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Optimising Windows XP for use with Mixvibes

Through other threads based on this subject in the Mixvibes forum, many users have approached me and asked about optimising Windows Xp to maximise system resources while maintaining a stable installation. This tutorial is going to help you do just that.

This tutorial will guide you through optimising your XP installation as much as possible on a basic knowledge of the operating system.

Caution:making these alterations to windows will prevent normal use of the system, only optimise XP using this method under the following conditions, This installs sole purpose is to run Mixvibes and is not used for personal computing. Your install is part of a dual boot system.

Preparing your system

Let’s assume you are doing this from a fresh installation, check that all the device drivers your system requires are installed, Make sure Mixvibes is installed, updated and activated.

Adjusting the display

Start by right clicking your desktop background and select "Properties", you will see the Display Properties box appear. From the options tabs select "Settings", and drop the Color quality down to "Medium (16 bit)", Apply changes and click ok.



Optimising Windows theme and visual effects for best performance

Start by navigating to the system properties control panel by following "Start Menu> "right click" My Computer> Properties", from the tabs select "Advanced".



From the "Performance" section select "Settings", this will show the Performance Options box. To disable all Windows themes and visual effects, select the option "Adjust for best performance" and then "Apply".



Assigning processor priority

Now from the Performance Options box select the tab "Advanced", now set the Processor Scheduling to "Background services", click "Apply" then "OK" and "OK" again to close the System Properties box.



So by now everything should be looking vary basic, this eliminates any un-necessary processing required by Windows to display it's user interface.

Shutting down un-necessary Windows processes

In this section you will disable all the processes that are not required by Windows to run Mixvibes, this significantly frees up resources and helps greatly with achieving lower latency’s from your audio device.

To make these changes we are going to use the System Configuration Utility, you can access this by the following, "Start menu>Run" and entering "msconfig" in the text box, then "OK".



From the System Configuration Utility tabs, select "Services". In this display you will see the list of services that are currently active on your system in there Running or Stopped state, thankfully you don’t have to go through each option and deselect them... the "Disable All" button will not disable essential services.

Go ahead and select "Disable All", all the non essential services will be deselected; now you have to select some services that will be required to run Mixvibes properly.

Select these services,

Plug and Play,
Removable Storage,
Windows Audio,



After you have selected these services, click "Apply".

Now have a look at the "Startup" tab, this list is made up of the tray apps that are shown in the system tray of your task bar... these option change from computer to computer so i can’t really advise anyone using this tutorial what to close down here.

Applications like hardware monitors can be closed down here, along with, virus software, windows messenger and Update alerts... in most cases it is acceptable to shut all of these down however, sometimes it does prevent hardware working properly, like keyboard special keys, advanced mouse pad functions and the control panel to your audio device. Most of the startup items are clearly identifiable though some not so much lol. a little research helps here.

so now that you're done here, select "apply" then "OK", you will be asked to restart the system, after the computer has reboot...



After the computer boots again, the System Configuration Utility will display an alert, check the "Don’t show this message...." to stop it displaying on every boot.



And that’s all there is too it, you're now ready to configure your sound cards buffer sizes, run the configuration wizard in mixvibes and start blasting out tunes!

Hope this has been helpful to you.

Peace,
Bryan

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I suppose that there will be some difference when optimizing xp services on mac (bootcamp)? Do you (or anybody) know something about that?

ooooh i need to wait tomorow to give you some karma...
nice work!!

SebastianB wrote:I suppose that there will be some difference when optimizing xp services on mac (bootcamp)? Do you (or anybody) know something about that?

viewtopic.php?f=207&t=10466&p=63489#p63489

The entire thread is for optimizing Windows with Boot Camp

Nice guide

But i think its totally overkill on the services part. (just opinion )

SebastianB wrote:I suppose that there will be some difference when optimizing xp services on mac (bootcamp)? Do you (or anybody) know something about that?

Hi.

I was a user of Bootcamp on the first year of that software. (I made the switch to mac... and... well i have comeback in the end...)

In essence, there has to be no diferences at all, but there is.

I mean, bootcamp is doing an emulation of a BIOS machine (typical "IBM PC") via Software on an EFI system (it's a new BIOS system, totally incompatible)s, but there is some more thing working under the hood of that "emulator".

So... there has to be "0" differences when configuring and using your XP/Vista installed under Bootcamp. But i have jump on stupids problems made by, precissely, bootcamp.

So, as a developer myself, you have to try play smart.

Make a disk image of all your hard disk (even your mac os x if you can, so there you have a functional truly back up ) sector by sector (im user of Paragon HD Manager and it just work fine doing a exact copy, but you can use others softwares), and proceed to make the changes.

Then, if you (don't write f...k thanks)) up something (all of us do it sometimes), you can revert the changes writing again all the disk.

Regards.

But i think its totally overkill on the services part. (just opinion )

overkill for your system maybe, but not for MSI wind or Eeepc and older systems...

gakto2009 wrote:

But i think its totally overkill on the services part. (just opinion )

overkill for your system maybe, but not for MSI wind or Eeepc and older systems...

Im working rigth now over an LG Atom system (MSI Wind clone) and had no trouble at all. (256samples latency, and all buffers activate over the ESI u46dj control panel). Even with FX (the flanger is pure garbage, it make noises and clicks in all of my computers). But i have to say im using just DVS system, and im not on the scratch side of things, but it never goes up of 60/70% of cpu use. I use sometimes the third deck digitally and had 0 problemas.

MixVibes is an excelent optimized software.

The thing is, if you want to go all down in latency (2ms or something), probably stop all services is a good idea. But... maybe, for the cost of it, is better to spend 100 bucks more on a powerfull real notebook (You can get for 400/450€ online system on 5-7x powerfull on cpu and ram as any notebook on a 15" display). Again, as before, just an opinion

I guess is good to discuss all this things haha.


Just a question, maybe you know it.

Can i use a second screen with mixvibes? i mean, have the decks & fx on one, have meda library on the other

shadowland wrote:Just a question, maybe you know it.

Can i use a second screen with mixvibes? i mean, have the decks & fx on one, have meda library on the other

Of course! As long as you have your dual screen mode set up correctly it'll work just fine.

thnx a lot..u r the best!!

hi!thnx for all the advice but i still have the same problem although i did what you told me.Help!