CakeAlexS
A lot of people (including me) tend to forget about looking at seeing what is going on with the .

Good advice.
The description at the linked page appears to be incorrect for Windows 8.1, its been moved to Administrative Tools...

Everything is incorrect for window 8 :) You just press the start button and type it assuming it is set up nicely. Good point though.

CakeAlexS
 
Then configure it the way you like it in task scheduler!
 
 
 
Then do what I do and have a multiboot environment...

In the past I used a multi-boot environment in Vista and XP and it worked well for recording. I have a quick question for you though.
 
The computer I purchased 2 years go (dell) did not come with a set of restore disks. The very first thing I did was remove the bloat garbage that come with these computers. I used a backup utility to image the hard drive and created a backup. The utility app was provided by dell. I had an issue where the whole hard drive crashed. don't know what caused it. I think my kids got on my computer.
 
I ran the backup utility and it restored everything. As I recall there was not an option to create another partition. everything was done automatically. The restore disks that I made from the backup utility did restore the hard drive. So here are the questions.
 
If I do a multi environment system wouldn't that require the purchase of another windows 7 license?
 
This backup program does not allow you to create a multi windows environment. Do you know of a better third party utility that does?
 
I don't know why backup disks are not shipped with these things anymore. I can get the drivers on line and that is not a problem, but I would sure like a copy of the operating system.
 
It use to be that these computer companies would create two partitions on the hard drive and put the operating system on one drive and load and restore form the partition that contains the operating system. with this purchase all I got was this stupid dell backup utility.
 
This is why I have not made a multi-boot environment. I don't have a set recording schedule which was why I avoided setting up or messing around with the task scheduler. I do run defrag and make regular backups. I do restore points and other stuff. I just don't set it up to do it automatically because my schedule always changes and my computer is not on all the time. Sometimes I will go two or three days without it booted up. 
 
 

CakeAlexS
Name one of the items that I posted that is useless. They all work and can perform significant improvements. Often I use them as troubleshootong steps when people have performance problems and with some success. Virus scanner exclusions , defrag, schedule, startup program, windows update item, driver update, chkdsk all contribute to a stable and quick system and can bring huge improvements to performance and stability.
The only one debatable is registry optimisation as I clearly statated at the beginning and agree its dangerous to tweek the registry unless you know what you are doing. Funily enough you seem to use that one as the example. And as I stated I totally disagree with disabling task scheduler, it should be tweeked.

I was not writing about YOUR items (which are wellknown and ok for me), but, more generally, about the tons of so called optimization tweaks that we can find on the Net, including disabling services, registry tips and so on ; and it was only to warn the beginners (the others don't really need my advices, i guess).
Sorry if it was not clear.
Also, i have not exactly the same thought about the msconfig, but it seems that your way works for you, and that mine works for me, so we can verify that "tous les chemins mènent à Rome" ;-) !
About the task scheduler, i never had the idea to disable it, and i won't (thanks for the link).
Nb :
I am an old timer (bought my first PC in 1984 - a Compaq AT286 !), so maybe i have bad habits...

Indeed, friends again! :)

Marcus will get back to you if somebody else hasn't by then...
 

No love here for creating a separate user account for your DAW's? One of the best things I ever did! You can disable a ton of stuff you don't need. I have a separate user account for business use, which has all of my Quickbooks/Outlook/Google sync crap running in the background.

Wow, i will try it (don't know a lot about user account customization) !

Well there is machine level (KEY_LOCAL_MACHINE) and user level (HKEY_LOCAL_USER). User level doesn't make much difference. Just apps in the start menu really (and the startup registry items) and it might look better. It won't remove the apps or the services or the drivers you don't need. Could be a step forward for some, it's a valid point.... Dual boot better is better...

With a separate user account you can decide what startup programs you don't want. For instance when I load my business account, there are a whole bunch of processes related to Quickbooks running, as well as some related to Google Drive and my Google/Outlook sync. Plus lots of other stuff that I don't want running when I'm using Sonar. I believe when you create a new user account it has it's own startup folder.

Another advantage is that you can have separate settings for things like appearance (turn off Aero for example) and Windows sounds. And all of your music related data that's stored in your User folder will be kept separate.

I just find it more convenient overall. It doesn't give you massively significant performance or stability gains, but you might get some if your regular startup programs are interfering with your audio production in some way.