern.

We are overdue for revising this list of Windows 10 suggestions. Maybe you could have a go at it? you seem to know a lot.


----------



## DAW PLUS

JohnG said:


> you are correct about variability from system to system, at least from what I can discern.
> 
> We are overdue for revising this list of Windows 10 suggestions. Maybe you could have a go at it? you seem to know a lot.


As a system builder, I am tied to a contract so I cannot post suggestions. Most software and interface vendors have pretty decent tips. Avoid what Black Viper suggests, it literally brings nothing on modern systems, at least not for audio.


----------



## JohnG

DAW PLUS said:


> As a system builder, I am tied to a contract so I cannot post suggestions. Most software and interface vendors have pretty decent tips.



Understandable. If you have links to vendors whose advice you prefer, naturally that would be welcome.


----------



## Divico

I just got a huge improvement in my systems performance. Just installed this tool: https://bitsum.com/parkcontrol/ and oh boy this made a difference. I used to battle high interupt to process latency and long dropouts from time to time. My system is tweaked with almost everything I could find on line. To be honest I am surprised unparking cores in Windows changed something since I deactivated all C states and energy savers in my BIOS. Just had to share my joy 
UPDATE: I can now run much lower buffers. Total game changer

Another thing to consider is HPET. This is a high precision event timer. There seems to be no consistency in whether disabling it gives better performance or vice versa. In my case it seems to be better having it enabled.
https://www.ghacks.net/2013/04/18/try-changing-hpet-settings-to-improve-your-pcs-performance/


----------



## cqd

I'll go down through this thread this evening..just built an i9 gigabyte system, and I'm underwhelmed by it's performance..might be nvidia bcc card..been googling all week, never thought to check here..


----------



## Pudge

Great stuff.

USB Power saving settings is another one, didn't spot it on the list. 

Device Manager > Right Click on USB Device > Properties > Power Management and Unchecked "Allow this computer to turn off to save power"


----------



## Ben

cqd said:


> I'll go down through this thread this evening..just built an i9 gigabyte system, and I'm underwhelmed by it's performance..


What helped me most was disabling c-state and turbo-boost and every power-saving option in windows (+slight overclock).


----------



## JohnG

cqd said:


> just built an i9 gigabyte system, and I'm underwhelmed by it's performance..might be nvidia bcc card



I am using onboard (from motherboard) graphics instead of Nvidia. I hear Nvidia have improved their drivers, so you could try bird-dogging it with Latencymon (run at least 5-15 minutes with a sequence playing).

Or you could experiment: ditch the card for a different one / use onboard graphics and see how it does.

I have two i9 machines and they perform far better than what I had (including an i7-7700k, which was far from terrible).


----------



## Ben

If you use your iGPU, keep in mind that the CPU produces more heat and this could lower your performance / makes more noise. I use a GTX960 from MSI and have no big problems with it regarding latency.
If you measure your latency on Windows 10 use LatencyMon instead of DPC latency Checker.


----------



## JohnG

Ben said:


> If you use your iGPU, keep in mind that the CPU produces more heat and this could lower your performance / makes more noise. I use a GTX960 from MSI and have no big problems with it regarding latency.
> If you measure your latency on Windows 10 use LatencyMon instead of DPC latency Checker.



Hi Ben -- honestly, I doubt it makes much difference compared with the problems some GPU drivers produce. Since I substituted onboard graphics for the cards, it's night and day -- no comparison.

And good advice to use LatencyMon. Pretty sure there is actually a little guide on Native Instruments' website on how to use it to measure your system's performance.


----------



## cqd

JohnG said:


> I am using onboard (from motherboard) graphics instead of Nvidia. I hear Nvidia have improved their drivers, so you could try bird-dogging it with Latencymon (run at least 5-15 minutes with a sequence playing).
> 
> Or you could experiment: ditch the card for a different one / use onboard graphics and see how it does.
> 
> I have two i9 machines and they perform far better than what I had (including an i7-7700k, which was far from terrible).



I've been running latencymon, and it seems its the nvidea driver that's the worst offender anyway..new card should be with me within a day or two..


----------



## AllanH

For whatever reason, Windows superfetch suddenly started interfering two days ago spiking CPU and disk I/O on projects that otherwise had been running fine. I turned off the service. 

This affected projects on Cubase 10. My guess is that Kontakt, Play, and Cubase do this on their own anyway.


