Dual boot

[mjmclane]

I was thinking about creating a dual boot Win system, setting one OS for "household" stuff like email, web browsing, etc. and another optimized just for Mixcraft. One question I had. . . do I necessarily need to put my Mixcraft install on the same drive/partition as the "Mixcraft OS"? It would seem that the "Mixcraft OS" wouldn't care which drive/partition the Mixcraft files are on as long as it knew where to find them. By putting them on the "household OS" (which accesses the internet) I could perform updates and download new loops, etc. Anybody know anything about this stuff???????

[Juno]

Wouldn't do it. A program that is installed on the first OS won't run, or will cause issues when run from the other OS. This is mainly because the registry entries for Mixcraft will only be loaded on the OS where it's installed.

You'd have to install MC on both OS's to prevent this from happening, but, what happens when you'd need to update? Only the MC version on the running OS would be updated and you'd have to jump through hoops to get the second one (which is the important one) updated correctly. You'd probably still have to go online in the other OS which then defies the purpose.

And even then, there's no guarantee that installing MC on both OS's will be sufficient. Depending on the Windows versions you'd use, installed programs are pointed at various directions to store information and this may or may not further complicate things and these complications may or may not happen immediately.

If you really want an isolated Mixcraft, i'd simply set up 2 or 3 user accounts. First one: admin, for maintenance. Second one, for ordinary use such as playing Patience or watching your background picture. Third one, for Mixcraft. If i'd be strict, i'd setup policies for those users to prevent them from going online (parental safety settings) or from using any other programs (group and user policies).

However, i'm lazy and would just unplug the network cable or disable the wifi adapter.

[Rik]

I am a professional computer engineer and in my opinion Juno's idea is your best option by far.

[mjmclane]

Professional computer engineer, huh? Well I'm a professional dunce . . . at least when it come to computers so I'm thoroughly grateful for both of you chiming in. Setting up User Accounts? I can probably figure that out since its kind of SOP in Winny World. So are you saying that I can set up second a Mixcraft Account, implement the recommended optimization settings and from that point on every time I log into the Mixcraft Account Win will automatically instantiate those optimized settings?

[Rik]

Let us know what windows version you are using and I can get some links to user account set-up for you. Let us know what computer you have and I might have a few tips for that too.

[Juno]

Seems Rik has some good, practical info for you!

I'd like to say a little about this:

So are you saying that I can set up second a Mixcraft Account, implement the recommended optimization settings and from that point on every time I log into the Mixcraft Account Win will automatically instantiate those optimized settings?

Yes and no. There's a lot of things to say about it but i'll try to keep it clean. It's more about reducing system load by preventing Windows from loading stuff that you don't need for that session. It's about setting up Windows to help you in organizing your stuff. (Yes, Microsoft, there is sarcasm in that sentence .)

With just one user: the system loads everything. All registry settings, all software that auto-starts (common examples: AV software, quickstarters), any and all desktop custimization, etc. Even if you wouldn't need this stuff running, it still does.

With a bit of planning and multiple users, you could change this:

-Do you really need AV software for a user account that cannot go online? Well, maybe, if you exchange a lot of usb sticks with people. But changes are you don't.
-Do you want your system to worry about balancing resources when all you do is use Mixcraft? Probably not.
-Do you need a changing background, transparent windows, animations? You might like to use that on the 'normal' account, but for a MC account: probably not.
-Do you want to be able to change each file on your machine? Yes if you're admin, no if you do catch a virus.
-Do you want to back up your user folders but only when it comes to Mixcraft stuff? Then it helps a lot if that's all there is in the user folders.

And so on.

A dual boot system would be handy if you'd really need it. Example: programming is often done in Linux, but there's a whole bunch of software that doesn't run well in Linux. So you'd need a dual boot to be able to use Mixcraft on Windows and use Linux for programming.

For what you want to do, a dual boot is a bit like killing a candle with a firehose It most likely causes more trouble than it solves.

[Mark Bliss]

I'd be happy if I could just convince Microsoft that I am the user, I am the owner and its called a PERSONAL computer for a reason. The default settings stink and changing them is messy.
Fix that alone Microsoft, and your OS would be hugely improved.
Rant over.

[Juno]

MS would link you 3 threads, 7 knowledge base articles and a help file that all deal with how to go back to the default settings, and then ask you what that reason is.

[Rik]

And don't forget the Microsoft software being incompatible with Microsoft software issue!

[mjmclane]

I'm on Win 7 64 bit, i7-3.4Ghz, 16Mb RAM. It used to be that you had to go through a pretty long winded optimization procedure for XP making extensive revisions to Power Mgt, write caching, processor scheduling, registry settings, etc. I get the impression that the speed and power of machines has grown so greatly over the past few years that simply shutting off all of the background crap and a few other simple adjustments will result in plenty of resources for all but the true power user. If that's the case, terrific! I'm all ears. . . er uh, or eyes. . . whatever!

Thanks again for your help.

Mike