Who's used the Audiophile Optimizer for Windows 2012 Server or Windows 8?

[AudioPhil]

...So no one has any ideas or wishes for the next release??

[Eric Ventura]

...So no one has any ideas or wishes for the next release??

 

I don't know it well enough yet - so right now, my only two wishes are:

 

#1 since I just bought AO like a week ago, that I get the next version as free upgrade.

 

#2 that you could script all your settings - so for example, say I need to go back to full GUI to install a driver or something, I wish the software had a script that it generated from my previous settings, that would put me back into Core mode, with the settings as I would have them without me having to manually do core mode, then re-run the optimizer then have to Y-Y-N-N-N-N-N-N-Y-Y (or whatever) reboot.

[AudioPhil]

Hi

 

Chances for #1 are very good My idea is to have ~1 update per year which is not free, the rest shall be free.

 

#2 is a great idea, will certainly come in the future, but not in 1.27.

 

Any other wishes or needs?

[sig8]

...So no one has any ideas or wishes for the next release??

 

1. I would like to see if we can go to say Media Center, without having to type long stings of commands in Core Mode. JPlay Settings in not that bad, but to go JRiver is a pain.

 

2. Once in C:AO; why even have to type Service_tool.exe, why not say st.exe, or both should work.

 

Thanks.

[DMelby]

I agree it would be great to have a way of saving the choices as I'm fairly often switching from core mode to minimal server mode so have to redo the optimizer.

Maybe in 1.27 you could simply change the options from just Express and Advanced options to something more like 5 choices that would match 90% of the situations. For example, have Express, and Advanced as it is, but also add an express setting such as O optimal which automatically turns everything off (plug in play, all services and drivers, networking, WMI, USBPAL driver. In this situation, there are a lot less choices which are not turned on or used in the optimal setup. Another thought is if you leave it as it is, can you change the response to the do you want USBPAL driver from negative to positive. Meaning, rephrase it to something like No support for USBPAL? Yes or No. This would allow all the answers to be yes to all questions under the optimal settings. Then could just hit YYYYY all the way through. As it is, the USBPAL question is the only one that most will answer No to in the whole setup.

Another thought is to incorporate some of the questions from the service tool, specifically setting the shell in core, and turning on or off networking. Might be nice to have these options under one program rather than need to switch back and forth for these type of settings (I think are audio quality related?). The service tool is nice for more general non audio quality related things like changing modes, and so on.

Any method to further limit windows CPU utilization by the system interupts would be great! I've noticed always, that the lower the CPU utilization the cleaner the sound. And this is one area I can't determine or find anywhere how to accomplish.

And lastly, an option in Core mode to use a drive for CD ripping is kind of top on my wish list. I have to always switch to minimal server mode to rip a CD which is fine, but a bit of a chore going back and forth. (I realize its better not to have a CD drive hooked up, but I plug it in only for ripping, then take it out for general audio use).

Again thank you for such an amazing product! And for the recommendation of Paul Pangs SATA cable. My system is sounding just fantastic I had no idea it could ever sound this good and its through your hard work and good ears!

[DMelby]

1. I would like to see if we can go to say Media Center, without having to type long stings of commands in Core Mode. JPlay Settings in not that bad, but to go JRiver is a pain.

 

2. Once in C:AO; why even have to type Service_tool.exe, why not say st.exe, or both should work.

 

Thanks.

 

Great idea!! Have short program names st.exe for service tool and ao.exe for audiophilecore.exe

[tboooe]

Great idea!! Have short program names st.exe for service tool and ao.exe for audiophilecore.exe

There is a DOS trick....just type in the first few letters and press tab. Keep pressing it to cycle through all files in that directory that begin with whatever letter(s) you typed in.

[tboooe]

A simple idea is to show whatever the setting is currently set at when running audiophileoptimizer.exe like you do with the sound signature and filter. Sometimes I cant remember what setting I had before.

 

The ability to save and restore different configurations to a file. This way I can have different configurations saved which makes it easier to try out different things.

[preproman]

I know this may defeat the purpose. But I would like to use J. Rivers Theater View in Core mode.

[AudioPhil]

1. I would like to see if we can go to say Media Center, without having to type long stings of commands in Core Mode. JPlay Settings in not that bad, but to go JRiver is a pain.

