I'll post this on the "computers" site also, but wanted to see if anyone can chime in here too.......
 
I've got a brand new computer with Windows 10, i7, 12GB RAM. Running the new Manchester SPLAT. I've noticed upon running Task Manager, there's all sorts of things running in the background, along with Sonar. I've disabled wifi and McAfee, but I still see lots of stuff running in the background.
 
Is there a quick way to tell my computer that the only thing I want running is Sonar (and of course the Windows elements needed to run the computer)?
 
And what would be really cool is to have two different setups in Windows: 1) A setup that runs Sonar only; and 2) A setup that will run my other stuff when I want to use my computer as a computer, not for music production.
 
Thanks so much.
 
~Jeff
 

Someone who actually knows, will chime in, for sure. But I think know enough to say that it's not possible.
Windows alone requires a bunch of processes in order to run, so does your audio interface. My guess is that there must in any scenario run at least 20-30 processes simultaneously with SONAR in order to make the computer tick.

Kalle is correct.
Windows is composed of many processes, some of which are absolutely necessary and some of which can be disabled. Figuring out which are unnecessary can be complicated and depends on your needs (ie network). 
You can eliminate applications other than Sonar, but the running services are what makes Windows tick. 
I suggest you Google "optimizing WIndows for audio" or maybe visit Blackviper.com to get some idea of where to start.
Latency Monitor can give you an idea of which programs/services are eating your resources.
Unfortunately ,there is no simple answer.

If you bought an off the shelf PC (HP, DELL,etc) it is probably full of manufacturer installed crapware. THere are some utilities that can get rid of these types of programs.
PC decrapifier is one. Google "remove crapware".
 

If you are not having problems then the adage "if it ain't broke, don't fix it," applies. Much damage can be done to an installation by trying to improve performance, and remarkably little actual improvement is accomplished in most cases. If you want to take the time and effort to understand what you are doing this is a start:
http://www.blackviper.com/
 

Jeffiphone
I'll post this on the "computers" site also, but wanted to see if anyone can chime in here too.......
 
I've got a brand new computer with Windows 10, i7, 12GB RAM. Running the new Manchester SPLAT. I've noticed upon running Task Manager, there's all sorts of things running in the background, along with Sonar. I've disabled wifi and McAfee, but I still see lots of stuff running in the background.
 
Is there a quick way to tell my computer that the only thing I want running is Sonar (and of course the Windows elements needed to run the computer)?
 
And what would be really cool is to have two different setups in Windows: 1) A setup that runs Sonar only; and 2) A setup that will run my other stuff when I want to use my computer as a computer, not for music production.
 
Thanks so much.
 
~Jeff
 

The guys are right, unless these other, probably necessary programs/services are impacting negatively on the performance of your DAW, I'd leave well alone, unless as has been pointed out, it's an off the shelf computer loaded with bloatware.
 
The best way to achieve 2) is to set up a dual boot system, but if you don't know what you're doing, it can be a nightmare to get set up properly.
A cheap solution would be to dedicate your machine SOLELY to Sonar and buy another off the shelf piece of crap for browsing, email, games, office etc
 

Or just simply use a seperate login.

Actually using a separate login doesn't protect the user from any nasties he might pick up form t'interweb.
 
Dual boot does

A lot of those Windows optimizations are really from back in the XP days, and many of those are no longer needed or applicable.
 
Windows itself doesn't natively have the ability to switch configurations for one set of background services or started tasks and another.
 
What I did for myself a few years back is to create a little C# program, that allows me to present a list of all background services and started tasks, from which I can create one or more 'Service Profiles' that contain a list of those items that I wish to disable or stop from starting.  I can then process any one of the profiles, and the program marches down the list of items in the profile, and changes their start type or disables them.  A reboot then starts me back up in a configuration that is optimized for my running Sonar.  After finishing my Sonar session, I reload the little program, load up the same profile, and click on a single button to restore all items in that profile to their saved state from prior to when I disabled them.  Then, I reboot and all is back to exactly where it was for my general computing configuration.
 
So, all the program does is manage the creation of profiles, then a given profile can be processed to either disable items, or processed to enable items.  It is quite a simple program, but saves TONS of time for someone who wants to be able to run with multiple service and start items configurations.
 
I can send the programs to anyone who wishes to have them.  There are 2 such programs: Service_Manager and Start_Item_Manager.
 
Bob Bone

Jeff, are these background processes causing any problems?  If not don't worry about it.
 
Ps - turning off the WiFi and antivirus is a good thing to do.