----------



## sean8877

The Cantabile developer Brad has a free e-book on how to optimize windows for audio:

https://www.cantabilesoftware.com/glitchfree/


----------



## Divico

I just discovered a really helpful advanced tweak that helped me getting lower latency and better performance. The deal is to set Interrupt priority in the registry, since graphic cards like to fight with your audio interface.
http://www.sensomusic.org/forums/viewtopic.php?id=2463 (Im a link)


----------



## brenneisen

Divico said:


> Im a link



are you on W10?


----------



## Ben

Divico said:


> I just discovered a really helpful advanced tweak that helped me getting lower latency and better performance. The deal is to set Interrupt priority in the registry, since graphic cards like to fight with your audio interface.
> http://www.sensomusic.org/forums/viewtopic.php?id=2463 (Im a link)



These "hacks" are from 2010! I would not recommend to use these on Windows 8 or above. And not for any modern CPU.
If you don't have any Firewire device, it is not useful to prioritize it.
Also you should not give more CPU time to foreground applications, because you will take the CPU time from the drivers that must deliver the next buffer to the audio output hardware. It may have made sense back in 2010, but with modern CPUs this is a bad idea.


----------



## CoffeeLover

i spent 250 bucks on WIN10 EnterpriseLTSC Licence.
i asked on the forum if anybody had experience but i got no reply. i took a jump and asked myself why i didnt do this before. i got more CPU power now not alot but still enough and the whole system feels lot more snappier. there are NO!! automatic updates!!. updates are delivered on a 2-3 year basis and only once. there are no apps installed its nothing but the windows operating system utterly naked without bleebs and bloatware and it feels like i am on what Win7 used to be. 
there is almost nothing i need to turn on or off. 
its heaven here!
i recomend LTSC for turning of everything. 
and you have to wipe out your os drive and reinstal everything cos it cant be upgraded from pro.


----------



## Divico

Ben said:


> These "hacks" are from 2010! I would not recommend to use these on Windows 8 or above. And not for any modern CPU.
> If you don't have any Firewire device, it is not useful to prioritize it.
> Also you should not give more CPU time to foreground applications, because you will take the CPU time from the drivers that must deliver the next buffer to the audio output hardware. It may have made sense back in 2010, but with modern CPUs this is a bad idea.


Good advice. I would definetly not recommend this as do by default tweak but rather if you are frustrated try it.
In my case it helped but I am on Windows 7 and use a firewire card (Sapphire Pro40)!
Also my graphic card is old (Radeon HD5830), so this may cause problems as well.
As to the foreground priority. There seems to be a mistake in the post. The value he states is not boosting foreground application but rather is the same as setting priority to background in the normal system setttings.

*Win32PrioritySeparation* DWORD

*2* = Default (same as programs)
*26* (hex) or *38* (dec) = Programs
*18* (hex) or *24* (dec) = Background services


----------



## Omji

Among various software I have tried to boost my audio production performance in Windows 10, the most efficient has been System Mechanic by Iolo.

It adds an extra option to the Power Options called Ultra Performance, that can be specifically set to audio production mode.

It has made a very noticeable improvement in my DAW performance!

So, if you feel that some extra boost is needed, that is a highly recommended option.


----------



## Ben

These are just some power/performance settings you can set on your own in the advanced power management settings. I'm sure you will also find the correct settings in this thread.


----------



## DAW PLUS

CoffeeLover said:


> i spent 250 bucks on WIN10 EnterpriseLTSC Licence.
> i asked on the forum if anybody had experience but i got no reply. i took a jump and asked myself why i didnt do this before. i got more CPU power now not alot but still enough and the whole system feels lot more snappier. there are NO!! automatic updates!!. updates are delivered on a 2-3 year basis and only once. there are no apps installed its nothing but the windows operating system utterly naked without bleebs and bloatware and it feels like i am on what Win7 used to be.
> there is almost nothing i need to turn on or off.
> its heaven here!
> i recomend LTSC for turning of everything.
> and you have to wipe out your os drive and reinstal everything cos it cant be upgraded from pro.


LTSC certainly is a solutio, but it is a set and forget license. Any upgrade means a new license.
Also, applications which have a current W10 as a prerequisite, such as Cubase 10, officially don't support these versions.
AFAIK you will not be able to run Adobe Cloud at all on it, as it will want the latest W10 incarnation.


----------



## Mystic

Tha lack of updating on LTSC is great for offline systems but anything online I wouldn't risk it because of the amount of 0-Day exploits that come out and require patched. This is especially true if visiting websites that may run malicious scripts without the owner of said site even knowing the scripts are on there.


