My road to Ultra thin Vista build - must read

[Marcin_gps]

Hi Guys,

I'll now describe everything that I've applied to my Vista 32bit installation, step by step. Keep in mind, that in the end, your OS will not be 'fully useable' and it shoulnd't be. You don't want to install 3rd party apps, drivers or devices to spoil the sound. You won't have access to network either!
Ok, here is what I did starting from a clean install:
1) Turned off: UAC (control panel->user accounts), indexing (right click on a system drive in Windows Explorer->properties)
2) Installed drivers for sound card, gpu and set up a ramdisk drive and XXHE on it (fat16, 64kb cluster size, 1500 MB). I think things could've been even better without GPU driver.
3) Performed all the optimisations from cics' site. Although they're ment for XP, they work the same for Vista/W7, well, almost all of them. Refer to Optimisations, but skip steps 4 and 6 of chapter 7.1. In Chapter 7.2 disable unused devices like unused USB ports, IDE channels, integrated audio and think of anything else that may not be useful - be careful. In Chapter 7.3, step 2, disable SuperFetch as well (locate that DWORD and change the value to 0).
4) In Regedit, HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM CurrentControlSet\Control\PriorityControl, add a new DWORD, "IRQ8Priority" , and set the value to 1.
5) Set power scheme to performance (control panel->power settings) and change advanced power settings: turn off display and hdds after 1min
6) In REGEDIT, HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Multimedia\SystemProfile there is a key “SystemResponsiveness” set this to “0”.
7) In REGEDIT, HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Multimedia\SystemProfile
There are sub key tasks for;

Audio
Capture
Distribution
Games
Playback
Pro Audio
Window Manager

These KEYs are how MMSS prioritises music replay processes.
For the “Audio”, “Playback” and “Pro Audio” keys try the following DWORD values
Affinity = 3 (dec)
Background Only = TRUE
BackgroundPriority = 8 (dec)
Clock Rate = 1000000 (dec)
GPU Priority = 4 (dec)
Priority = 8 (dec)
Scheduling Category = High
SFIO Priority = High

Turned off DEP. Start Menu->run-> type 'CMD', press enter->type "bcdedit.exe /set nx AlwaysOff”
9) Disabled unnecessary services. I have only 7 active services:
Mulimedia Class Scheduler
Group Policy Client
Plug and Play
DCOM SERVER PROCESS LAUNCHER
COM+ ENENT SYSTEM
User Profile Service
Remote Procedure Call (RPC)

You can safely disable other services, even Windows Audio which is not needed for Engine#4.

10) Disabled unnecessary items in Autoruns. I enclosed my settings, there is almost nothing in there, only drivers for sound card, usb and gpu.

Enjoy!

Marcin

[PeterSt]

PLEASE NOTE :

At this moment I don't want people to post in this topic (except for Marcin (and me), just because I will get crazy about what was where. It is all about the same (so far), until things have been REALLY sorted out.

Thanks !
Peter

[PeterSt]

Marcin, great thanks man. But I have a few small remarks, or otherwise want to point out that this doesn't suffice for something like "DO THIS !" ... which is what you probably intended, or should be / could be if it were for me. Here goes (and you may just edit your first post sooner or later) :

Which version / SP of Vista does this apply to ?

Why do you mention the cluster size of the RAM disk ? (I don't think it can matter)

Performed all the optimisations from cics' site. Although they're ment for XP, they work the same for Vista/W7, well, almost all of them.

Sorry to nag, but how did you verify this ? also see below subjects.

"Set powerscheme to performance" is not an absolute measure. People can have changed it. Of course you anticipate a fresh install, but I'm really not going to do that only to know what your power scheme base is (which also WILL matter per Vista version -> SP0 is already different from SP1).

As a general remark : only few people will apply cics' stuff, knowing that in here our "base" is the Tweaked to Dead" topic + nice batch file. So, whatever your advices are, they should be relative to that *or* the "something else" whatever, should be known to incorporate it.

I don't think it is legit to advice to shut the monitor down after one minute, while people just don't wanting that. And this matters, as to my own proof (see elsewhere).

I'm under the impression that you just copied the Multi Media settings from Nick. In other words, these are not verified at all. Proof ? quite a few of those don't even do a thing (MS documentation). Or Background only = True ... why ? did you really get to the bottom of it ? are you sure it doesn't operate counterproductive ? (and no, I'm not suggesting that you just did something here, but since I don't know it myself *and* I didn't see a discussion about it ... why would it suddenly be so ?)

Did you proove the Affinity setting does something ? I mean, without XX just overruling it ?

Did you examine the relation between Schedule Category and Priority ?

Did you notice the problems people can have with shutting off DEP ?


