Windows 8 Audio Optimization Script

[jhwalker]

Hi Scott,

 

I clearly understand where you are coming from. I have been using John/Phil's Win 8 and your script, and it is a major improvement.You gentlemen deserve a big thanks!

 

It is sad though how other people's agendas have come into play.

 

best regards

Bob

 

Bob, if you're talking about me, I have no "agenda", just curiosity. I'd like to understand exactly what the script is trying to accomplish - it can't be to lower CPU utilization or memory consumption, as playing back even high resolution music is trivial in terms of resource consumption on today's computers.

 

Imagree with the idea of limiting services, startup programs, etc., *if* you're experiencing performance issues - but what's the point otherwise?

 

Again, I haven't "agenda" (I keep putting it in quotes because it's typically used in a perjorative fashion and I don't like the implication), just curiosity.

[jhwalker]

John,

that claim is quite amazing. I applaud you. Running 24/192 and DSD music into a non-optimized Windows server with less than 1% cpu utilization??! Wow! Must be nice. I would imagine your system and setup needs no optimization then. Not sure why you are on this thread, but whatever. Good setup.

 

It's just a two year old Toshiba laptop (i5, only 4GB RAM, regular 5400 RPM hard drive), bog standard Windows 7, no special optimization. You'd think our company would be handing out supercomputers with all the focus on productivity, but I guess it gets the job done.

[BobSherman]

Bob, if you're talking about me, I have no "agenda", just curiosity. I'd like to understand exactly what the script is trying to accomplish - it can't be to lower CPU utilization or memory consumption, as playing back even high resolution music is trivial in terms of resource consumption on today's computers.

 

Imagree with the idea of limiting services, startup programs, etc., *if* you're experiencing performance issues - but what's the point otherwise?

 

Again, I haven't "agenda" (I keep putting it in quotes because it's typically used in a perjorative fashion and I don't like the implication), just curiosity.

 

Hi John,

 

Well I will take you at you word as I am curious also. IMO system optimization goes much further than just low CPU utilization. There is more to playing music than just bit-perfect. But that is me. We are all entitled to our opinions.

 

But I am curious as to your interest in optimizing Windows 8 and use of Jplay. Of course there is nothing wrong with curiosity and intelligent discussion, but what you posted in answer to the JPlay letter on Audio Stream was rather curious to me. I guess it was just an oversight that you forgot to mention that you installed Jplay on your work laptop (not your music system) running windows 7 with 4 gig of memory. Being a pro weren't you the least bit curious why this little JPlay program can bring you entire system to a screeching halt? (which in reality is what it should be doing to everything else except music related functions.) How can it affect Jremote? Does Jplay have a wireless component? If all Jplay is doing is taking the output from JRiver and outputting it to the DAC, how can it be causing there problems? Maybe your work computer just ran out of memory? Or need to be optimized properly to support music playback?

 

How are you so sure that: "So I'm sure JRiver was getting all kinds of support requests for assistance wtih "freezing" and JRemote not working, etc. - common denominator is JPlay."

 

Sounds like a bit of a rush to judgment. No matter what environment I am dealing with, if and when problems or conflicts arise I would try and find them and fix them. From the early 80's until today I have lost plenty of night sleep getting things to work, and would not stop until it did. Weren't you the least bit curious?

 

Back to the topic. Scott script is very helpfull and IMO goes a long way to improve the sound of a windows 8 music server. I would strongly recomend people try it and then listen.

 

best regards

Bob

[man]

I was able to fix the audio service problem. I found the Windows Audio service in the services list, and one of the 2 services that it is dependent on had been turned off by the script. So I simply turned that service back to "automatic start", rebooted, and the audio service was back on and I could select my Dac in JRiver again and all was fine.

 

I'm surprised that more people wouldn't be reporting that issue to you.

[jhwalker]

Hi John,

 

Well I will take you at you word as I am curious also. IMO system optimization goes much further than just low CPU utilization. There is more to playing music than just bit-perfect. But that is me. We are all entitled to our opinions.

 

But I am curious as to your interest in optimizing Windows 8 and use of Jplay. Of course there is nothing wrong with curiosity and intelligent discussion, but what you posted in answer to the JPlay letter on Audio Stream was rather curious to me. I guess it was just an oversight that you forgot to mention that you installed Jplay on your work laptop (not your music system) running windows 7 with 4 gig of memory. Being a pro weren't you the least bit curious why this little JPlay program can bring you entire system to a screeching halt? (which in reality is what it should be doing to everything else except music related functions.) How can it affect Jremote? Does Jplay have a wireless component? If all Jplay is doing is taking the output from JRiver and outputting it to the DAC, how can it be causing there problems? Maybe your work computer just ran out of memory? Or need to be optimized properly to support music playback?

