Hi I'm about to upgrade to x2 and win8 from xp and sonar 6 pro. In the past I've disabled a lot of windows processes as a lot have been unnecessary. Is this still the case in win8 and if so does anybody have a view on which ones to remove. The machine is a g860 on an MSI B75 motherboard and will not be connected to the network.

There are some bits I disable:
windows Media player sharing
wireless config
homegroup crap
,...............

And:  lots of stuff is now started from the task scheduler:
defrag
windows update
hardware performance analysis,...
MS  user happiness services and reporting,....


What annoys me the most is not being able to disable/schedule the AV update time.
Very stupid.

Not networked is good for general use. And if your area is lightning prone: another way for electric jolts and crap to get into the computer.   And the constant poling.

But: connecting for updates and the online reference manuals,...  Is good.

I currently am using only the windows defender for AV..   I do not surf.  But I do often have the CW forum open for learning.

And now with the "free" videos I will have a browser open to view such.

Sometimes I do use a netbook for this stuff when using sonar.

http://www.blackviper.com/service-configurations/black-vipers-windows-8-service-configurations/

Black Viper has the answers as per service configuration.

Starting with Windows 7, most of those tweaks were no longer needed and could make things worse. Power management settings should still be done, but other than that, there are few that make sense anymore. Windows 8 is very similar to 7. Even in the Black Viper list for Windows 8 services, the only services he recommends disabling are those that are already Manual (meaning they won't even start unless called).

Many of the reasons to not have to tweak is because computers got faster. So the impact of crap was less noticeable.

But it is still good practice to stop unneeded services and tasks:
home group listener////
Wireless config
windows sharing network
indexer

Task manager:
Defrag
updates
performance analysis and reporting.

When first using w7 I had occassion to be working with sonar at 2 am when the defragger started running. Definitly noticed.

Good thinking. Wireless networking shows up here a lot when people have crackles and shut-down of the audio engine. And if you use an SSD as your boot drive, you need to turn off defragging entirely for that drive.

Lightning prone? That's just about the entire earth. Surge suppressors work as well as a good UPS. If you own thousands of dollars worth of stuff, then you need a power conditioner (not cheap but can pay for itself).

thanks guys a little bit to think about. The machine doesn't have a network or internet connection and the ssd/defrag bit is interesting because it only has ssd. The machine has always had a mains conditioner so the lightning thing dpesn't apply, I think/hope. thanks again Ed

If you install Windows on a machine with a SSD boot drive, defrag is turned off by default. It is only when you add a SSD drive to an existing machine that you need to check and turn defrag off for that drive. You may also have a separate TRIM utility program that you should run periodically.

Does you surge protector have Cable, DSL, and Ethernet protection?

A client recently got zapped through the phone line through the modem through the router.  They have put in a full house surge device with all wires connected to it before all equipment.