Edit, January 21, 2016 :At this moment this Tutorial / Explanation is a bit outdated, hence today's XXHighEnd 2.05 screenshots would look different and there's more to say. This will be adjusted the soonest.
From of XXHighEnd version 2.03 the OS can be booted from RAM and used from there for Audio Playback.
Please notice : Using the OS from RAM (no disk or USB pen or anything present in the PC) can only be done by means of a prepared harddisk by Phasure. This disk is sent to you by mail and it contains the "base" OS data which will allow you to boot from RAM.
It provides you with a boot menu looking similar to this, with the notice that the Windows OS version can be (or will be) different than the Windows 10 build 10074 you see here. Also it is possible that you'll see (have the choice of) a mix of Windows 8 and Windows 10 versions.
Here are some general usage hints :
When the Stop button is Right-Clicked, a menu will show.
(the "Allow W10 Updates" is irrelevant for this Tutorial)
The first two options are greyed out when the OS has not been booted from RAM :
So in this case these options don't do a thing, hence they are not useful anyway. We will learn about this below.
What you see here is a "Check" to the left of the "Detach BASE volume" option. This means that the "BASE" volume, which is the volume (disk) the OS was copied from when it went to RAM, is not attached; it is not present and thus not accessible.
When we want to do maintenance on this BASE Operating System (remember, which is copied to RAM at boot), we like to access it, obviously; we want to apply something to it, like a new XXHighEnd version, or anything.
Side note - and an important one :
The normal operating status of the PC system is that no devices are in there. Thus, once the OS has been copied to RAM, the disk containing that BASE version is removed from the system. Yes, a removable 2.5" hdd bay comes handy now (hot pluggable).
Btw, everybody with an XXHighEnd PC has such a removable bay.
Thus ... when you want to access the disk, you must put it back in again.
When done, you the option you see in the picture above can be chosen.
And this is the result.
What you'll see in Drive X: is in fact the very same as what you see in Drive C:, which latter is your live Operating System (but notice that Drive C: is to be viewed as a RAMDisk).
What you see above just the same is a Drive D:. This one is never to be accessed or changed; it is the disk (in the removable bay) itself, and it should remain as it is.
When you'd Right-Click the Stop button again, you'd see that the "Check" is now next to Attach BASE volume - it is attached at this moment.
When you are done with the "maintenance", you can detach the BASE volume again. Just click the option.
Now you can remove the disk from the system again. However :
If you have the volume in use, like you're still in Drive X: with Explorer (like a two pictures back), you will receive this error message. Do not remove the disk now. First make it right (free the volume).
Now all is fine.
Suppose you want to reboot or shut down the system;
The options speak for themselves, but notice that you better put in the BASE disk first.
a. This is needed at the next boot anyway (never mind if this is only tomorrow);
b. It allows XXHighEnd to save the settings, like screen status / position and other settings you might have changed in the last XXHighEnd session.
Assumed you did not attach the BASE disk yourself, a message will tell you indirectly that the the volume needs to be attached. Therefore you need to put the disk in the bay, obviously.
When you just did that you can click OK and the settings will be saved, waiting for the next boot.
When you don't like to put in the disk, just don't and click No. XXHighEnd will ask you to continue anyway and you can easily say Yes. Remember though, without the BASE disk in the system, no boot will be possible (any next time).
What you saw in the previous picture and also this one, is quite crucial. Plus, look here :
What we see here is Drive X: again or IOW that BASE disk (or a part of it (say a partition), actually). This is where XXHighEnd resides,
on disk. Understand ? ... what was shown in the XXHighEnd settings field "Copy Settings to" is exactly that
disk location.
Side note : when using a RAMdisk (as we do this for years already) you do similar; you point to the
disk location, so the settings are stored to permanent storage (you could point to a location in RAMDisk, but this is rather pointless).
Thus, when in "Copy Settings to" is pointed to permanent storage, we can still preserve our changed settings and all.
One thing : all can only be saved when
a. the disk is in its bay;
b. the volume is formally attached and something orders to save the settings.
Ad b.
This is the Reboot or Shut Down command via XXHighEnd.
What it will do is applying the procedure of the first part of this Tutorial, under the hood. It attaches the BASE volume for you, and once done it will save the XXHighEnd settings to it.
Then it reboots or shuts down (what you asked for).
That's it.
Almost.
Look again at the very first picture. In there you also see the option "BASE version". What does it mean ?
Easy : that boots into the BASE version (volume) we talked about all the time; It is the
disk version.
When you just finished your XXHighEnd session in the RAM version and applied the Saving of the Settings as we talked through, the BASE version - which is a normal disk version - will show 100% the same. The great gag now is that you can do all you like in there (again, like installing a new XXHighEnd version, but this time including testing various settings - listen for hours and all you like, and when done ...
... Boot into the RAM version and again all will be 100% the same as you just left it. The difference, of course, is that now you booted from RAM and you can remove the disk. You can not do that when you booted from the BASE version.
The "TRIAL (Do not use)" version (see first picture) is necessary for technichal reasons. You can boot into it, but you shouldn't do anything in there because whatever you do, it is not used anywhere (for the Audio Playback).
