How can I really tweak my Windows XP machine for doing ONLY audio? (for advanced users only)
* FOR ADVANCED USERS ONLY * This may drastically limit your computer’s functionality
This is not completely tested here at Sweetwater, but Windows will run (and run slightly more efficiently).
Go to Start-Run and type SERVICES.MSC. You should write down or screen capture it in case you need to return to your original settings.
You can click on the top column to organize by Status (running or not) or any other heading.
Double-clicking on the service will bring you to a properties page and you can read about what it does and then choose one of 3 settings:
Enable – loads upon Windows bootup
Automatic – loads when needed (some load upon Windows bootup)
Disable – does not load service
You can disable all but these three services. PLEASE NOTE THIS WILL DISABLE ALL NETWORK CONNECTIONS (internet and file sharing):
Plug and Play
Remote Procedure Call (RPC)
Windows Audio
Simply disable these and reboot and see what happens.
You can always go back in and enable services again as needed.
You might want to check your memory allocation before and after by hitting ctrl-alt-del and going to Performance. You should do this after a restart because the disk cache starts growing when you load a program and will only shrink if a program needs the memory for itself.
You might be able to get your Windows memory allocation down to as little as 32mb of RAM or up to 64mb if you have a lot of hardware.
If you would still like to be able to do network tasks, including getting on the internet and file sharing, leave these services running:
Computer Browser
Distributed Link Tracking Client
Network Connections
Server
Workstation
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