 

2. Once in C:AO; why even have to type Service_tool.exe, why not say st.exe, or both should work.

 

Thanks.

 

path variables are correctly set for AO, so you don't need to go to c:\ao. You can start AO & ST from any directory you want to.

 

I can do the same for JPLAY, most likely also for JRiver. But path variables for those two should been set by JPLAY & JRiver, not by AO (in a perfect world)

[AudioPhil]

I know this may defeat the purpose. But I would like to use J. Rivers Theater View in Core mode.

 

Windows does not offer such capabilities in core mode, sorry. I can't and won't change that because it would heavily degrade SQ. Sorry.

[AudioPhil]

There is a DOS trick....just type in the first few letters and press tab. Keep pressing it to cycle through all files in that directory that begin with whatever letter(s) you typed in.

 

Good trick, but works only if you are in the right directory. I might introduce some short commands like "ao" and "st" which can be run from any directory :-)

[tboooe]

Good trick, but works only if you are in the right directory. I might introduce some short commands like "ao" and "st" which can be run from any directory :-)

Yes but the OP asked "2. Once in C:AO; why even have to type Service_tool.exe, why not say st.exe, or both should work."

 

I like your idea too! AO Anywhere feature!

[AudioPhil]

Yes but the OP asked "2. Once in C:AO; why even have to type Service_tool.exe, why not say st.exe, or both should work."

 

I like your idea too! AO Anywhere feature!

 

AO Anywhere is already reality i think since 1.24 or 1.25. you should read my change log

 

1.27 will mostly also intoduce shortnames like "ao" and "st"

[seeteeyou]

I'd like to see experimental support for Windows PE 5.1 in the future

 

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dn293271.aspx

 

http://caixaseca.blogspot.com/2014/04/windows-pe-50.html

 

https://sites.google.com/site/godunder/windows-build-files/how-to-create-a-custom-winpe-8-winpe-8-1-5-0-5-1-boot-cd-iso-or-usb-boot-key

 

http://reboot.pro/forum/133-win8pe

 

Could that further streamline the entire OS by any chance?

 

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Yet another alternative would be Windows Server 2012 R2 for Embedded Systems if that could become part of the AO package down the road

 

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsembedded/en-us/windows-server-2012-for-embedded-systems.aspx

 

http://download.microsoft.com/download/F/C/C/FCC534B7-90B3-464D-8A24-006DF155F769/WindowsEmbeddedServer2012R2_Datat_sheet.pdf

 

http://download.microsoft.com/download/F/C/C/FCC534B7-90B3-464D-8A24-006DF155F769/Windows%20Embedded%20Server_SQL_DecisionTree.pdf

 

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsembedded/en-us/downloads.aspx?windows-server-2012-for-embedded-systems

 

http://ocs.arrow.com/msembedded/windows-server-2012sql-server

 

http://www.elbacom.com/embedded/products/server/server2012

 

http://www.advantech.com/embcore/windowsembeddedserver.aspx

 

 

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Reasons to Use Windows Embedded Server vs. General Purpose Servers

 

 

• Optimal Pricing – Pay only for the functionality used
  
• Longer product support – Products are supported for a minimum of 5 years, with 5 mainstream and 5 extended
  
• Guaranteed availability – Products are guaranteed to be available for 15 years from release
  

 

http://avnetmssolutions.com/products/24/title/Windows+Embedded+Server

 

http://avnetmssolutions.com/products/163/title/Windows+Embedded+Server+2012+R2

 

http://avnetmssolutions.com/licenses/2

 

Thank you.

[AudioPhil]

Hi

 

I don't think WinPE is goint to work out sorry. The WindowsPreinstallationEnvironment is a totally different architecture than Windows 8 or Server 2012 R2.

 

[h=2]Windows PE Limitations[/h] Windows PE has the following limitations:

 

 

• To reduce its size, Windows PE includes only a subset of the available Win32 application programming interfaces (APIs). I/O (disk and network) and core Win32 APIs are included.
  
• To prevent its use as a pirated operating system, Windows PE automatically stops running the shell and reboots after 72 hours of continuous use. This time period is not configurable.
  
• Windows PE cannot act as a file server or terminal server. (Remote Desktop is unsupported.)
  
