XXHighEnd Model 2.07 - Simplified Install (no UAC) & SQ Improvements

[PeterSt]

Download is at the very bottom.
UpgradePatch is even below that.

For those without Paypal - other means of payment and Activation are possible. Contact sales (at) phasure (dot) com for that.

For the Release Notes of 2.00, look here : XXHighEnd Model 2.00 - New Filters & Extended Remote Control.
Install any new full version in its own folder (your 2.00 Activation could be violated otherwise). Install the UpgradePatch only over the version implied by the name of the UpgradePatch .rar file (so the Upgrade Patch does not go in a separate folder but is pasted over an existing XXHighEnd folder).

2.07 has the focus on further SQ improvement (on three explicit topics), further Tidal integration (without any bit of chance on SQ degradation compared to your local library) and simplified Installation. Regarding the latter it is now possible to install XXHighEnd without changing the User Account Control (UAC) setting, hence run Windows 10 apps when needed or desired. Also, when XXHighEnd is used for Tidal access on a dedicated "Music Server PC" for that, the UAC setting can remain as it is; only when the best of SQ is to be utilized - especially when going to the Minimized OS version (hardly anything runs for OS Services), the UAC change is required. Below this is explained in more detail.

XXHighEnd runs fully fletched on Windows Vista, Windows 7 (advised SP1), 8, and 10 , advised Builds 10074, 10565 (both formally expired now), 10586.0 and 14393.0. Please notice that for Windows 10 it is best to use the advised Builds (see the four mentioned) because each Windows Build changes and when not anticipated, usually not for the better regarding Sound Quality. And let's keep in mind : XXHighEnd is by far the foremost about the very best Sound Quality and not at all about the User Interface (and looking at the numerous screen shots below you wouldn't say that but do notice that XXHighEnd in "SQ Mode" runs without User Interface at all (Unattended Playback Mode); the UI is just for maintenance and comfortably select what is to be played and of course it is for organizing your music Library which these days take Tidal for granted with millions of albums at your finger tips).


Release Notes 2.07

• Possibly the most important change applied is the fact that Installs now can be done with the UAC (User Account) level left as is. This implies, for example, that under Windows 10 all apps can be used deemed necessary for the Install itself (Edge Browser, for example) but also that when XXHighEnd is used for Tidal only (and not really for Playback), a "normal usage" Windows 10 PC can be used for it.
  When eventually the OS is to be minimized ("Minimized OS") *then* the UAC is to be changed. When it hasn't been done yet, this will be the message at attempting to boot into Minimized OS :
  
  
  
  
  Changing it can be done via RightClick on the Stop button and :
  
  
  
  
  Setting it back to normal goes like this :
  
  
  
  
  But see the ToolTip on that. It is very crucial to understand that from now on we better change the UAC via XXHighEnd only, because when done ourselves and we accidentally do it in the Minimized OS state, the Operating System will be rendered useless and the means to recover from that is unknown. It is thus lost and the OS needs to be reinstalled.
  Side note : nothing changed in XXHighEnd which is now causing this possible dead-lock situation; it is Windows 10 and probably a later version which implies it.
  
  When in Normal OS (not Minimized) you will not be able to use the Straight Contiguous Memory setting (in XXHighEnd Settings - Memory section), unless the UAC is set to Optimized XXHighEnd usage (see 2nd screenshot above).
  
  
• The number of Processor Cores supported has been increased to 40.
  Watch out : More than 32 Cores is only possible with the 64 bits OS (this is an OS limit).
  Additionally there's now also explicit support for 10 Cores, 14 Cores and 32 Cores.
  
  
• A bug has been dicovered for 28 Core processors, where the last 4 Cores did not receive the proper Affinity.
  Notice : This (2.07) is the first version in which this bug has been solved (no beta versions out there with it).
  
  
• A quite important SQ change has been accomplished.
  Important : In order to activate this, it is required to boot into Normal OS and then back to Minimized OS (think in the realm of new Services to be shut off permanently, which happens actively in the stage of booting into Minimized OS).
  For those with the RAM-OS Diskm the OS running from RAM, this is the sequence :
  1. Boot into the BASE OS of the OS you are using (or want to use);
  2. From there boot into Normal OS;
  3. When up, boot into Minimized OS (BASE again !!);
  4. When that is up, boot into the RAM version of it.
  
  
• In Tidal, Tracks can now be searched too.
  
