The Veterans Information Systems and Technology Architecture (VISTA) is a nationwide information system and Electronic Health Record (EHR) developed by the U.S. The Windows Aero Glass interface for Windows 7 or Vista requires a decent video card, you won’t be able to use it on an old clunker computer. For those worried. Q: Is there a direct download link for IrfanView and Plugins? A: Yes, the links are available since years on my website. For IrfanView: see the IrfanView website. Enable Built-in Administrator Account in Windows. First you’ll need to open a command prompt in administrator mode by right-clicking and choosing “Run as. ![]() Optimizing Windows. Some of these are not the ideal settings for dedicated DAW users, though. This guide is intended to step you through optimizing your machine in preparation for your new hardware and software to gain the most out of your system without experiencing the unnecessary heavy processor loads of poorly optimized machines. Therefore, if you have modified the way your windows are displayed, or otherwise customized the OS, some of the instructions may be slightly different. There is a link on the left- hand pane in the Control Panel window to engage Classic View. For example, instead of seeing . Here are a number of ways. Right- click on Computer > Manage > Device Manager. Start > type in . They address the visual aspects, processor handling, and Data Execution Prevention (DEP) for the Vista/Win. OS. One of the most highly touted aspects of Vista/Win. These are valuable resources that can instead be devoted to your audio software. ![]() If you have a powerful enough video card, then it will assume all video processing; in that case, it is fine to leave Aero enabled. The default setting is to devote more to your programs. This seems good on the surface; however, audio drivers run in the background, not as separate programs. In order to get the most performance from audio gear, it is best to set your processor to handle background services first. This is a technology that was originally developed in Windows XP and is now a part of Vista/Win. While great in theory, DEP can sometimes see audio applications as . This will disable the Windows Aero theme. If you would like to enable it again, right- click on the desktop and choose Personalize > Theme > Windows Vista/Win. Resource usage from the Vista/Win. See the section on Personalization for more details. These problems can range from annoying dropouts all the way to complete (and unexpected) loss of sync with your favorite Fire. Wire audio interface. In order to resolve these issues, you may need to switch to the . Select it and press OK. If you continue to have these types of issues after switching to the Legacy Driver and optimizing your Win. Pre. Sonus Fire. Wire device, please contact Pre. Because Windows Vista and Windows 7 are meant for an entire spectrum of users, by default, the Windows user interface is designed to have a very nice GUI (Graphical.![]() If you run Windows 10, you may have noticed a popup window being launched on the screen once a day, or even regularly. It is spawned, and immediately closed again. ![]() Sonus Technical Support for further assistance. This is useful for conserving energy when the computer is not in use. It works by automatically powering down, or “hibernating,” one or more components of the computer system when the computer has been idle for a predetermined amount of time. This can pose a major problem for users who record long sessions, as the computer may power itself down in the middle of recording! This can often be problematic for USB drivers that run in the background, since background tasks are not given power priority by the OS. ![]() If you use USB interfaces or controllers, then you should disable this power- management scheme. Go to the Device Manager > Universal Serial Bus Controllers > right- click on a . It is beneficial for preventing unwanted changes to the system, especially for protecting against unauthorized installations and file executions. However, the constant prompts asking to allow or deny access can interfere with overall workflow; all activity is suspended while the prompt waits for a reply. Furthermore, user- account monitoring uses extra CPU cycles (albeit an almost negligible amount), so disabling the feature improves performance ever so slightly. All in all, the impediments in a DAW seem to outweigh the added security, especially if the system is kept off the Internet. To disable UAC, go to Start > Control Panel > User Accounts (your account) > . If this is the case, then follow the manufacturer’s instructions. It is great for keeping out intruders, spyware, viruses, etc., but does so at the cost of CPU cycles. If you are online, it is best to leave the Security Center alone and active. Otherwise, you risk losing data, the integrity of your system drive, and even your identity. If you are not online with your Vista/Win. DAW, then disabling the Security Center features will free up some extra resources for you. There are several adjustments to be made from the Security Center window. Click on Windows Update on the left- hand pane > Change Settings > Never Check for Updates.. You can manually scan at any time by pressing the . Again, this is not an issue if you're offline. To stop these reminders, go to . Before doing so, it is highly recommended that you reenable everything in the Security center, and also connect immediately to Windows Update for the latest security updates from Microsoft. While not included as part of the Security Center, antivirus software is another near- necessity for everyday computing. For the online DAW user, it is best to disable antivirus software before using any audio applications. Since you will not be actively online, Windows Firewall and Defender (provided they are up to date) will be enough to monitor the background. For the offline DAW user, it's best to not install it in the first place. While it is a fantastic tool to prevent theft and piracy, the added encryption is not suitable for a high- performance DAW. It is best to leave Bit. Locker off on any drive that will actively be running DAW applications or streaming audio. However, for backup and non- DAW- related drives, it is fine to leave it enabled. To adjust Bit. Locker on your drives, go to Start > Control Panel > Control Panel Home > Security > Bit. Locker Drive Encryption. The downside is that hard drives invariably process data slower than RAM does, so using paging files decreases performance. This can be beneficial for low- performance, high- data applications where lots of material is loaded into RAM but does not need to be processed extremely quickly. With audio applications, this is not a good idea because they are very demanding on system resources, so using a lower- speed hard drive is not a viable solution. However, some applications may require the use of a paging file, for one reason or another. If this is the case, then make sure to set all of your buffer sizes in your audio application as high as possible to compensate for the hard drive's latency. This will bring you to the Advanced tab in the System Properties window. Under the Performance section, go to Settings tab and select Advanced, the press the . Once all drives have been modified, choose . Examples would be 2. MB, 5. 