XP Services Profiles

[IGWright]

Hey Ya'll,


I'm running a Dual-Boot with Hardware Profiles and User Profiles. I have the non-audio Services Disabled on the Audio Partition.

Here's my question: it was my impression that Hardware Profiles will retain uniques Services Profiles, but what I'm finding is that when I make a change to the Services on one Hardware Profile, it seems to affect all of the Profiles.

Has anyone had any direct experience with this?


Ian:smokin:

[Tommy-boy]

I'm not sure I understand why you're approaching it both ways.

I have a triple boot machine:
- General Boot (with MS Office, Quicken, Games, AV, internet enabled,etc...)
- Music Boot (stripped and lean, nothing other than the essentials and the ethernet port is disabled)
- Demo Boot (duplicate of Music Boot - this is where new programs get tried out).

I don't use profiles at all. The separation in boots keeps everything totally clean and separate. Which leads me to my question - why are you using profiles when you've already setup dual boots? Hardware configurations, Windows services, etc.. all set separately in each boot.

Tommy-boy

[IGWright]

Yo Tommyboy!,


Here's what I got:

Business:
- Hardware Profiles:
1 Money
2 Utilities
3 Audio (for Business)
4 DVD
5 Graphics
- User Profiles:
1 Money
2 Utilities
3 Audio (for Business)
4 DVD
5 Graphics

Audio One
- Hardware Profiles:
1 Tracking
2 Mixing
3 Mastering
4 CD ROM
5 Updates
- User Profiles:
1 Tracking
2 Mixing
3 Mastering
4 CD ROM
5 Updates

The purpose of the Hardware Profiles is to turn on and off specific Services and Disable Hardware that I'm not going to need for the tasks at hand.

The purpose of the User Profiles is to auto-Load the programs I use for the function listed.

What I have found is that if you go the the individual Services and hit the Log On tab, you can stipulate which Services are available for each Hardware Profile.


Ian:smokin:

[Tommy-boy]

That's interesting, to say the least. I've seen a lot of computer configurations, but never one like that.

Do you really need different profiles for tracking, mixing, and mastering? Are you using different soundcards? What services are you enabling/disabling with these different profiles?

The only one that was obvious to me was that you might disable your ethernet port on all profiles except for the update profile. I have my ethernet disabled on my music boot - but I enable it to do updates and turn it off when I'm done. As this is an infrequent process, it not's a big deal.

Are your profiles setup to change buffer settings on your soundcard between different apps used for tracking, mixing, and mastering?

I'm still not convinced that profiles are needed for what you're doing. What am I missing? Why would you want a significantly different hardware profile for mixing versus mastering?

Tommy

[IGWright]

I'm in a position how where I'm working on about 12 tunes that I want to finish by the end of 2006. So my work focus is exclusively Tracking. Therefore I haven't actually used the Mixing and Mastering Profiles. However, I do use the CD ROM Profile and the Update Profile, and I mix and match them.

For example: if I need access the the CD ROM for some Tracking, I boot thus:

Partition: Audio One
Hardware Profile: CD ROM
User Profile: Tracking

Now I don't know that having the CD ROM Disabled in the Tracking Hardware Profile is not gonna make much of a difference in terms of the machine's performance, but I figure if you have several hardware items switched off as well as the Services tweaked, it will make a difference.

With respect to Mixing and Mastering, I don't have any hands on experience with this rig, but, off the top of my head I can see having differenct programs loading using the User Profiles having different sound cards available using Hardware Profiles. I use my Hammerfall for Tracking, but I will be using my Turtle Beach as well for checking final mixes from a consumer set up perspective.

The bottom line is that using the Partition/Hardware Profile/User Profile approach will give you complete control over you system, and it's easy to set up, so why not.


Rockon,

Ian:banana:

PS You can also further customize your rig by inserting a numerical prefix before the Profile name and setting the pause time to about 6 seconds (that's the amount of time I need to change the boot order if I need to). That way Windows will default to the profile using the number 1. For example:

Partition: Audio One
Hardware Profile: 1 CD ROM
User Profile: 1 Mixing

PPS You probably know this but the default bootable partiton and pause time can be set on the Windows System page.

[Tommy-boy]

I suppose each will do things the way they best see fit. Personally I would not go to the lenghts you've gone to in the profiles. Most of your tweaks should apply universally to everything you do in your Audio One boot, with a few easy to handle exceptions. Here's some specifics:

1 - CD Rom - Simply disable the autodetect in the registry and that should be fine for everything you do. Whether your mixing, mastering, or whatever, you don't need auto detect. I've disabled it and perform everything, including CD burning, with no problems whatsoever.

2 - Sound Card - I'll admit that this may be worthy of separate profiles, but - and this is a big but - most soundcards are selected within the program. It's not that big a deal to have two sound cards and switch between them. I've done this in Cubase. I do it often in ACID. How often would you actually switch these? Easier to run a SPDIF or ADAT out to a different (perhaps crummy) converter?

3 - Internet - very simple to enable and disable.

4 - Different programs - just open and close to get what you want.

But, all of that being said (actually typed) - if it works for you then it makes sense. There's something to be said about having good workflow.

Tommy-boy
Computer Geek Extraordinaire