So, what happened here ? well, nothing much wrong !! Except for the suggestion this is a completely worked through / worked out "best settings", which just can't be the case (see above for my arguments). Especially, we are not about "copying" eachothers words in here. The opposite. Never take something for granted.

Despite this, I hope I am allowed to say that you are the best for every suggestion you come up with. This just isn't the best example of it. Haha.
So, sure hope you're not offended by any means.
Please take some time to amend your post, but which really *has to start* with the Tweaked to Dead stuff, or otherwise I will never believe in a good base (and notice this is far more important for Vista than it turned out to be for W7). But also notice that this is a quite undoable thing, and I sure don't require it from you. IOW, you can also leave it be, but for others to read including my comments. I hope you can agree with it a little.

But as said, great thanks, and appreciated as always and everything !
Peter

[Marcin_gps]

Maybe I shouldn't have posted that... I don't have any proofs. I can only say that these settings are good for me, best probably and cics' optimisations work mostly the same in Vista/W7 which is obvious. I'm sorry, could you point one that doesn't work? The goal is one - to speed things up and it does. Nick's recomendations work as well, at least I hear the difference. Maybe you could suggest better optimisations, I'm sure everyone would want that

My system is Vista 32 Business (no sp1) and I don't see how it would be different for Ultimate etc I also have a second, regular installation of that system, where XXHE with that same settings is unlistenable. Is this enough recommendation? To sum up: I don't force anybody to apply these things, I just share what I feel is best. I didn't come up with everything yesterday. You should know that I've been messing with that stuff for a long time now If I wrote 'put your pc on fire', would you do it? 

[Marcin_gps]

And I chose FAT16, because it's the fastest one. Like I said, these are the tweaks that I use and I don't care if people gonna use them. I was asked to post them and I did. These settings are open for discussion and I'm open to hear what you guys have to say about them.

As a general remark : only few people will apply cics' stuff, knowing that in here our "base" is the Tweaked to Dead" topic + nice batch file. So, whatever your advices are, they should be relative to that *or* the "something else" whatever, should be known to incorporate it.

I'm sorry, but that batch file is like 5% of what's on cics' site. I don't think I need to convince you that 7 active services should be better than 27?

[PeterSt]

Hahaha. I think my real point is that (like you !!) we all want to nail it down to the real merits, and then only the real merits count. So, *of source* this works for you, or otherwise you wouldn't have posted it (and it really should stay !). But it's about the things which are superfluous - which just don't matter. Or, which matter, but counterproductive. Ah. I'm sure you understand, and once again, it is only about the suggestion to others, "this is it". Not that you said that, but this is what happens with a separate topic for it.

About the "cics tweaks" ... hoho wait. I would never doubt anything coming from him, knowing he is as much involved as I am. But what I tried to point out is that "we all" (but maybe not you) rely on the Tweaked to Dead tweaks in the first place. So, this is what is the base of it all, and apparently you don't incorporate it. But notice this is about unnecessary I/O's only (and *nothing* about services explicitly), but (or thus) include stuff like the Search Index you mentioned (incompletely, because you explicitly must do this per file, or otherwise it still doen't help).

Now Marcin, start laughing ... :

If I wrote 'put your pc on fire', would you do it?

YES. Look around in this forum. Without a single exception people follow whatever one single person comes up with, and it always works (out - within its context). Don't you agree ? This is just because "we" take our jobs/hobby serious, and what follows from it is that everybody is to be trusted. This includes you, and we followed what you came up with, and it worked.
But it would not with this post / topic. It is not us, and it also is not you. Isn't it funny ? So, really all I am doing is keeping up this trust in *everyone*, you ahead (yea, laugh again).

Or would you rather try to follow everything which is spit out at AA, for example ?

Lastly (and only because you just added it) :

And I chose FAT16, because it's the fastest one

Proove it. May you have missed it, I did, and I didn't see you go against it.
See ? this is how it should work.


Best regards,
Peter

[Marcin_gps]

Peter, are there any services other than I have running (see above) necessary for z3? I switched to slimmed W2008 and this time I'll check these tweaks and listen carefully one by one. I'm afraid that that the most crucial is IRQ affinity tool, however - the most difficult to handle and it could ruin SQ if used inappropriate...

[PeterSt]

Marcin - I am the most sorry, but I don't know !! I am not into these things at all (really no time) and try to get anything which can be obtained from you out there. All I know is that people tend to shut off diagnostics stuff but this is newly used in 0.9z-3.

Peter


PS: Don't make yourself mad with listening to all the "elements" or even combinations of them. I'm sure it will be appreciated, but please don't do it because you coincidentally started this topic, ok ?

[Marcin_gps]

OK, thanks. I'll keep that to myself :D

[PeterSt]

[jnoneiliv1]

My PC is on fire!  Oops, no that's just Vista trying sort itself out:)