• Distributed File System (DFS) name resolution is supported for standalone roots only. Domain roots are not supported.
  
• The tested methods of gaining network connectivity to file servers are TCP/IP and NetBIOS over TCP/IP. Other methods, such as the IPX/SPX network protocol, are not supported.
  
• All changes that you make to the Windows PE registry while running Windows PE are lost the next time you restart the computer. To make permanent registry changes, you must edit the registry offline before starting Windows PE.
  
• Drive letters are assigned in consecutive order as you create partitions in Windows PE. However, the drive letters are reset to the default order when you restart Windows PE.
  
• Windows PE does not support the Microsoft .NET Framework or the Common Language Runtime (CLR).
  
• Windows PE does not include the “Windows on Windows 32” (WOW32), “Windows on Windows 64” (WOW64), Virtual DOS Machine (VDM), OS/2 or POSIX subsystems.
  
• To install a 64-bit version of Windows you must use a 64-bit version of Windows PE. Likewise, to install a 32-bit version of Windows, you must use a 32-bit version of Windows PE.
  
• Windows PE can be used to configure and to partition a computer's disks before starting Windows Setup. If any hard disks are converted to dynamic disks with Diskpart.exe before you start Windows Setup, then those hard disks are recognized as "foreign" when the operating system is installed, and any volumes on those hard disks will not be accessible.
  
• Windows PE does not support applications packaged with Windows Installer (.msi).
  
• WIM File System Filter (WIM FS Filter) driver is not supported in Windows PE.
  

 

 

Windows Embedded would theoretically work. But i think you can't buy it anywhere if you have no OEM customer agreement with microsoft. Typically only large companies have such contracts with MS.

[seeteeyou]

That's terrific since you're already familiar with PE now. This particular flavor of PE could look more promising

 

http://theoven.org/index.php?topic=774.0

 

http://theoven.org/index.php?board=33.0

 

They even got WoW64 Basic working and 32-bit applications should be OK

 

http://win81se.cwcodes.net/projectindex.php

 

Most likely we're just facing challenges like this one here

 

http://theoven.org/index.php?topic=997.0

 

And that 72-hour thing really is no big deal at all

 

http://w7pese.cwcodes.net/Projects/Win7PESE/Tweaks/72hours.script

 

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And we've got 180 days to play with Windows Embedded 8 Standard (with Embedded Core mode) for free as well

 

http://www.computeraudiophile.com/f10-music-servers/whos-used-audiophile-optimizer-windows-2012-server-or-windows-8-a-17897/index29.html#post343924

 

For the licensing part, could Small Green Computer get in touch with a Microsoft Partner such as Advantech / Arrow Electronics / Avnet / Elbacom or not? Granted SGC wouldn't be exactly an OEM but I'm just wondering about how "flexible" they really are when it comes to the licenses for those embedded versions of Windows.

 

 

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Thanks again for looking into PE and let's see if that Win8.1SE mentioned above were feasible or not.

[AudioPhil]

A simple idea is to show whatever the setting is currently set at when running audiophileoptimizer.exe like you do with the sound signature and filter. Sometimes I cant remember what setting I had before.

 

The ability to save and restore different configurations to a file. This way I can have different configurations saved which makes it easier to try out different things.

 

i think there is a need for such a function, i've read it a few times now. it won't be happing with 1.27, but certainly on one of the coming versions after 1.27

[preproman]

While in core mode, is it recommended to use KS or JPlay (ASIO)

[AudioPhil]

I'd go KS

[k6davis]

While in core mode, is it recommended to use KS or JPlay (ASIO)

 

audioPhil strongly recommends KS, and I trust him on that, but I actually use both KS and JPlay (ASIO).

 

My understanding is that JPlay doesn't have a KS input. So I send JRiver's output to JPlay via ASIO, but JPlay is connected to my DAC via KS.

 

If anyone knows of a better configuration, please let me know.

[AudioPhil]

Hi

 

I also use both KS and ASIO. i was referring to the part "after" JPLAY, where i prefer KS if possible.

 

Best,

Phil

[ALRAINBOW]

Ks ?

[rdsu]

Ks ?

Kernel Streaming...

[ALRAINBOW]

Thanks. Sorry Stupid question.

Incannot say i have heard a difrence on any DAC even without AO. But there is many saying it's the one.

Al