Advice & To-do List for a Windows 10 noobie ? ... re: audio visual workstation

[Daags]

I managed to resist Windows 10 for a long time, but i got a new laptop lately that comes with Windows 10 and retro-grading it to Windows 7, my beloved Windows 7, seems like it *could* be doable, but more hassle than it is worth and also at a probable loss to CPU performance - allegedly.


Anyway. Even though it comes preinstalled - I will be doing a clean Windows 10 install on this machine, just to completely eradicate bloatware, and also to be in the best position to tweak and adjust my OS to be as much of a brute as possible.


So what are the things I need to or can do, as an Audio/Visual artist, to my installation of Windows 10 to make sure it is the beast I want it to be for these A/V activities ? That is the sole purpose of this machine btw, since I have another laptop for web browsing, watching movies, etc.

Also, I remember when Windows 10 first came out and I browsed some threads/forums here and there .... I remember a common problem (seemed) to be where plugins and apps were installed ? Something to do with permissions if you didn't (or did) install in certain folders .... like installing in the Programs folder could cause a problem for some things ? Am I recalling this correctly ?

I typically install (audio) plugins in folders like c:\plugins64 and c:\plugins32 .... but the apps themselves I always accept the default c:\Program Files and c:\Program FIles (x86) locations ...

Will this choice be compatible with Windows 10 or will it cause problems somehow ?


so basically any tweaks that I should do, and any pitfalls I should avoid ... please let me know.

thank you.

Oh, and one last thing. The machine came with Windows 10 Home Edition .... should I upgrade to Pro first, before reformatting the machine and doing a clean install. Or does it make no difference when I upgrade ? My thinking here is that perhaps upgrading to Pro first would mean I when I would do a clean install, Windows 10 would be Pro from the onset ... rather than it being a Home install with Pro tacked on. I'm guessing it probably makes no difference, but it's worth asking all the same I reckon.

[VariKusBrainZ]

Whatever applied to Win7 is same for Win10, in terms of your queries.

If you want to install Win7 just go ahead, everything should be fine theoretically, unless theres an unsupported driver.

[Kaine]

Most current and even last generation hardware didn't get W7 drivers. Laptops even more so than desktops given most of their board solutions are fully custom.

[Daags]

If you want to install Win7 just go ahead, everything should be fine theoretically, unless theres an unsupported driver.

uh. no. even if I could find drivers for all the other components, there are performance optimizations for the kabylake CPU that require OS hooks to work that don't exist in Windows 7 (for kabylake)... i.e Speed Shift and Turbo Boost 3.0 .... furthermore, the security updates to address Meltdown & Spectre reportedly have a higher performance impact on Windows 7 & 8 since those versions have more user-kernel transitions because of legacy design decisions, such as all font rendering taking place in the kernel ...

if this was a general purpose machine, I'd probably do the gymnastics required to install Windows 7 on kabylake (fyi, I have posted multiple how-to threads in this forum that provide the resources to do just that). However, it's a workstation where I expect to squeeze every last morsel of performance from the CPU and GPU, therefore I am - reluctantly - accepting the fact that sticking with Windows 10 is the best choice for this hardware.

Whatever applied to Win7 is same for Win10, in terms of your queries.

Not really helpful. And I strongly suspect not actually accurate. Am I to believe Windows 10 didn't introduce new features ? ... new features that might best be turned off or somehow tweaked for my purposes ?

[VariKusBrainZ]

If you want to install Win7 just go ahead, everything should be fine theoretically, unless theres an unsupported driver.

uh. no.

Then why ask a question you aleady know the answer to

[Daags]

If you want to install Win7 just go ahead, everything should be fine theoretically, unless theres an unsupported driver.

uh. no.

Then why ask a question you aleady know the answer to

Your reading comprehension is sorely lacking
.... what I asked for is setup tips regarding a fresh Windows 10 installation on an A/V worksation. The clue is in the thread title.

and this preamble is a statement, not a question:

<snip> retro-grading it to Windows 7, my beloved Windows 7, seems like it *could* be doable, but more hassle than it is worth and also at a probable loss to CPU performance

I mean, if you couldn't grasp from the thread title, and the body of the message, that the end-goal is performance .... well, that's quite worrying and you might consider self-sterilisation.

[Daags]

Since there's not a soul in the 'Computer Setup and System Configuration' section of a Music/Audio production forum who is willing and/or knowledgeable enough to spend the keystrokes posting anything useful here re: Win 10 tweaks for performance gains, I guess I will just post links to the resources I am finding elsewhere, and I'll tidy the thread up later when I've got a clean install running with all tweaks in action.

This first link seems pretty good, a relatively long list and only a year old so I presume it is still mostly if not entirely relevant.
And as suspected, there are many Win 10 specific tweaks to enhance performance that have not migrated from Win 7 ( )

https://www.makeuseof.com/tag/windows-1 ... rformance/

Also unlocking this 'ultimate performance' power plan may come in handy:

http://www.thewindowsclub.com/ultimate- ... power-plan