The Windows Scheduler is responsible for arbitrating between all the processes that are competing for shared resources. It's quite a complex bit of logic, the result of 60 years of computer science evolution. Screwing with it is dangerous, even if sometimes necessary.
 
The option for raising the priority of background processes is there mainly for machines running as unattended servers, such as database, file or web servers. Note that you aren't really raising the priority of background processes, but rather eliminating the favoritism normally bestowed upon the current foreground process. But since most of what happens for audio occurs within the foreground process, that preferential treatment is probably a good thing.
 
 
 

The only tweaks I had for Windows 7 and also for Windows 8 is to run with processor minimum state at 100%, and I do not allow anything to turn off (no screen turn off, no hard drive turn off, no selective USB disable).  When I was using Sonar on a laptop, I also disabled the Wi-Fi transceiver, as it was causing latency spikes.
 
I was under the impression that as of Windows 7, a lot of the tweaks, such as were often done with XP, were largely not particularly needed - I wasn't having issues from Windows 7 on up through Windows 8 (I have not yet upgraded to Win 8.1), so I haven't bothered looking at any of those changes.  Since I cannot say for sure one way or the other, please do not think I represent this as factual.  I don't run with those tweaks, and am not having issues, so for me, they are not needed.
 
There are so many variables with differing chip sets, firmware levels, and components themselves, that I am sure some things that work for some do not work as well for others, and so on.
 
Bob Bone
 

Thanks for listening to the myths I post up.
 
Well In order to get problem free software functionality "sometimes" the tweaks are the only solution that can stop services that take up a irqs  causing shared states from running in the background...sometimes just them services turning on and off can cause noise on some hardware for audio....
 
The tips and tricks mentioned are for Problem solving... Well sometimes they should be implemented , It is all dependant on how serious or important the software being used is needed to be solid and uninterrupted by X Y Z background services or applications running....that causes problematic behavior in any software.
 
Although in the installation of Sonar X series, the instructions in the manual say to turn off all security application on installing sonar x.....I would include to leave the security stuff off when using sonar X....But they do not mention that....and having a system with enough resources to run everything these days and not turn anything off, is just a method of laziness, and problematic and iffy operation of any software,... may be a solution for some, but it is a poor one!
 
If recording streams of Audio, virus checker could in fact interfere with that process, causing freezing of the software being used to save or write to a drive.
 
Also turning windows to basic states could bring more cpu processing power to the software..By turning off windows eye candy and such...Also some features like  Window's Media player which some times wants use of the audio driver to play system sounds, or polling for driver usage can cause issues.
 
So in regards to performance, tweaks have to be done sometimes to get things just right...some small, some large...some prohibited...
 
Just remember not all things can be made to work with turning off the sonar double bit engine., and updating drivers..
 
In fact, sometimes, updating WIN and Drivers and Firmware can causes more problems that cannot be resolved until one rolls back to before the update.
 
 Black Viper has all kinds of Microsoft windows tweaks for 7 and 8.
 
Again you should try to look these suggestions of His service tweaks up, By Googling the name of the service, inform Yourselves on , and make sure that they are not necessary for WIN X,  or Sonar X, or other Applications you want to run before you attempt this process...and Remember what you did, write it down, and if you need to turn it back on, you can..
 
Magic beans..Yep....Sweatwater does have a very large and active studio....So trusted techs do not put that sort of info up if it is not necessary sometimes to do.
 
Just sayin.
 
Sir Les
 

I used this (as recommended by the Cake Tech Support) for my system. Not sure if it was necessary after I bought my new interface but things seem to be running smoothly for the most part. Most of my problems are either known bugs or the stupid way I set up my disk usage. When I start from scratch though I'm only going to do the basic stuff (disable power management/sounds/etc...) and see what happens. The system is a powerhouse so in theory it shouldn't need a million performance tweaks. If not I'll introduce tweaks one at a time to see what works and what doesn't.