----------



## CoffeeLover

both Mystic and Dawplus are right.
i was thinking of using the windows server but i went with this choice

its offline all the time
cubase 10 might not be supported but i havent had issues yet
i use it only for creating music and nothing else is being done in it.
no cloud although i do have my own cloud with my synology router i use for sharing
the router has decent security features for web browsing 
that i use with other devices for the internet,phone,laptop.
i might hook it up with my cloud through the local network at some point.
and of course there can always come issues .
at least the experience has been very good so far.


----------



## pisskeule

Here's a screen cap of the services active on my system. Please note that the machine is air gapped, hence this might not be for everyone.

Note that the list is truncated but shows everything nonetheless. Further tweaks render a DPC latency of <20 according to LatencyMon


----------



## John Longley

My advice would be that c state and power scaling is cpu specific, or at least socket specific. Ryzen constantly scales and it's thermal performance is more like a modern GPU. On an Intel chip it's usually a no brainer. 

I think these days all you really need to do all of the time is adjust your power plan, disable sleep options on drives and peripherals and disable auto updates if in Pro. 

For better or worse, Win 10 is mostly solid and I've not found magic bullet in current times.


----------



## merlinhimself

does anyone know with disabling c-state and other power saving features, are there any dangers to be aware of? such as hibernating the pc etc. My last PC i turned them all off, and basically put the computer to sleep every night. My CPU died after about 4 months. Now I either shut off or leave on, but was always curious if the sleep mode is what did it.


----------



## JohnG

merlinhimself said:


> does anyone know with disabling c-state and other power saving features, are there any dangers to be aware of? such as hibernating the pc etc. My last PC i turned them all off, and basically put the computer to sleep every night. My CPU died after about 4 months. Now I either shut off or leave on, but was always curious if the sleep mode is what did it.



? IDK about what happened with your computer. 

I turn off C-states on all PCs for music and they've been running that way for a long time. That's not the same as turning off every safety feature that prevents overheating, but the C-states are a power-saving gambit, so we don't want that.


----------



## merlinhimself

JohnG said:


> ? IDK about what happened with your computer.
> 
> I turn off C-states on all PCs for music and they've been running that way for a long time. That's not the same as turning off every safety feature that prevents overheating, but the C-states are a power-saving gambit, so we don't want that.



It may have been a freak thing that happened, never really got to the bottom of it but have always been paranoid about my PC since then haha. I guess I meant that during sleep mode, the PC is put into a low power mode, so does C-State have anything to do with keeping it stable then?


----------



## JohnG

merlinhimself said:


> It may have been a freak thing that happened, never really got to the bottom of it but have always been paranoid about my PC since then haha. I guess I meant that during sleep mode, the PC is put into a low power mode, so does C-State have anything to do with keeping it stable then?



I'm no expert. you could probably find out more in ten seconds on Wikipedia than I know.

I do turn them off, however. There's a lot of power management, in the Bios and elsewhere, that we don't want for what we do. If you're managing a big spreadsheet or video where you can have a buffer then that's fine -- then managing power makes sense.

I put solar panels on the roof to assuage my guilt at using all this power and go all the way.


----------



## Ben

merlinhimself said:


> so does C-State have anything to do with keeping it stable then?











ACPI - Wikipedia







en.wikipedia.org





No it has not. It turns parts of the core off, to save power. This is a really usefull feature for notebooks and office computer to save energy. But it is a killer for real-time audio, because the core needs a few cycles to wake up from a low-power state.
Audio workloads are also very variable in load, so worst case the cores of the your CPU cycle through the power states and burn cycles that no longer are able to compute audio information, leading to delays and worst case pops and clicks.


----------



## kitekrazy

merlinhimself said:


> does anyone know with disabling c-state and other power saving features, are there any dangers to be aware of? such as hibernating the pc etc. My last PC i turned them all off, and basically put the computer to sleep every night. *My CPU died after about 4 months.* Now I either shut off or leave on, but was always curious if the sleep mode is what did it.



That's odd. It was probably defective. Sleep mode is useless for desktops. I just turn mine off. Electricity is expensive where I live.


----------



## chimuelo

Just found out my Windows 10 PCs need to check in with mommy (M$oft) every week, and go online so Windows 10 can see the ISP is connected.

Haven’t updated or been online Since Kontakt 6.

Seems Windows starts seeking files in the background and can use 20-30% of your CPU as it seeks certain data it can’t find.