 

How are you so sure that: "So I'm sure JRiver was getting all kinds of support requests for assistance wtih "freezing" and JRemote not working, etc. - common denominator is JPlay."

 

Sounds like a bit of a rush to judgment. No matter what environment I am dealing with, if and when problems or conflicts arise I would try and find them and fix them. From the early 80's until today I have lost plenty of night sleep getting things to work, and would not stop until it did. Weren't you the least bit curious?

 

Back to the topic. Scott script is very helpfull and IMO goes a long way to improve the sound of a windows 8 music server. I would strongly recomend people try it and then listen.

 

best regards

Bob

 

Actually, at the time I used JPlay, I had a 16GB Windows 7 laptop with SSD (I just got this "new and improved" 4GB laptop last week), so I don't think it was resource constrained And, yes, I spent some time working with it - I did deskside / datacenter / network support for 10 years before moving into management, and I still know how all this stuff works (or doesn't).

 

I got it to play very easily, but didn't hear any benefit from doing so, and it did prevent use of JRemote and periodically hang my whole system, as I described. Not sure why I would want to go through that pain on a regular basis.

 

And the comment about support load comes straight from the horse's mouth (not the other end) - check the JRiver forums for repeated horror stories of issues caused by use of JPlay, which finally resulted in their comments about the nature of the software and declining to support it going forward.

 

So getting back to the subject at hand (i.e., Windows optimization script(s), not JPlay), I'll give it a try (with appropriate modifications for Windows 7 vs. 8 - I have Windows 8 on a test system, but don't find it very useful for desktop / laptop work). I've used Fidelizer in the past and have no strong objection to using any sort of optimization *if* it makes sense to do so. In my experience (my Mac Mini home system is mostly HT oriented, but I use a Meridian Explorer and HE-500 headphones for more critical listening with my MacBook Pro and various Windows laptops), I've never heard any difference between "optimized" and "normal" systems, so long as there is actually a continuous stream of data into the DAC (i.e., the system is not broken).

[Computer Audio Design]

I was able to fix the audio service problem. I found the Windows Audio service in the services list, and one of the 2 services that it is dependent on had been turned off by the script. So I simply turned that service back to "automatic start", rebooted, and the audio service was back on and I could select my Dac in JRiver again and all was fine.

 

I'm surprised that more people wouldn't be reporting that issue to you.

 

Hi cellman57, Glad you got it working! I am a bit confused though. The Windows Audio Service is dependent on the Multimedia Class Scheduler, RPC & Windows Audio Enpoint Builder. If you answered YES, to the question about wanting to keep WASAPI all these services will be left enabled. But I guess you are needing Windows Audio but are not using WASAPI? Is that correct? If so I will reword the question. I do not use any Windows Audio for playback so I do not know much about it.

 

Best Regards,

Scott

[stevebythebay]

Scott: I'd like to give this a try, since I've no real idea what Fidelizer is doing (not a script, pity).

 

However, my CAPS Lagoon is setup to only connect it's LAN directly to an external Western Digital My Book Live. No router in the picture.

 

Yet I use a Buffalo USB WiFi dongle so my iPad's JRemote can access JRiver's Media Center through the home ASUS WiFi Router. What changes would I need to make to the script to allow for WiFi support?

[Computer Audio Design]

Scott: I'd like to give this a try, since I've no real idea what Fidelizer is doing (not a script, pity).

 

However, my CAPS Lagoon is setup to only connect it's LAN directly to an external Western Digital My Book Live. No router in the picture.

 

Yet I use a Buffalo USB WiFi dongle so my iPad's JRemote can access JRiver's Media Center through the home ASUS WiFi Router. What changes would I need to make to the script to allow for WiFi support?

 

Hi Steve,

 

I have taken a break from the script but will be getting back into it this week. I plan on having the option of leaving wifi on in the next version along with some other things that I think will help.

 

I general think it is generally best for sound quality to not have any wifi on the computer, but I realise this is not always possible. I use an Ethernet connected wifi router to get wifi.

 

Check back in about a week, with a system as good as yours I would like to know what you think.

 

Scott

[stevebythebay]

Thanks. Will check back. Thought about what you suggest but that puts the router between the PC and the NAS which compromises things somewhat, as it adds another expensive link, in my case, to the chain. I don't know much about how Windows behaves with respect to WiFi but I suspect it polls for network requests, and that may well interfere with the overall performance of the system. Either that or it simply wakes up when it's addressed from a WiFi access point. Or lastly, it always stays in touch with the network it's "attached" to. I'm thinking that no matter what's going on, the network stack is trying to handle both the LAN NAS traffice while also keeping it's "ears" listening to WiFi. At least with a LAN only connection to an access point it leaves the WiFi interrupts, etc. to the access point. Would be interesting to try both approaches on a hardware "apples to apples" comparison, but I've no means for doing so without obtaining another Synergistics active Ethernet cable (these are not inexpensive).