  
  
  
  Result as shown in the Library Area :
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  Above is the result of Double Clicking an Item in the Result List or click Load for an Item (or Items, in this case the first one you see in the result list above has been used), and after the message below has been answered with Yes (!).
  
  
  
  
  So although the functionality can be used to load the whole album which contains the track you were looking for, this is not the initial idea about Track Search. This is :
  
  At this moment, per album from the selection you applied, above shown question is asked, and for those questions you answer No to, only the track of interest (the one you searched for) will be loaded. Doing this for a few, presents this in the Playlist Area :
  
  
  
  
  From there you could decide to select one or two or all of them and play them. Notice that the left pane shows which is what, for selections you applied (thus the Coverart you see is from the first track, in this case).
  
  Intuitively you may like to apply Show/Compare Tracks, resulting in this for initially selecting 9 of them in the Library Area (where the Track Search result shows) :
  
  
  
  
  You can easily select the ones to play by clicking the rows of interest to send them to the Playlist Area (like Show/Compare Tracks supports this by standard). Notice though that as you see it above you can (visually) select the track only by its running time, although this has been improved somewhat already (see next subject in these Release Notes).
  
  Each Album (or single etc.) which contains the Track Name searched for, is denoted a special sub folder name that contains "- Track - " followed by the Track Name of the search (a Multi Volume Album does this a little bit differently as you can see) :
  
  
  
  
  This reason for this is so - as you are used to - the Search Result shows automatically and where the contents of the Library Area is filtered on the term you see in the text box at the bottom (see second picture in this subject, above).
  Watch out :
  This special folder name persists until you move the Album to the Streams Data Folder.
  
  
  
  
  What now happens is that - contrary to what you are used to from this activity - the Album does not readily show when you hop over to the Streams Data Folder (RightClick the Search button). This is because the "Let it be" in the text box at the bottom is still the filter (the Sub Folder additional "- Track - Let it be" part has been removed from the Album).
  So what must happen to bring it forward again is two things :
  1. Click Search for an Empty Search Term in the text box at the bottom (or any other means to refresh the Library Area);
  2. Have knowledge of how the Album is actually named (or the Artist Name which also will list the Album somewere in the midst of other Albums from that Artist) and type that in the text box at the bottom :
  
  
  
  
  And there it is again, ready for you to put to a Gallery, or play it, etc.
  
  
• Proceeding a bit with the last subject above, it is now disallowed to put an Album (or Track) to Galleries without it being Stream Prepared.
  
  
• When Albums come from Tidal, contrary to what you saw above with the "Let it be" examples, it is now so that for Collection Albums the Track Name will be preceded by the Artist Name, assumed the Tidal Track Data contains this information. Here's two examples, the first actually resulting from Track Search (Winter Wonderland) the second one being a normal Search result :
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  This is especially great, knowing that Tidal does not obtain the Artist Name in the Track Name for Collection Albums and you'd thus be in the blind about the Artist. Not any more !
  
  
• A general remark would be that the Track Search in Tidal has developed to a quite powerful tool which really requires some learning to utilize it at best. This, with the notice that what we developed was developed for ourselves, having in mind finding new music, based upon knowledge of existing tracks (Track Names). With the example of "Let it be" above, you have seen that most certainly not only The Beatles played that and that you may end up in Jazz albums of which you had no earlier knowledge. But with some careful thinking, it is more powerful;
  
  Supposed I want to search for Christmas music, but the more modern (read : not from the 50s/60s but from the early 80s where it all stopped). How to approach this ? well, use a Track Name of that era. And well, what could be better than this one :
  
  
  
  
  Watch out : This does NOT work, unless you want to end up with the Albums of Jona Lewie himself. At this moment this is an issue with how Tidal is origanized, and how Tracks Search can not really be combined with Artists, unless at the Artist-Album level. Anyway, make the Artist empty to end up with this list (which includes again the full albums from Lona Lewie) :
  
  
  
  
  And you just found yourself 88 albums with that more modern Christmas songs (the available 3 of Jona Lewie orginal albums above the mouse arrow). Of course it will be tough to still find different tracks after examining 10 or so, but at least you found those albums which otherwise would be quite undoable in the midst of 1000s (?) of Sinatra and the like.
  But now what this subject of the Release Notes is about :
  
  
  
  
  For a track like this, it is clear that not much "covers" will be about and you can see it by the length of the tracks. Of course we are interested what this 3:25 could be about and this now is the thing :
  *Because* I selected the "tracks only" at first, I do not see (and can not see !) the other Track Names in that album, nor am I able to play them (only the Cavalry track(s) can be played). This is how to go about with this :
  
  1. Click that track of interest (the 3:25 one) or use any other means you know of to get it in the Playlist Area. Let's say you like this, as it is a classical representation. Now you want to see the whole album ...
  