Thought maybe my i7 needed to be replaced or just update the whole PC. I beat these PCs up programming, practicing, rehearsing and performing night and day.

This comes from a reputable software engineer and IT pro.
Tested with high polyphony and no more pops and cracks.
Very few but never had this before. Glad he told me which updates to pick.
I’m way behind, but rather than use the latest take 1 step at a time for the next several weeks.

then hook up once a week. Even if no updates are there the connection to mommy seems to soothe the beast.


----------



## JohnG

chimuelo said:


> Seems Windows starts seeking files in the background and can use 20-30% of your CPU as it seeks certain data it can’t find.



OMG


----------



## URL

Could it be possible to switch off the Mommy thing in Win10 in Gpedit?
I switch off for ex. virus protec. in Gpedit


----------



## Ben

chimuelo said:


> Seems Windows starts seeking files in the background and can use 20-30% of your CPU as it seeks certain data it can’t find.


Have you tried disabling the file-indexing for all drives?
Also pausing all Cloud storeage services (OneDrive, DropBox, ...) during working with audio helps a lot.


----------



## chimuelo

I’ll ask him since he’s the chap who designed my integration software.
For now I know this is an easy fix just by plugging it in weekly.

Reminds me of the Mexican Avacados.

When you make the Guacamole dip it lasts a long time and stays fresh and green as long as the Seed is with the Dip.
Take away the Seed and the Guacamole goes brown. 
My Grandma called the seed the baby.

I asked him if monthly would be okay because I travel for weeks sometimes.
He said weekly.


----------



## Rob Elliott

chimuelo said:


> Just found out my Windows 10 PCs need to check in with mommy (M$oft) every week, and go online so Windows 10 can see the ISP is connected.
> 
> Haven’t updated or been online Since Kontakt 6.
> 
> Seems Windows starts seeking files in the background and can use 20-30% of your CPU as it seeks certain data it can’t find.
> 
> Thought maybe my i7 needed to be replaced or just update the whole PC. I beat these PCs up programming, practicing, rehearsing and performing night and day.
> 
> This comes from a reputable software engineer and IT pro.
> Tested with high polyphony and no more pops and cracks.
> Very few but never had this before. Glad he told me which updates to pick.
> I’m way behind, but rather than use the latest take 1 step at a time for the next several weeks.
> 
> then hook up once a week. Even if no updates are there the connection to mommy seems to soothe the beast.



Sorry if I am missing the recommendation but do we leave our PC's (4 in my case) disconnected from the internet and THEN once a week reconnect to get updates (then disconnect again until 7 days)? Repeat and Rinse.


----------



## Tod

I have a duel boot system with both Win-10 and Win-7. I use Win-7 all the time so I don't open Win-10 except occasionally.

To make a long story short, my Win-10 password is always old and out of date, so I'm forced to make a new one. Is there a way to turn that off? 

In fact I would rather have it so that I don't need a password at all, is there a way to do that?


----------



## chimuelo

Rob Elliott said:


> Sorry if I am missing the recommendation but do we leave our PC's (4 in my case) disconnected from the internet and THEN once a week reconnect to get updates (then disconnect again until 7 days)? Repeat and Rinse.



So it seems. I never noticed until recently, called the GuRu and after a few questions he explained what might be the problem.

In my case he was right as I run high polyphony and never had any issues. Thought I heard slight distortions at first, but they grew into cracks and pops.
Re connected via ISP #2 and then re tested and for 2 days now it’s back to new.

And thanks Brotha’ Man Tod. I’m going to do dual boots on my 7 and 8.1 rigs at the first sign of software obsolescence. NI’s recent Legacy announcement was a shot across the bow. I’m sure it’s a snapshot of things to come.


----------



## Tod

chimuelo said:


> And thanks Brotha’ Man Tod. I’m going to do dual boots on my 7 and 8.1 rigs at the first sign of software obsolescence. NI’s recent Legacy announcement was a shot across the bow. I’m sure it’s a snapshot of things to come.



Hi chimuelo, I setup my dual boot back when they first came out with the free Win-10. I knew the day would come.

I've got both my Win-7 pro & Win-10 pro on separate SSD drives.


----------



## I like music

Holy mother of THOR! I am SO glad I checked this thread. I put my sample drive into exclusion from Windows defender.

My template load time went from 13 minutes to 3 minutes. 

I do not think my wife understands why I'm so happy. So I'm hoping you can celebrate with me...!


----------



## chimuelo

Best news I heard all week Mr. I like Music.....

