XXHighEnd

I decided to give the Windows 8 preview a try
http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows-8/consumer-preview (http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows-8/consumer-preview).  If the evaluation period is similar to the way they did Windows 7, it will be quite a while before the license key expires.

I did try to install XX, got it to play and on my system, the sound seems to be very good.  I can play a playlist, but not control the engine once it starts.  I may not have everything installed that XX needs. 

I was hoping that I could skip owning Windows 7 entirely.  I'm a little tired of buying OS upgrades (or downgrades). 

Peter, do you think this is an option for those of us with upgrade fatigue?

Greg

Hi Greg,

"We" don't know much about W8 yet; I installed the Preview on a laptop here when it came about, but hated the whole UI behaviour so much that I never touched it again - yet. To me it's as vague as an Apple now. But most probably that's me.

I think it has potential, but I really didn't do anything with it yet.

Btw notice that this Consumer Preview version can't stay once the official one is there, although it is not 100% clear whether that *really* is so. But if what's said somewhere (on the MS site) is correct, then the first thing you must do at installing the real version is a reinstall of the OS. :swoon:

Peter

It seems like last time there was a beta, I ran W7 for almost a year before it expired.  I ended up not upgrading since Vista always worked fine for me.

Anyway, the W8 user interface takes a bit to learn and it's not my cup of tea, but whatever :-)  Most stuff is keyed off the screen edges/corners (left right click) or ctrl-alt-delete for shutdown.  It's not obvious, when you are first trying it out.

I believe you can turn on the old windows start menu etc, but I'll try the new interface for awhile first.

XX:   

It would be nice if someone who knows the sound of W7 could compare to W8.  I think the sound is very nice, so much better than Vista on my system that I am putting up with the hassles for now.  Unfortunately, I have no basis for comparing the sound quality since it's upgraded to 64 bit as well as the OS change.

Here is what I could not figure out:

1) How to make XX run as administrator (not even with UAC turned down).
2) How to make the license work (stuck in demo)
3) How to make settings load at startup (doing now it each time XX starts manually)
4) How to control the engine once the playback is started (am killing engine process to end playback)

On the positive side:  The Vista/W7 drivers work perfectly for the Hiface and my music raid (mirrored 2tb pair on Jmicron controller).

If anyone wants to try it out, set the XXEngine3 to run as admin.  That is what made it play on my system.  However, when I try to set XXHighEnd to run as administrator, it exits with the unfriendly:   class not registered  hresult 0x80040154, which I think is a permissions issue.  Ideas?

When you finally get it to start, save the settings and be prepared to reload them each time you start the interface.


 

Greg, all I can say at this moment is that *all* the problems you mentioned come from this Administrator thing. So that is key for now ...

Peter

Excellent!

Thank you Peter for the hint.

Ok, maybe this is already known, but it allows XX to work 100% on Windows 8:

Don't ask me why a regular account that is "administrator" group does not work, but it doesn't.

What does work properly is to use the built in administrator account.  However, it does not show up in as available for login

You can get to it from administrative tools > computer management screen > Local Users and Groups > Users > Administrator

1) Uncheck the "account is disabled" box

2) Go to User Accounts and create a password for administrator.  

3) Logout and relogin as administrator instead of your normal user account.

4) Execute XX a couple times and reboot after it sets permissions etc.

Not one problem yet and using unattended etc!

Still great sound!

Hey, but that is great !

Now, assuming that you know how to do this all on W7 ...
What would you say is the normal culprit here ? is it really that UAC can't be disabled or is it something else ?
And, run XX "As Administrator" also doesn't help ? NOTICE though, that these things must have been arranged for BEFORE you install XXHighEnd (better : run it for the first time in its fresh new folder). Can't that be related ?
(but then again, you knew how to do this all I guess, if not W7 then Vista).

Anyway, great job !
Peter

One other thing :
I just looked in my W8 laptop, and UAC looks the same as it was on W7. But ... what you may not know or have forgotten is that in W7 it needs a reboot but doesn't tell so (Vista does). W8 didn't tell anything either (I didn't check anything further).

I dunno why I couldn't get it to execute under the regular user account.  I could easily have been making a mistake somewhere.

