Hey all.

I got quite a lot of tweaking info for a DAW that runs on Windows 7 on the internet,
but there are some contradictions between some of the info so I wanted to ask:
What's the best, most reliable and most updated tips about tweaking and optimizing Windows 7 for a DAW?

Thanks in Advance, ZBBZ.

Unlike XP, Win7 can out of the box pretty well configured for DAW use. You might want to turn off automatic update routines but that is about it. Is there any specific issue you are trying to address?

Nothing specific, but there are a lot of tweaking recommendations I saw for DAWs that deal with indexing, hard-drive and CPU behavior etc.

Yeah, MS file indexing is not necessary at all but I am not sure how intrusive it really is. That said I do not have the hard drives related to music production indexed for sure, no point in it. Multiple fast hard drives and ssds are a good idea but that is not Win7 specific. No special config for the drives though. In general, I would not make wholesale changes but would address issues as they arise. Making a lot of changes at a time on a PC can make problem solving a challenge.

zoobooboozoo
I got quite a lot of tweaking info for a DAW that runs on Windows 7 on the internet, 

 
take with a large grain of salt...
 
Some of those 'recommended' system changes can actually hurt performance.
Such as those that turn off Aero and take GPU chores and dump them on the CPU instead.
 
Unless your system is underpowered or starved for resources (low memory/crappy old video card/etc.) then a lot of those changes give negligible benefits and only potentially complicate your life later on.

The only thing I did to my new, (well a year old now) win7 music PC is turned off indexing.

Some standard tips:
 
Disable the onboard sound card in the BIOS.
Adjust the Windows Power Options in the Control Panel to run full out (especially if you are using a laptop).
 

My opinion is, if you are not having any problems with anything, don't touch it. I have minimal tweaks that I use on my net boxes as well as my recording boxes. Between talking to Jim Roseberry ( www.studiocat.com ) and examining his build as well as some experimenting from www.blackviper.com I've been in really good shape.
 
Just remember, if you decide to mess with anything, make sure you know all your settings. Back them up, take screen shot captures, cell phone pics, anything you can so you always have your original settings. Also, when doing any kind of system tweaks, I've learned that doing one at a time is a good way to do them because if you do too many, you won't know what caused the problem. The same with Vipers tweaks. I may be able to get away with "safe" all in one shot here where if you do it, something may fail. Just be really careful and stay focused while doing any tweaks. Good luck!
 
-Danny 

riojazz
Some standard tips:
 
Disable the onboard sound card in the BIOS.
Adjust the Windows Power Options in the Control Panel to run full out (especially if you are using a laptop).
 

Not sure what this accomplishes on a modern machine.
With a laptop (edit: using the onboard sound chip) and using Asio4All you at least have some functionality (editing/rough mixing/etc.) that you can use when you don't have access to your preferred interfaces.

The only "tweaks" I use here on Windows 7 are the power options.  I'd leave everything else alone.  I still use my onboard soundcard for windows and youtube, etc.
 
Some of the "tweaks" you read about are outdated, and aren't needed on a more modern machine.