Yeah, separate Storage devices and Dual boot is something I’ll run by my techie friend and see what he thinks.
He hated Windows for years but it was in between 95 and 8.1 that chapped his ass. He actually loves Windows 10 after he disables the excess gunk.

No IRQ sharing issues, lots of great benefits after a tortuous roll out.
I remember many friends doing the “free” upgrade that froze @ 99%....

One guy borrowed my Gigastudio DAW, an old Supermicro P4SCT+II with a 3.4GHz Northwood since it was strings, EPianos, brass and Grand Pianos.
He now has a spare or two.

Stay Safe Gents..


----------



## SchnookyPants

I like music said:


> Holy mother of THOR! I am SO glad I checked this thread. I put my sample drive into exclusion from Windows defender.
> 
> My template load time went from 13 minutes to 3 minutes.
> 
> I do not think my wife understands why I'm so happy. So I'm hoping you can celebrate with me...!


Just tell her it's _Her!_

(from a man married 50+)


----------



## Vtech

I use Linux for internet and daily computing, but had to install W10 in studio dedicated PC, after running W7 for several years, due to the requirements of new libraries.
I've never seen such bloated piece of software, having so many mostly useless (for me) apps and features. Xbox? Seriously?
This PC is permanently off line (with rare exceptions, like activating or updating a library) for safety reasons and all transmission in and out has been blocked by Tiny Wall
Additionally, I installed W10Privacy and either removed or blocked everything what I considered intrusive or just useless and there is a lot of garbage to throw out in W10.
I have everything up to date and no need for any more updates, especially from Microsoft, so they are all turned off.
If I download anything, it is done on Linux, tested on spare PC, which has identical working environment to my studio PC and then transfered over to it.


----------



## cqd

Check out the windows 10 debloater..it's a script you run in powershell and it deletes all the crap..When you get rid of said crap, win 10 is very like win 7..Well, mine is anyway..filetree? comes in handy to track down anything taking up space..
I find it grand..My machine is online a bit, and clean as a whistle really..


----------



## Vtech

cqd said:


> Check out the windows 10 debloater..it's a script you run in powershell and it deletes all the crap..When you get rid of said crap, win 10 is very like win 7..Well, mine is anyway..filetree? comes in handy to track down anything taking up space..
> I find it grand..My machine is online a bit, and clean as a whistle really..


It would be fine when used upon fresh W10 installation, with nothing in it yet, but I have everything set up, running and don't want to mess things up. 

Thanks


----------



## tuantranaudio

hello, what about the Turbo Boost Max 3.0 and SpeedShift? on or off?


----------



## David Enos

Audio Birdi said:


> Make sure your sample drives are excluded from Windows Defender within settings. Your samples will load slowly otherwise. I scratched my head over this for a while and then realised later. Since Microsoft Security Essentials and Defender are both integrated into Windows 10 now.


How do you do this Audio Bird?


----------



## Omji

David Enos said:


> How do you do this Audio Bird?


In fact, if you have any Anti-virus (which would be the wise choice), then Windows Defender does not interfere.

In that case, just go to the settings of your anti-virus, and there must be an option to "exclude folders from scanning", or equivalent.

Simply add the folders you dont want to be scanned.
This should include:
1. Your VST3 folder (usually in Program Files/Common Files/VST3)
2. Your VST2 folder (normally in Program Files/VSTPlugins)
3. Your Kontakt folder (Program Files/Common files/Native Instruments). This will make a huge difference every time that you load Kontakt!
4. And lastly, the folders where you have placed your Kontakt libraries.

Namaskar!


----------



## David Enos

Omji said:


> In fact, if you have any Anti-virus (which would be the wise choice), then Windows Defender does not interfere.
> 
> In that case, just go to the settings of your anti-virus, and there must be an option to "exclude folders from scanning", or equivalent.
> 
> Simply add the folders you dont want to be scanned.
> This should include:
> 1. Your VST3 folder (usually in Program Files/Common Files/VST3)
> 2. Your VST2 folder (normally in Program Files/VSTPlugins)
> 3. Your Kontakt folder (Program Files/Common files/Native Instruments). This will make a huge difference every time that you load Kontakt!
> 4. And lastly, the folders where you have placed your Kontakt libraries.
> 
> Namaskar!


This is awesome, thank you Audio Bird!