  
  
  
  2. RightClick the Track and choose Revert to Initial Stream State. This question come from it :
  
  
  
  
  It is harmless to answer this with Yes, also with the notice that you can do this all from within the Intermediate Files Folder (where you apply the Search to, normally) or from within the Streams Data Folder (which is where all goes to when you're satisfied with a Search Result. Anyway, after answering Yes, you are able to re-initialize the Album. In practice this means that the tracks on it are enumerated again. Thus :
  
  
  
  
  What's being told there is just what you do. One thing :
  
  
  
  
  This time you are gong to answer Yes.
  The result :
  
  
  
  
  A real Christmas album, in classical genre.
  
  Last notice on this all : After having a normal Album (with all the Tracks) you could apply the same procedure for the other way around (answer No to that question), but you can also apply this "Revert" thing as a trick to re-initialize an Album when something went wrong earlier on, or when you wonder whether it now contains more tracks authorized for your country (epecially with Collection Albums you will notice that often not all Tracks on it can be Prepared/Played by you(r country).
  
  
• Situations could exist that Tidal Track Names worked out too long (longer than the ~260 positions allowed for the Windows Operating System). This has been solved (or at least is better covered for).
  
  
• It is now more formally possible to play Tracks from Tidal in ad-hoc fashion. With this we mean : Do not explicitly prepare the Album but load it in the Playlist Area and press Play anyway. One thing : at this moment this can only work on a PC which is connected to the Internet.
  A later version will allow for giving the command to dynamically prepare to a Music Server PC (Audio PC itself still not connected to the Internet).
  
  
• The coloring of the Tidal Album Borders has been eliminated for the albums in the Streams Data Folder as it looked too wild, and was not really informative anyway. Do notice that the more informative this is for the Intermediate Files Folder (containing the Tidal Track-enumerated Albums) and that that (in there) remained as it was. One change : Thick white borders for newly found Tidal Albums now just have no borders, while "no full Albums" (like Singles) now have thin white borders.
  In the mean time the thin red borders which were present everywhere and by standard (also for your own Library) have been eliminated (just no borders at all now).
  
  
• In similar realm the "haze" which always has been put over Coverart (not Wallpaper Coverart) has now been removed; it possibly disturbed more than it looked good/better.
  
  
• The Result of Tidal Searches were not always shown automatically. Thus, nothing showed, while a refresh of the Library Area would show results indeed. Solved now.
  
  
• When the Search button is used, by standard now the Search screen comes up (see the 4th picture in these Release Notes). The [ D ] button which was available for this (bottom pane with the Library Area active), has been eliminated from the screen.
  
  
• Tooltips have been added to the Search Screen (they simply had been forgotten in the past).
  
  
• Because of some unsolvable anomaly, the last line of the Library Area (text under the Items in there) falls outside of the Library Area window. Clicking/tapping the Double Down Arrow button makes that contents visible now.
  
  
  
  
  
• The Tidal Albums previously received the Release Date in the Album Names, which appeared to be really not right as it most often was mis-used (?) by Tidal to denote their Release Date (say date of uploading). This now has been changed into the Copy Right Date, which usually is (quite) equal to the date of (first) production. This is still not always "100%" but a better Date is not in there anywhere.
  Fact is that your previously "enumerated" Albums contain this wrong (well, not convenient) date and that some function might exist which can recover that date into the Copyright Date. But this function is for some future ...
  
  
• The spacing of the Coverart in the Library Area for the Test/Under setting, can now be made smaller, up to negative. Here's a small example of Negative (also see the negative number on the middle slider) :
  
  
  
  
  Notice that this middle slider determines the distance of the pictures in the right pane just the same (the Show Data button near the bottom must be active for that).
  
  
• With mentioned Show Data button active, the right pane now shows the Coverart and further files for a clicked Item in the middle Pane (Library Area). Previously only the Coverart and further files for the active Album in the Playlist Area showed.
  
  
• When the Skin ([ S ] ) button was used (opening the screen for Skinning being sufficient) the XXHighEnd screen shrunk and XXHighEnd had to be restarted to get it back to normal. This has been solved now.
  
