WinXP: The PARIS Wiki

Revision [770]

This is an old revision of WinXP made by admin on 2008-04-14 16:15:10.

Windows XP

Windows XP drivers were an initiative of Chuck Duffy's "ChunkWorks". The drivers themselves were written by ChrisThoman Chris Thoman. They are not officially supported, but many users report them stable and working well.

Advantages: the most modern OS Paris can run on - the advantages and features of a modern OS, including access to large array of new plugins.

Disadvantages: "tweak" to the setup; potential difficulties with WinXpAdat multiple ADAT i/o modules (8 - in and 8 - out of lightpipe); WinXpAdat see here for proposed workaround.

Chris Thoman has also benchmarked the comparative performance of PcDriveFormat NTFS and FAT32 formatted audio drives under Windows XP.

JohnBercik John Bercik has made copious notes on Windows XP tweaking for PARIS.

INSTALL:

run the setup app to install the scherzo drivers

reboot

install Paris

reboot

install the effects subsystem

reboot.

TWEAK:

musicxp.net tips

Processor Scheduling for Background Services
Visual Effects for best performance
Switch Off Desktop Background Image
Disable Screen Saver
Disable Fast User Switching
Switch Off Power Schemes
Switch Off Hibernation
Disable System Sounds
Do Not Map Through Soundcard
Disable System Restore
Disable Automatic Updates
Startup and Recovery Options
Disable Error Reporting
Disable Remote Assistance
Fixed Swap File (Virtual Memory)
Speed up Menus
Disable Offline Files
Disable Remote Desktop
Disable Internet Synchronise Time
Disable Hide Inactive Icons
Disable Automatic Desktop Cleanup Wizard
Disable NTFS Last Access Time Logging (NTFS Only)
Disable Notification Area Balloon Tips
Disable CDROM Autoplay
Disable Disc Indexing

Additional tips

2 audio Partitions
Use NTFS drives with 64k clusters
In BIOS disable USB, LPT1, Serial port
Remove Messenger
Classic Mode
Classic Start Menu
Power Schemes: you can have the monitor turn off but set Turn Hard Drives off to NEVER
Disable the Computer Browser in Services to improve mapped drive browsing.
Disable your network card by right clicking on the nic icon
Defrag regularly
Keep your desktop clean
No wallpapers
Set video to highest color depth
Increase your IRQ priority
Disable Power Management
Set graphic acceleration to full
Disable background applications
Disable USB
Graphical window settings
Disable NTFS Last Access Time Logging (NTFS Only)
Maker sure DMA mode is enabled on drives

Restart your machine at this point in time. When you come back the first thing you should do is defrag the main drive even if it doesn't say it needs it. This way the swap file has been truly set and you're ready to continue.

Processor scheduling should be set to background services and not Programs.

Start > Settings > Control Panel > System > Advanced > Performance Settings > Advanced Tab > Background Services

Advanced tab: Press Settings tab under Performance Visual Effects tab: set to Adjust for Best Performance.

Switch Off Desktop Background Image

Right Click Desktop > Properties > Desktop Tab > Background None

Screensaver Off

Click on the Screen Saver tab, Set Screensaver to None, Press the Power button near the bottom

Disable Fast User Switching

Start > Settings > Control Panel > User Accounts > Change the way users log on or off > Untick Use Fast User Switching

Switch Off Power Schemes

Start > Settings > Control Panel > Power Options > Always On > Turn off monitor and turn off hard discs to Never

Switch Off Hibernation

Start > Settings > Control Panel > Power Options > Hibernate > Untick Hibernation

Disable System Sounds
Start > Settings > Control Panel > Sounds and Audio Devices > Sounds Tab > Sound Scheme to None.

Do Not Map Through Soundcard

Start > Settings > Control Panel > Sounds and Audio Devices > Hardware Tab > (highlight your soundcard from the list) > Properties > Audio Devices > (highlight your soundcard from the list) > Properties, and check the "Do not map through this device" checkbox.