----------



## Rob Elliott

Omji said:


> In fact, if you have any Anti-virus (which would be the wise choice), then Windows Defender does not interfere.
> 
> In that case, just go to the settings of your anti-virus, and there must be an option to "exclude folders from scanning", or equivalent.
> 
> Simply add the folders you dont want to be scanned.
> This should include:
> 1. Your VST3 folder (usually in Program Files/Common Files/VST3)
> 2. Your VST2 folder (normally in Program Files/VSTPlugins)
> 3. Your Kontakt folder (Program Files/Common files/Native Instruments). This will make a huge difference every time that you load Kontakt!
> 4. And lastly, the folders where you have placed your Kontakt libraries.
> 
> Namaskar!


Thank you Audio Bird. I have had drives 'excluded' for years but never thought to exclude the VST and VST3 plugin folders. Seem breezier on open of project(s).


----------



## dzilizzi

This is when I realize I have VSTs in too many places. And I forgot Kontakt is in a separate place. But thanks for reminding me to do this.


----------



## tressie5

When I get ready to fire Cubase up, I do the following things:
1. Turn off the internet.
2. Use Wise Memory Optimizer. It brings my CPU usage from 25% to around 18%.


----------



## Lannister

Not sure if it's been posted, but,

https://devblogs.microsoft.com/windows-music-dev/author/petebrown/

this is the only "tweak" guide I follow, aside from adding my DAW .exe as a process exclusion within windows "Virus & Threat Protection" setting. Adding the .exe as an "Process" rather than a "File" means that any files that the .exe "touches", for lack of a better term, is also excluded from scanning. So kontakt etc sample files.


----------



## Rob Elliott

Lannister said:


> Not sure if it's been posted, but,
> 
> https://devblogs.microsoft.com/windows-music-dev/author/petebrown/
> 
> this is the only "tweak" guide I follow, aside from adding my DAW .exe as a process exclusion within windows "Virus & Threat Protection" setting. Adding the .exe as an "Process" rather than a "File" means that any files that the .exe "touches", for lack of a better term, is also excluded from scanning. So kontakt etc sample files.


Excellent post. I hadn't consider this. One novice question - when w10 asks to 'enter process name' - can you tell me what to enter there? Thanks in advance.


----------



## RobbertZH

On my new PC, I had external drives (non-SSD) and after a while I heard those drives continuously spinning. And when I started the task manager, I saw there was indeed continuous access on multiple drives (including my C drive which I did not hear as it is an SSD, but also my external drives). But sadly, the task manager only pinpointed general/shared Windows DLLs as the culprit.

Ofcourse this had a negative effect on the performance of my computer (and thus music making applications).

I found out that among others:
a) my computer was scanned for (only) multi-media files (photos, audio files, video files, etc)
b) to enable fast-search, Windows has an indexing process that scans all files on all drives (this is a different process than that for a)
c) there was also a file synchronization taking place to the cloud (Microsoft OneDrive) (which I never have said that should take place)

These are three separate processes that did scan my terabyte big drives.
And this is also separate from any anti-virus program.

You can disable all three processes (among others in the Services), but I needed much time to figure things out, as the windows Task Manager was so un-helpfull by just showing general/shared Windows DLL's.


----------



## Lannister

Rob Elliott said:


> Excellent post. I hadn't consider this. One novice question - when w10 asks to 'enter process name' - can you tell me what to enter there? Thanks in advance.


It depends on which DAW you use, and what the .exe is called. For example, for Cubase 12 it's "Cubase12.exe.", if it's REAPER then it's "reaper.exe". The easiest way to find the executable name is to, 1). know which DAW you're using, and 2) find the executable (.exe) in the Task Manager.


----------



## Rob Elliott

Ok thanks - I am on Cubase 11. I'll look in the task mgr. I don't see 'file extensions' in my folders though (prolly have to turn that 'on')


----------



## Lannister

Rob Elliott said:


> Ok thanks - I am on Cubase 11. I'll look in the task mgr. I don't see 'file extensions' in my folders though (prolly have to turn that 'on')


Yeah I always turn that on. For cubase 11 the .exe is called "cubase11.exe".


----------



## Rob Elliott

Lannister said:


> Yeah I always turn that on. For cubase 11 the .exe is called "cubase11.exe".


Thanks for that. I have VEPRO over 4 puters. I wonder if adding that .exe for VEPRO 7 would be a good idea?


----------



## Lannister

Rob Elliott said:


> Thanks for that. I have VEPRO over 4 puters. I wonder if adding that .exe for VEPRO 7 would be a good idea?


I don't have VEPro but I would think it would benefit, as any samples loaded inside VEPro by plugins wouldn't be scanned.


----------