  
• When Skinning changes have been applied, the XXHighEnd screen automatically refreshes now (no need to restart any more).
  
  
• In one of the later versions Cover.jpg abusively started to have priority over Folder.jpg. This has been corrected now.
  
  
• New functionality has been made to show selected Coverart from the Library Area in the right pane :
  Switch Off (!!) Show Data (you see that close to the bottom).
  RightClick one of the selected Items in the Library Area, choose More Gallery Functions, then Show All MainCoverart from selection in right pane and lastly click Go.
  
  
  
  
  Now the selection shows up in the right pane :
  
  
  
  
  Now you can apply all what's under RightClick in the right pane, but let's say that it can be useful to open the picture for larger view;
  The actual reson for doing this is merely meant for comparison purposes, but which is hard to explain without real examples at hand. For now envision something like selecting a certain group of albums from your Library in the middle pane, sort of freeze that in the right pane, to next search Tidal for a similar group of albums while the right pane tells you whether you already have albums of concern.
  Of course you can perform a lot of this stuff by just starting XXHighEnd a 2nd or 4rd etc. time, but this is more under your finger tips. Also notice that because you can add (!) new selections to the right pane at any time, you can create an ad-hoc list of say Artist reminders, which you subsequently look up in Tidal.
  The Clear as you see it above in the menu, obviously clears the right pane.
  
  In the future most certainly new functionality will evolve around this feature.
  
  
• Some better intuitivity has been added to switching from the various Search types (like Local and the Tidal ones - see RightClick on the Search button). This includes remembering what the previous Local search state was (meaning : when you were in the Nice Stuff Gallery, you will be returned to that when selecting Local Search). Also the state of the "A" or "T" you see in the textbox to the left of the Search button now switches accordingly, knowing that -for example- it is not possibe to Search Tidal with the Library Area set to Tracks.
  In other words, many of these things which had to be dealt with manually, now are done for you instead of you not thinking of it to next imply erroneous situations.
  
  
• Depending on the exact situation, many more Albums can now show up after a Tidal Search (for Album and for Artist but mainly for the latter).
  
  
• Previously it was not possible to Volume Normalize Albums in the Intermiate Files Folder (Tidal Prepared) because an error showed (File Type could not be determined). This is now possible.
  
  
• There's now also the possibility to Explore the Gallery Location from a Gallery (Library) Item :
  
  
  
  
  This is quite convenient because often we need to look into Gallery data to see what is going on (something doesn't seem to work) and it required a huge detour via showing the Item in the Embedded Explorer in the left pane, and open the folder of concern from there.
  
  
• For the RAM-OS Disk and booting from RAM, the Timer settings could not be applied previously. Now they can. In order to let this work, apply this (you 'll need to do this one time only, but for each OS you boot from RAM) :
  
  Boot into the BASE version of the OS you want to change the Timer / Timing settings of :
  
  
  
  
  Go to XTweaks and always start out with Refresh :
  
  
  
  
  Take good care that Time Stability reads "Not Stable" and Time Performance Index reads "Not the best" (watch out, because this probably implies that you FIRST must set to "Not Stable" and "Not the best" and after that change back) :
  
  
  
  
  Now change the first (Time Stability), Reboot and check whether it worked out :
  
  
  
  
  Apply the same for the other one. After that boot into the RAM version of the OS (see first screenshot above at the mouse pointer) and see that both will have worked out now (booted from RAM !) :
  
  
  
  
  If you counted correctly, all together this required max 6 reboots (start out from RAM - end up in RAM).
  This will again improve SQ, a bit depending on how your system (PC) responded to this, outside of the RAM-OS Disk appliance hence how you judged that yourself.
  
  
• At subsequent starts of XXHighEnd, the [ 1 ] splitter would slowly but certainly move more and more to the right. This has been solved but with the notice that it even more slowly may move to the left now (but this is regarded less problematic).
  
  
• The normal Scrollbar for the LIbrary Area has been re-instated because the new one as of late cause more troubles than it solved. The old scrollbar is more thin (and can't be resized), but can still be used quite fine on a tablet.
  
  
• The [ V ] button in the bottom pane of the screen with the Library Area active, has been deprecated; it was meant to show the contents of the Library Area with checkboxes for selection of the Items in there, but with nowadays number of albums this (means) was way way too slow.
  Most probably nobody used it anyway.
  