12 MB, and 1. MB. There is no need to exceed the amount of physical RAM installed for a paging file. If you find yourself continually needing to increase the paging file size, it is probably time to upgrade your system RAM. It essentially uses a USB flash drive as a high- speed paging file. Not all flash drives will work, though. A device must have the following minimum specifications. The device must be at least 6. MB. The device must be USB 2. It has to be able to read at 3. MB/s. It has to be able to write at 2. MB/s. To activate Ready. Boost on a USB flash drive, go to Computer > right- click on the drive > Properties > Ready. Boost > select . As with paging files, it is best to stay with multiples of 2. If power is interrupted to the hard drive, then the risk of data loss or corruption is greatly increased, but if you use a battery backup or some other type of uninterruptible power supply, you should not have anything to worry about. To speed up your drives, navigate to the Device Manager. Click on the . DMA is one of them. This format is the best and fastest method available, so it is recommended for audio. To make sure DMA is enabled on your hard drives, go to the Device Manager > IDE ATA/ATAPI Controllers. You will see one or more ATA Channels. On each channel, right- click and choose Properties > Advanced Settings > make sure . In some cases, changing this listing (which varies according to the motherboard) to . Note, however, that this is not a required step to optimize your system. It is an optional step that mayincrease performance. If you choose to do this, then right- click on it and choose . You have to restart your computer for this change to take effect. These can be accessed by going to Computer and right- clicking on the drive in question, and. Under the General tab, make sure . Too many files in these locations, especially when the files change often, causes the indexing service to add to the overall CPU load. While this change speeds up your overall performance, it will also adversely affect your searching speed in those locations. However, with a good file- management strategy, this will be irrelevant for the DAW user. To adjust your indexing options, go to Start > type in . Examples include built- in wireless adapters, audio cards, and Web cams. Most of these are benign but some have the potential to interfere with digital- audio software and hardware. Historically speaking, the most problematic devices are wireless Internet cards and audio cards; we typically recommend disabling these, at least while using your software. Onboard wireless Internet cards periodically send and receive information when activated (even without a Web browser open), and these bursts of data transfer use CPU cycles to the point of causing audible pops and clicks in DAW applications. Onboard audio cards can cause driver conflict problems, and they generally are not as high in quality as professional interfaces. In addition, they are often selected as the default driver in most DAW applications, forcing you to manually select your primary interface instead. Internet and other wireless cards are typically found under the . Onboard audio cards and Web cams will be found under . They also take up very useful CPU cycles. For the serious DAW user, it's best to have Sidebar disabled, at least while working on audio. This will not only allow extra CPU power, it will also clear the desktop to make room for applications to be seen. If Sidebar is active, double- click on the icon in the system tray and uncheck . Unfortunately, some of the popular settings can interfere with DAW workflow. How to Enable or Disable System Restore in Windows. System Restore is a feature built into Windows that periodically creates “restore points” or backups of system files and/or user files so that the system can be restored to a previous state in case something goes wrong. Normally, Windows will create these system restore points automatically before certain events, i. Windows updates, etc. If none of these events occur, Windows will create a restore point every seven days. In terms of files, System Restore will save a copy of a file or folder when it is modified, but only when a restore point is created. You can then restore a previous version of the file or folder by simply right- clicking on the file or folder. Do not think of system restore as a backup solution for your files and folders because it is not nearly as robust as using Windows backup or a third- party backup program. Enable System Restore. By default, System Restore should already be enabled on Windows unless it was turned off manually. To enable System Restore, we need to open the System Protection tab. You can do this in one of two ways. Note that the below instructions will work on Windows Vista, 7, 8 and 1. Click on the Start button and then type in system restore. You’ll probably get a couple of different options and the one you want to click on is Create a restore point. If System Restore is disabled, you’ll see Off listed in the Protection column for each partition on the hard drive. Note that if your computer has multiple hard drives, you might see all of them listed under Protection Settings. Windows is normally installed under C: (System), so click on that to select it. Then click on the Configure button. Click on the Turn on system protection radio button and then adjust the slider under Disk Space Usage to a value between 3 and 5 percent. Note that this value is going to be based on the size of the partition, not the size of the hard disk. Recommended Disk Space Usage for System Restore. This means you might have a 1 TB hard drive, but split into a C and D partition. C is the system partition where Windows is installed and might only be 1. GB and the rest is on the D partition. If you enable System Restore on the C drive, then 3% will be 3 GB and 5% will be 5 GB. If you just have one huge C partition that is the size of the entire drive, then 3% of 1. TB would be a whopping 3. GB, which is huge. In these types of cases, just set it to 1% or 2%. Whatever percentage you use, just make sure the value is greater than 1. MB or 1 GB as a minimum. Note that each GB will be able to hold anywhere from 1 to 3 restore points, depending on what you have on that partition. I recommend a value between 3 GB and 1. GB for system restore as it can prove to be very handy in certain situations. The more you have, the more likely you’ll be able to recover your computer from a problem. If you want to reduce the amount of space system restore is using on your system, just adjust the slider to a lower percentage. In addition, you can click the Delete button to remove all of the current restore points for the drive. This way, you can keep system protection enabled, but clear up some space if you are running out of hard disk space. Disable System Restore. Disabling System Restore is just as easy as enabling it. Click on Start, type in system restore and then click on Create a restore point. Select the hard drive you want to disable protection for in the list and then click Configure. On the next screen, select either Turn off system protection or Disable system protection. Click OK and system restore will be turned off. You’ll also get a message stating that all restore points will be deleted from the disk and new ones will not be created. As previously mentioned, I do not recommend turning off system protection unless you know what you are doing and already have another backup solution in place. If you have any questions, feel free to post a comment.
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