[Computer Audio Design]

OK, been on holiday and then had to catch up on all the work stuff. Here is Version 2.5.

 

The changes are:

 

Remote desktop did not work in Ver2.4. This version fixes that.

 

 

Turned CPU parking OFF.

 

 

Add an option to leave WiFi enabled. The services required for Wifi I feel degrade sound quality. I have better luck using a Ethernet connected wifi point. I put it on a 15 meter Ethernet cable and keep it far away from my audio gear. Ethernet also degrades sound quality but it is generally a bit more robust than wifi - but who knows? : )

 

 

Disabled Action Center

 

 

Disable Windows 8 Lock Screen

 

 

Add an option to leave Firewire interface enabled

 

 

CAD Windows 8 Optimization Script V2.5

 

Here is a script that will turn all the changes made in V2.5 back to original Windows 8 settings:

 

 

CAD Return to Orginal Windows 8 Settings V2.5

 

 

I have spent some additional time on what I am now calling "Desktop Services Killer". These are services that I have had trouble disabling permanently. They are either needed or cause fewer issues if available for boot up. This script does not make permanent changes. Once you reboot your computer you need to run again. So if you want to try it out just run it from your desktop (or anywhere).

 

If you like what it does for the sound quality you can put it in your autostart folder. When the computer boots up it will then automatically run on startup. There are a couple points where the script waits. This is because some of the services are not running at startup. The autostart folder is a "hidden" folder. The folder is located at:

 

 

C:\Program Data\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Startup

 

Here is a tutorial on how to "unhide" your hidden folders so you can see the startup folder:

 

 

Unhide Windows 8 folders

 

 

Follow the second section called "How to view Hidden and System files in Windows 8"

 

Desktop Services Killer V1.0

 

As always feedback (good & bad) and new ideas are always welcome.

 

 

Scott

[Battles]

Hi Scott,

 

First, thanks in advance to your contribution to computeraudiophila! At the risk of raising an issue that has already been addressed elsewhere in the thread, I wanted to let you know that I tried your script on my CAPS3 Carbon (configured and built by Small Green Computer) and it unfortunately shutdown my CAPS' network connection. I believe I was using the most current script as of the weekend before last (perhaps v2.4). This occurred in spite of me selecting to "maintain network connection" in the configuration prompts that occur upon running the script. Would appreciate your help on resolving this!

 

Thanks,

 

Battles

[Computer Audio Design]

Hi Scott,

 

First, thanks in advance to your contribution to computeraudiophila! At the risk of raising an issue that has already been addressed elsewhere in the thread, I wanted to let you know that I tried your script on my CAPS3 Carbon (configured and built by Small Green Computer) and it unfortunately shutdown my CAPS' network connection. I believe I was using the most current script as of the weekend before last (perhaps v2.4). This occurred in spite of me selecting to "maintain network connection" in the configuration prompts that occur upon running the script. Would appreciate your help on resolving this!

 

Thanks,

 

Battles

 

Hello Battles,

 

Sorry to hear you are having a problem. The script never asks you if you want to "maintain network connection". It does ask if you wish to keep wifi on or remote desktop on. The script is designed to allow a hard line Ethernet cable connection - that's is all. You must have an Ethernet cable connected to your CAPs if you answered YES to disabling wifi.

 

I am not sure if that helps you at all, but please PM me if you can't get it working

 

Best Regards,

 

Scott

[Battles]

Thanks Scott. Sorry I was trying to go by memory and confused "keep remote desktop" with "maintain network connection". I'll try running the latest script and see how that works. Do you happen to know of others with a CAPS Carbon configuration for which the script has worked? Moreover, if it doesn't work, do you know of particular processes that relate to network connectivity or network drivers I should try enabling?

[Computer Audio Design]

Thanks Scott. Sorry I was trying to go by memory and confused "keep remote desktop" with "maintain network connection". I'll try running the latest script and see how that works. Do you happen to know of others with a CAPS Carbon configuration for which the script has worked? Moreover, if it doesn't work, do you know of particular processes that relate to network connectivity or network drivers I should try enabling?

 

Hi Battles, I do not know anything specific about the CAPs Carbon. You can not use "homegroup" - that is disabled by the script. I am guessing that may be the issue... If not, the other thing to try is deleting these processes from V2.5: NdisTapi, NDProxy & netprofm.

 

Scott

[stevebythebay]

OK. So I finally got around to testing the Win 8 script. Runs to completion successfully. I told it I wanted the WiFi. However on reboot the system didn't see the Buffalo wireless USB adapter (http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00317G04O). So, even if the processes and services to allow WiFi are running, something else was disabled. At least the restore script got me back to where I was (no need for a system restore).

