Before you start – a clean install is favoured, not necessary.
A second hard drive is also recommended.
1 for operating system.
1 for audio files.
I’ll update this one as I go.
If it’s possible do not use PC for internet. And only install Music Software.
If that’s not possible then follow the next steps.
1> If you have wireless turn that off while using Audio software. It can interfere with your sound.
2> Disconnect from internet while using software and shut down anything running in the background that doesn’t need to be running.
3> Disable Automatic Updates>>>
To turn it off completely and for good do as follows:
a. Go into Control Panel > Administrative Tools > Services.
b. Highlight the service called “Automatic Updates”. You will know when you have the correct one because you will see a description about it telling you what it does.
c. Right click once highlighted and click stop to terminate the service.
d. Right click on it again and go to Properties. Half way down the first tab there is “Startup Type:” change this to disabled.
4. Slim down your operating processes.
a. Get rid of that picture of your ‘cat wearing aspiderman outfit’ that sits on your desktop background.
b. Change all the poncy doobries – go to start at the bottom of your screen and ‘RIGHT’ click – goto ‘PROPERTIES’ and click choose ‘CLASSIC START MENU’
c. Right click in a space on the desktop click ‘PROPERTIES’ choose In the tab ‘THEMES’ choose ‘classic windows‘ theme in the drop down menu. Click ‘APPLY’ Button, But Don’t shut it down yet.
d. Click the tab ‘DESKTOP’ in background list – choose ‘none‘ Click ‘APPLY’
e. Click the tab ‘Screen Saver’ in list choose ‘none‘ Click ‘APPLY’
You can shut it down now Click ‘OK’
5> Goto ‘CONTROL PANEL’ – Start – Settings – Control Panel
Find ‘SYSTEM’ double click.
Click ‘ADVANCED’ tab
In ‘Performance‘ click ‘SETTINGS’ button.
Choose ‘Adjust for best performance’ Click ‘APPLY’ button.
Click ‘OK’ to exit.
6. Under Start > Control Panel > System, select the Advanced tab.
From there under ‘Performance’ click the settings button.
Hit the ‘Advanced’ tab.
Under Processor Scheduling, select “Background services” –
Select “Programs” under Memory Usage to ensure that enough RAM gets allocated to your applications.
While your there you can add another tweak,
Under ‘Virtual Memory’ – click ‘Change’
Two tweak options here, ‘no paging file’ – or ‘Custom Size’ –
I prefer to have none.
If you wish to keep it make sure each box under custom size has double the size of your installed ram.
7. Start > Control Panel > Power Options. Under Power Schemes, select, in order:
“Always On,” “Never,” “Never,” “Never.” Also make sure that “Hibernate” is unchecked.
8. Hopefully you do not want to use the internet for your DAW – if that is the case you can disable all windows intenet doobries, like firewall and defender. You can also forget about installing anti virus.
(Look I know seems a bit dodgy, but think about it – if this is soley for music use then you can do without it. Any files brought to the system must be scanned elsewhere – the internet is like a kid at school with head lice – nice kid, just unfortunately attarcts bugs)
Just make sure any software or files loaded into the DAW have been scanned eleswhere.
Turn firewall off – Start > Control Panel > Windows Firewall -turn off
9. DMA – Direct Memory Access – is a way of accessing disk data – it’s fast and best and recommended for audio.
Right-click on My Computer and selecting “Manage” and then “Device Manager.”
Select the “+” next to IDE ATA/ATAPI controllers.
Right-click Primary IDE Channel and select “Properties.”
Advanced Settings tab,
make sure that the Transfer Mode is set to “DMA if available” for both Device 0 and Device 1.
Press “OK.” Repeat these steps for the Seconday IDE Channel.
10. Write caching, or write-behind caching, disabling this enables direct to disk writing – which will help smoothness –
Right-click on My Computer
Select “Manage” and then “Device Manager.”
Click on the “+” next to “Disk Drives.”
Right-click on a drive and choose “Properties,”
then “Policies.”
Uncheck the box that says “Enable write caching…”
and press “OK.”
Repeat this for all of your hard drives.
11.
The problem with Windows is it pre-loads applications and services from installed programs and deposits icons in the system tray. Theoretically this is supposed goal both decrease load times and provide easy access.
These partially loaded applications are a drain on the CPU.
Disabling them will help Windows allocate more resources to running applications.
Also Windows will also load faster
To disable these applications from loading on startup, you will need to do the following,
(Take care and follow the instructions carefully – this is where it can go wrong – if you are unsure then find someone who is)
Click Start > Run, type in msconfig
Press OK.
When the System Configuration Utility comes up, click on the Startup tab.
Press the button to “Disable All.”
Click on the Services tab.
Check the box at the bottom of the window to “Hide All Microsoft Services.”
Press the “Disable All” button, but only AFTER hiding the microsoft services.
Press “OK,” then “Restart.”
When Windows boots back up,
check the box next to “Don’t show this message…” and then press “OK.”
Pro Tools users must now re-check “MMERefresh” in the Startup tab and “Digidesign MME Refresh Service” in the Services tab. GigaStudio users must check “msg32” in the Startup tab, even if GigaStudio was installed and then uninstalled later.