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Looper's Delight
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This topic has been discussed before, but I wanted
to share my latest findings. As you XP computer users know, when Windows starts
it loads a lot of processes, drivers, apps, services, etc that
aren't all necessary all of the time. Many of these use some processing
power, but it usually shows as more of a memory drain if you do a
control-alt-delete, go to Task Manager, and look at the memory usage in the
processes tab. For instance, the main memory hoggers on my ThinkPad are
DiskManager, Norton Anti-Virus, and a few others ThinkPad maintenance
apps. In addition, I've read a number of computer recording articles that
suggest that the wireless network turned on can cause issues on some computers
and apps, causing crashes, clicking, etc. In fact, I experienced this exact
issue with ProTools/mBox a few years ago, where if the wireless network was on,
but could not find an accesspoint, it would cause ProTools to crash. Bizarre.
And I recently read in the max/msp forum that this could cause clicking with
some recording apps and sound cards.
Amway, there are a number of methods that folks use
to prevent some of these above mentioned processes and apps from launching at
startup. Some of us, including myself in the past, have used msconfig (you just
run this from Start and Run). You can deselect any of these and prevent them
from running at startup. However, I recently read in some tech forums
that msconfig is recommended primarily for testing, troubleshooting,
etc...not as a permanent solution to altering your startup process. The
claim is that this is not an efficient way to end the processes and does so
incompletely. Then, another tech forum suggests that instead of msconfig,
you should be using "services.msc". It is a more efficient and clean way to go
in and end the processes safely. However, that app is a little awkward to
use. I also recall another solution, that I've tried, but scares the hell
out of me, where you make changes to your startup process, save your MS registry
file (go into Start, Run, and "regedit"), and do this for your different
configurations. Then you load the registry file you want, and reboot to get that
configuration. I don't recommend this, though it seemed to work. At the time, it
did some weird things to my system like generate duplicate entry lines in my
startup processes. Moreover, I read enough negative comments on these
other methods to disuade me from using them. I am very protective of my computer
and don't like messing with things unless I know it is safe and
stable.
Over a year ago, I started using AutoRuns, linked
below. It has gained a lot of attention and is even linked from the Microsoft
technet site. You launch this program and it basically shows you everything that
is running on your system. You can easily de-select what you want, save, and
then when you reboot, those processes do not start. I have had great luck with
this program. Another program is similar, which is ServiWin. It is so similar,
that I just use AutoRuns now. My major complaint about these two program,
however, is that you can't save multiple configurations (much in the same way
that you can't save a msconfig setting). Rather, if you want to switch back and
forth between your streamlined startup and your normal setup (for web browsing,
etc), you have remember which processes you unchecked in the app, and then
re-uncheck them again, save, and then re-boot. It's sort of a pain, but the ease
of use of AutoRuns in general is enough for me to keep using it. I only disable
10-15 processes, so I can easily remember which ones.
Here are the links to these programs:
ServiWin - http://www.nirsoft.net/utils/serviwin.html
So, essentially, the process I use to startup into
my music performance/looping configuration, is that I use AutoRuns to remove
Diskkeeper, anything from Semantic AntiVirus (the main memory/process hogger),
and a handful of ThinkPad apps like the system update manager, etc. Then I go
into my network connections and disable my wireless and LAN networks. Then I
reboot. All is good.
I would be curious to know what other folks are
using. Has anyone found an app like AutoRuns that allows you to save multiple
configurations? I actually wrote the developer of AutoRuns requesting this
feature, but the response was that they had no plans for this. It doesn't make
sense to me. It would be so easy to mod that program so that you just load a new
AutoRuns configuration, save, and then reboot.
Kris
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