The reboot after setting UAC didn't work.  I was expecting that as well..... :-(

I did make an effort to solve it including fresh installs, inheriting permissions and ownership, various OS compatibility settings etc.  The one thing I did not do was completely reinstall Win8 and also use a fresh install of XX.

The first time I executed XX it was out of my existing directory from Vista.  I was thinking it didn't matter since XX doesn't install.   Once that didn't work, I used a clean copy of XX.

It would execute under Vista compatibility with the broken functions as stated.  However, I did not find a way to make XX execute as Administrator.  I always got that failure saying the process was unregistered.

I used the built in administrator account out of frustration.  It was just a way to hit it with a bigger stick :-)

Perhaps someone else will try it and confirm if it was just me screwing up. 

On the bright side, you don't need to reprogram XX much if any for Windows 8.  Congrats!!!!

I sure wouldn't try it all again. People are informed now about what possibly to expect.


PS: Did you receive my email ?

The email didn't come through.  I think we had this problem before.  Can you send via your other account?

Sent it via PM now !

Someone told me that the GUI of W8 is made for touchscreen, with large buttons, easy to operate, wether you have a large or small screen.

-If nothing else, it might make it easier to use as a remote control solution together with a smartphone, iPad,Galaxy, etc

Have tried win8 alot. You can "disable" the new gui if you want.
(Have not got used to it yet)
It runs easier than a standard Win7 installation already.
I have not tried win8 as a Music player. Just used it with a virtual installation.

I am perfectly satisfied with my tweaked win2008r2 64bit that is better sounding than win7 (both ultimate, enterprise) for my ears.
Win8 server is also out. Will look into it.

Just a small notice from my side :

0.9z-7 will contain Remote Control features as described here : XXHighEnd Remote Control (http://www.phasure.com/index.php?topic=1967.0);
For "just remote control" this can already be done today, but what's special about the 0.9z-7 solution is that it does not need the LAN or Wifi to be up. This is important. Now :

W2008/R2 (which is the Server version of W7) does *not* allow for this. And, it can be expected that W8/Server will be the same. So, if this Remote Control with LAN not up is important to you, don't hunt too much for these server versions, or otherwise be prepared that you may want to install the non-server version later.

Let me lastly notice that a server version is supposed to be better for SQ because of less "influencing" processes running in there. But if all is right this is a moot thing because XXHighEnd shuts off everything which is not necessary to begin with (this counts umltimately (Minimize OS) for the licensed version, sorry).

Peter

Testet win8 server today. Just virtual to get a feel on it. Seems very unfinished.

Remote control - sounds like you have spent many hours Peter. A problem to really get your "teeth" into.

Well whatever the solution to remote control I hope that it matches the colour of my NOS1  :veryhappy:

All the best

Paul

Update:

I was able to confirm that the difficulties I had were the result of strange User Account Control issues and not the XX installation.

I tested if by running the same installation of XX from other user accounts in Win 8: 

A user account with administrator privileges (default) doesn't seem to work. 

A user account without administrator privileges can run XX if you run as administrator and type in the password.

The built-in administrator account works without hassles.
   
There is a small downside to using the built-in administrator account, since some of the "toys" in the new interface say they are not available with this account.  It's not a big deal if you just want to listen to music. 

I also use this computer for home theater video playback.  Netflix and movies off the hard disk work fine with the Administrator account.

The UAC problem might be a bug in this version of Win 8.  If it gets fixed in an update, I'll post a note.
 

Yes it does, and it works great! Since I've free access to W-server software, I've tried out W2008/2008R2SP1/2012. The very best of them is the newW2012, the sound is fuller, less edgy, more analogue like, the difference is not subtle! XXhighend on W2012 runs like on W2008, but so far I've not tried the Min OS funtion, first I need new activation keys, I had to do a fresh install because off partition problems.

Now I've W7 for media purposes, loaded with functions, and a minimal W2012 for XXhighend (I know Peter doesn't like me to mess up with to many OS's :prankster:)   

Look here for the solution as of now : Windows 8 Tutorials - Change Registry for proper UAC rights (http://www.phasure.com/index.php?topic=2350.0)