Disable System Restore

Start > Settings > Control Panel> System > System Restore Tab. Tick the "Turn off System Restore on all Drives"

Disable Automatic Updates

Switch off Automatic Updates by going to Control Panel, System, Automatic Updates and ticking the box labelled "Turn off automatic updating. I want to update my computer manually."

Startup and Recovery Options

Right click My Computer and click on Properties > Advanced > Start Up & Recovery Settings and uncheck "Automatically Restart".

Disable Error Reporting

Start > Settings > Control Panel > System > Advanced TAB > Error Reporting > Click the Disable Error Reporting box (Tick the "But Notify Me When Critical Errors Occur" if you prefer)

Disable Remote Assistance
Start > Settings > Control Panel > System > Remote > Untick "Allow Remote Assistance Invitations to be sent from this computer"

Disable Remote Desktop

Start > Settings > Control Panel > System > Remote > Untick "Allow users to connect remotely to this computer"

Fixed Swap File (Virtual Memory)

Select the Advanced tab of the Systems applet and then select the Performance settings button. Then select the Advanced page. In here it is possible to customise the Virtual Memory. For custom size, this is often recommended to be 1.5 to 2 times the amount of your total RAM for both initial and maximum size. Set this to a fixed minimum and maximum value according to your existing RAM

Speed Up Menus

You can use this tip to speed up the Start Menu in Windows XP. You can customize the speed of the Start Menu by editing a Registry Key. Click Start, and then click Run. Type Regedit in the box, and then click OK. Expand the menu in the left panel and select the HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop folder. Scroll down in the right panel and double click on the MenuShowDelay file. In the Value Data box, change to default value for the menu speed from 400 to a lesser number, such as 1. Click OK.

Disable Offline Files

Start > Settings > Control Panel > Folder Options > Offline Files > Untick "Enable Offline Files"

Disable Internet Synchronise Time

Start > Settings > Control Panel > Date and Time > Internet Time > Untick "Automatically synchronize with an internet time server"

Disable Hide Inactive Icons

Start > Settings > Taskbar and Start Menu > Taskbar TAB > Uncheck "Hide Inactive Icons"

Disable Automatic Desktop Cleanup Wizard

Start > Settings > Control Panel > Display > Desktop > Customise Desktop > Untick "Run Desktop Cleanup Wizard every 60 days"

Disable NTFS Last Access Time Logging (NTFS Only)

Start > Run > regedit > HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE > SYSTEM > CURRENTCONTROLSET > CONTROL > FILESYSTEM Add a new DWORD value - "NtfsDisableLastAccessUpdate" (without quotes) and set the value to 1. Then reboot to make changes effective

Disable Notification Area Balloon Tips

Click Start , click Run , type regedit , and then press ENTER. HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\ CurrentVersion\Explorer\Advanced Right-click the right pane, create a new DWORD value, and then name it EnableBalloonTips . Double-click this new entry, and then give it a hexadecimal value of 0 . Quit Registry Editor. Log off Windows, and then log back on.

Disable CDROM Autoplay

One of the very important (and well documented) tweaks in Windows 98SE, was to disable CDROM autoplay (auto insert notification). Disabling CDROM autoplay no longer offers a significant performance benefit in Windows XP, and therefore you do not need to disable it. Just don't insert a CD during a crucial recording. However, if you really want to disable it then here a few different methods.

Method 1

Start > Run > Regedit

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\Cdrom

Set autorun to 0.

Method 2

Open My Computer Right Click on each CDROM and choose Properties

Click on the Auto Play tab In the drop down box; you can choose the Action for each choice shown in the drop down box

Method 3

Go to Start->Run->gpedit.msc Computer Config -> Administrative Template -> System

Double click Turn off Autoplay Enable it.

Disable Disc Indexing

Indexing Service is a service that extracts the information from a set of documents and organizes it in a way that makes it quick and easy to access that information through the Windows XP Search function, the Indexing Service query form, or a Web browser.