  
• XXHighEnd 2.06 had a bug which did not allow the XXHighEnd Settings to be saved to permanent storage, when using a normal RAM Disk (this is not about the RAM-OS Disk).
  This is now solved.
  
  
• The last couple of versions of XXHighEnd allowed Physical Copy with Galleries as the base (not really the source, because that would be the normal music as implied by the Gallery Data). However, it appeared that this did not respect the individual Track Data in the Galleries. So for example Demo (meant to contain Tracks and not full Albums) impolied copying of the full Album after all. This is now solved.
  Watch out : For Cue File Albums the physica copying remains to be at the Album level (too difficult to do otherwise).
  
  
• After a lot of research it has been accomplished that Windows 10 will not update itself. New (quite complex !)functionality has been developed for this, and it is again under RightClick on the Stop button, but with more clear texts :
  
  
  
  
  Obviously the Updating for this machine still has to be stopped. When the option is clicked, this will appear :
  
  
  
  
  And after that, the menu will show this :
  
  
  
  
  Various (and more) checks are performed to test whether all really worked out.
  Watch out : Very theoretically it can be so that for the Home version of Windows 10 something fails. If so, please announce on the forum.
  
  
• A possible bug has been solved regarding RDC and Windows 10 Build 14393.0. The bug (or difference for 14393.0) should be in a Service which previously started automatically when required, but in 14393.0 does not. This Service is now explicitly started by XXHighEnd.
  For those bugged by this, please let know your findings via the forum.
  
  
• It is now possible to examine the XX(-prefixed) log file for the Service or Process that holds up Unattended from Playback. Logging needs to be switched on to show it. So once things hang (for say a minute at least), switch on logging, retry and look in the XX log file for either these lines :
  Could not stop Service :
  Could not stop Process :
  
  
• Dragging Tracks to different Playback positions (sequence) did not work any more for a couple of latest XXHighEnc versions. This has been solved.
  
  
• An attempt has been made to let start/load WAV files faster for Unattended Playback, per kind of means FLAC can do it blazingly fast. This "kind of" works, but the result is hardly worth it or noticable.
  
  
• It appeared that moving the XXHighEnd screen by means of picking it up somewhere randomly (Borders off per [ B ] button in the right hand side !), stopped Unattended Playback. This has been solved.
  
  

Reminder for Windows 8 users : As an option, don't forget to install the Windows 7 Shell provided with XXHighEnd. See the Windows7_Shell folder in your XX folder and don't forget to read the readme's in there !
Notice that this Windows 7 Shell does not work for Windows 8.1 and Windows 10 and instead it will render your OS Install useless (black screen) when you install it anyway.
New since XXHighEnd 2.03 the Windows 7 Shell is mentioned "as an option" because Windows 8 now just runs as well on the Metro Desktop *IF* you get the habit of selecting the Windows Desktop first from where you do all with XXHighEnd.

After copying / unzipping the install files, just start the XXHighEnd.exe file; no Install as such is needed. See below at the mouse arrow.

However, when you are running Windows 8 or higher - have not used XXHighEnd before - and are not connected to the Internet, first read this : Windows 8 Tutorials - Install .Net 3.5.

We urge you to read this : Windows 10 Tutorials - Wallpaper, Core Schemes, Q4,5 and more.

Please report as much as you run into but do so in a dedicated topic with a catching title.
Right below here you will find the full install of XXHighEnd.
Below that you will find the UpgradePatch install which can only be used on/over the previous XXHighEnd version - 2.06 or 2.06a. Do *not* installl this UpgradePatch on its own in a new folder because nothing will work ! Only paste and unzip over the contents of the existing XX folder where 2.06 or 2.06a is installed.

Edit, January 3, 2017 for those installing XXHighEnd for the first time on Windows 10 (NOT for those who already have XXHighEnd (any version) on this machine/OS) :
1. Download the XXHighEnd-207.rar.
2. Unzip is, but do NOT start XXHighEnd.exe yet.
3. Download the RunTisFirst.rar and unzip over the folder you used for #1.
4. Run the RunThisFirst.bat file which now exists, prior to anything else (and only this one time as part of the "install" !).
5. Now you can start XXHighEnd.exe.
When you omit #4 then you will not have rights to run Apps like Edge. If you like to know some background info on this, see here.

March 9, 2017 :
There is a bug in the demo version which causes an error message to appear at the end of the session. Look here for that. The error message is not detrimental to anything - it is only that it should not occur.
Another bug causes the 32 bit OS to have problems with the changed Install procedure. See here for the solution.