 

Guess I'll struggle along with Fidelizer until there's an update to the script that allows for USB devices like this one to run. I suppose I should have plugged in a flash drive to see if this was simply a disabling of ALL USB connections.

[jpost]

This is a great script. I really like it.

 

I am only having problem with stopping the NSI in the Desktop Services Killer.

Without the NSI I am unable to access network shares in my NAS over SMB.

[Computer Audio Design]

This is a great script. I really like it.

 

I am only having problem with stopping the NSI in the Desktop Services Killer.

Without the NSI I am unable to access network shares in my NAS over SMB.

 

Open the Desktop Services Killer script using Notepad and delete this line:

net stop lmhosts

 

That should solve your problem.

 

Scott

[fromero76]

OK. So I finally got around to testing the Win 8 script. Runs to completion successfully. I told it I wanted the WiFi. However on reboot the system didn't see the Buffalo wireless USB adapter (Amazon.com: BUFFALO AirStation HighPower N150 Wireless USB Adapter - WLI-UC-GNHP: Electronics). So, even if the processes and services to allow WiFi are running, something else was disabled. At least the restore script got me back to where I was (no need for a system restore).

 

Guess I'll struggle along with Fidelizer until there's an update to the script that allows for USB devices like this one to run. I suppose I should have plugged in a flash drive to see if this was simply a disabling of ALL USB connections.

 

 

Same problem here. After running the script and telling it I do want Wifi Windows doesn't see my integrated Wifi adapter on an Intel dz77ga-70k motherboard

[jpost]

Removing this line "net stop lmhosts" did not help. I don't have access to shared drive

 

When I removed this line "net stop nsi /yes" the SMB shared drive worked.

[Computer Audio Design]

Removing this line "net stop lmhosts" did not help. I don't have access to shared drive

 

When I removed this line "net stop nsi /yes" the SMB shared drive worked.

 

Thanks for that! I did get wifi working on my motherboard with the current script but it sounds like something else needs to be left on. I also tested a Synology NAS and it worked fine for me. It's not easy!

 

Scott

[RoyMercer]

Thank you to the person that devoted the time for this script, and offer it for free! I ran it last night on my win 8 server several times.Although I selected to leave RDP on, I was unable to Remote Desktop in after I ran the script. The other issue I have, is the need to use my server via a mapped drive. I can dedicate this machine to being an audio server with the exception I need to access my attached hard drives from another computer on my home network and be able to Remote Desktop into the server. If anyone knows how to make RDP work and what service(s) needs enabled so I can see my network drives from other computers, please share. Thanks!

[RoyMercer]

I would love to be able to disable all of these goodies except what's needed to use my server as a network drive too! I got RDP to work by completely removing it in the script, but still trying to figure out how to share a drive on my server. I know the problem is within the 180+ drivers and services section because I removed all and it worked. I have spent hours and hours trying to find what is needed. Some of these services are hard to figure out what they even do. I will post my findings if I can figure it out.

 

Are there dealers in the USA for CAD products?

[Computer Audio Design]

I would love to be able to disable all of these goodies except what's needed to use my server as a network drive too! I got RDP to work by completely removing it in the script, but still trying to figure out how to share a drive on my server. I know the problem is within the 180+ drivers and services section because I removed all and it worked. I have spent hours and hours trying to find what is needed. Some of these services are hard to figure out what they even do. I will post my findings if I can figure it out.

 

Are there dealers in the USA for CAD products?

 

Hi Roy, I apologize for taking so long to get back. Can you tell me what you exactly removed in the script to get RDP working for you? I do not use RDP but I have had several people tell me that RDP has worked for them after running the script. At this point I know it is impossible to write a script that works for everybody! As far as sharing a drive we do things a bit differently in that we do not use NAS drives. All of our audio computers have SSDs connected via SATA directly to the motherboard. These SSDs are shared on our network and it works great. I know that there are many people with NAS drives that have used the script with no problems. There have been a few people with sharing issues and/or not seeing the drives on their network. I think it looks like the LAN drivers might have something to do with it, but I really do not know... We just hired a very good IT man and that is on his list of things to look into. : )

 

Best Regards,

 

Scott

[jesuscheung]

you shouldn't disable the application compatibility engine in the script. because some players need it to get admin right to do things. e.g. MQn, XA sound worse with it disabled.

[Computer Audio Design]

you shouldn't disable the application compatibility engine in the script. because some players need it to get admin right to do things. e.g. MQn, XA sound worse with it disabled.

 

Thanks for that. I will do some listening with it on and off once again. I do not use MQn or XA, but I could add this as an optional service to be turned off.

 

Scott