This information can include text from within a document, (its contents), and the characteristics and parameters of the document, (its properties), such as the author's name. Once the index is created, you can search, or query the index for documents that contain key words, phrases, or properties.

Additional tips Descriptions

Partitioning. A useful tip when configuring your audio disc, is to split this into two partitions. Set up a smaller "audio scratch" partition - say 6GB of a 30GB hard disc. This partition will be used for the songs that you are currently working on. The benefit of a smaller partition is obviously quicker defragmentation. If you use the entire 30GB as one partition, then this will take ages to defragment. When you are finished with a song, transfer the audio files to the non-scratch partition, where disc I/O performance isn't so critical.

Messenger starts up at the windows load up but we can get rid of that in no time at all..
Start Menu>Run
Type this in exactly as it is here:
RunDll32 advpack.dll,LaunchINFSection %windir%\INF\msmsgs.inf,BLC.Remove
Hit Enter...you will see a DOS-like shell appear and disappear very quickly and then it will ask you to restart.

Right-click on your desktop, and then click Properties.
Click on Themes tab
Set Themes to Windows Classic

Also do this for the Start Menu:
Right-click the Start button, and then click Properties.
Click Classic Start menu.
Click the Customize button to select items to display on the Start menu.
By default, selecting the Classic Start menu also adds the My Documents, My Computer, My Network Places, and Internet Explorer icons to your desktop.

Increase your IRQ priority - You can increase the IRQ priority of the real-time CMOS clock to gain some system performance by doing the following:
1.) First create a text file with the extension .reg
2.) Paste the following into the file:

REGEDIT4
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\PriorityControl]
"IRQ8Priority"=dword:00000001

3.) Double-click on the file to enter the tweak into your registry.

This can be un-installed should you need to by repeating the three steps above with a new file, except this time use the following in your .reg file:

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\PriorityControl]
"IRQ8Priority"=dword:00000000

Disable Power Management - Power management can be disabled by going Start» Settings » Control Panel » Power Management. Set the Power Scheme to "Always On" and set "System Standby", "Turn off hard disks" and "Turn off monitor" to "Never".

Set graphic acceleration to full - You can do this by going to your desktop, right clicking and clicking on "Properties" then on "Settings", "Advanced" and the "Performance" tab. Make sure the Hardware Acceleration slider is set to "full" to reduce the load on your CPU.

Disable background applications - Background applications start up when your computer starts up and can use up unneccicary resources. To prevent these from starting up go to Start » Run and type "msconfig" in the run box. Click on the "startup tab" and disable (uncheck) programs such as "taskmon", "load power profile", "real player", "office startup", "winamp agent" and so on. Keep programs like "scan registry", "system tray" and programs relating to interfacing with your audio card (such as console software to control its features).

Disable USB - If you do not have any devices actively using USB in your system (this includes dongles for your software), disable USB as it is known to sometimes cause problems in certain DAW configurations. Not only will this help to increase system performance, but it will also free up an IRQ. Right click on your "My Computer" icon on your desktop and select "Properties". Click on the "Device Manager" tab and scroll down until you see the USB section. Click on the "Properties" for the USB device and check off "Disable in this Hardware Profile". You will have to reboot for these settings to take effect.

Graphical window settings - Go to Start » Settings » Folder options and click on the "View" tab. Under "Visual settings" check off "Show window contents while dragging. This is more of a usability tweak, as it will allow you to see the contents of windows on the screen as you drag them around (instead of them going blank).

Disable NTFS Last Access Time Logging (NTFS Only), Start > Run > regedit > HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE > SYSTEM > CURRENTCONTROLSET > CONTROL > FILESYSTEM Add a new DWORD value - "NtfsDisableLastAccessUpdate" (without quotes) and set the value to 1. Then reboot to make changes effective.

The PARIS Wiki : WinXP

Revision [770]