Go Back   Cockos Incorporated Forums > REAPER Forums > REAPER Q&A, Tips, Tricks and Howto

Reply
 
Thread Tools Display Modes
Old 04-08-2008, 10:23 AM   #1
General Contact Unit
Human being with feelings
 
General Contact Unit's Avatar
 
Join Date: Apr 2006
Location: In neural firings
Posts: 666
Default KILL 'EM ALL.bat: This is How You Maximize Free CPU and Memory

What: Kill or suspend all unneeded processes.
How: Use PsKill or PsSuspend
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/s.../bb896683.aspx
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/s.../bb897540.aspx
and put it in the Windows folder so the OS can find it. It just kills the programs, it doesn't save. Suspend suspends the processes and you can resume them. Suspend everything and if something doesn't work, or the system gets non-responsive, resume until everything works and use PsKill instead.

What: Stop unneeded services.
How: Create StopEverything.bat containing NET STOP "Service Name".

If you can't stop them
What: Disable unneeded services.
How: http://www.p-nand-q.com/download/pserv_cpl.html
Save the current configuration with Templates/Export as XML You can try selecting all (click the first, then shift click the last) and choosing Stop. Press F5 to refresh.

You can have just 8 processes running before you start REAPER.

Example StopEverything.bat

NET STOP "Computer Browser"
rem NET STOP "Server"
rem Needed for network shares
NET STOP "System Event Notification"
NET STOP "Help and Support"
NET STOP "Telephony"
NET STOP "Application Layer Gateway Service"
NET STOP "Automatic Updates"
NET STOP "Cryptographic Services"
rem NET STOP "DHCP Client"
rem Needed for the internets and Reamote
NET STOP "Distributed Link Tracking Client"
NET STOP "DNS Client"
NET STOP "HTTP SSL"
NET STOP "Error Reporting Service"
NET STOP "HID Input Service"
NET STOP "IPSEC Services"
NET STOP "Remote Access Auto Connection Manager"
NET STOP "Remote Access Connection Manager"
NET STOP "Remote Desktop Help Session Manager"
NET STOP "Logical Disk Manager"
NET STOP "Windows Firewall/Internet Connection Sharing (ICS)"
NET STOP "Network Connections"
NET STOP "Network Location Awareness (NLA)"
rem NET STOP "Print Spooler"
rem Needed for printing
rem NET STOP "Protected Storage"
rem Needed for password remembering
NET STOP "Remote Registry"
NET STOP "Secondary Logon"
NET STOP "Security Accounts Manager"
NET STOP "Shell Hardware Detection
NET STOP "Task Scheduler"
NET STOP "TCP/IP NetBIOS Helper"
NET STOP "Themes"
NET STOP "WebClient"
NET STOP "Security Center"
NET STOP "Windows Management Instrumentation"
NET STOP "Universal Plug and Play Device Host"
NET STOP "SSDP Discovery Service"
NET STOP "Windows Image Acquisition (WIA)"

rem Perhaps these are needed
NET STOP "Windows Time"
NET STOP "Wireless Zero Configuration"
rem NET STOP "Workstation"
rem Needed for network shares

rem Unable to stop, disable these so they're not started at all
rem NET STOP "DCOM Server Process Launcher"
rem Unable to stop, disable
NET STOP "COM+ Event System"
rem Unable to stop, disable
rem NET STOP "Event Log"
rem Unable to stop, disable
NET STOP "Terminal Services"
rem Unable to stop, disable
NET STOP "Distributed Link Tracking Client"
rem Unable to stop, disable

PsKill unnecessary1.exe
PsKill unnecessary2.exe

PsSuspend "unnecessary processname 1.exe"
PsSuspend 1028

(1028 is a process number, which you can use in case there are two or more processes with the same name such as svchost.exe)

You can create a batch, StartEverything.bat, that reverses the actions by replacing the STOPs with STARTs and removing the PsKill text and

PsSuspend -r "unnecessary processname 1.exe"
PsSuspend -r 1028
__________________
How much knowledge did you create today?
____________________________________
Today is all you’ll ever have.
-Switchfoot

Last edited by General Contact Unit; 04-08-2008 at 06:13 PM. Reason: NET PAUSE doesn't work
General Contact Unit is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 04-08-2008, 10:48 AM   #2
General Contact Unit
Human being with feelings
 
General Contact Unit's Avatar
 
Join Date: Apr 2006
Location: In neural firings
Posts: 666
Default

Running XP with no services
http://blogs.technet.com/markrussino...-services.aspx
Presumably you can suspend everything else except these and be running REAPER. If you're just suspending the processes it won't t release memory but it will liberate the CPU cycles.

Update: don't suspend or kill anything you see in the article because you'll lose audio or REAPER won't start.
__________________
How much knowledge did you create today?
____________________________________
Today is all you’ll ever have.
-Switchfoot

Last edited by General Contact Unit; 04-08-2008 at 06:15 PM.
General Contact Unit is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 04-08-2008, 10:53 AM   #3
StepOne
Human being with feelings
 
StepOne's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jan 2008
Location: CA
Posts: 991
Default

can you benchmark to see if there is any appreciable performance benefit in Reaper with all those services disabled?
__________________
Damn it feels good to be a gangsta.
StepOne is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 04-08-2008, 11:16 AM   #4
General Contact Unit
Human being with feelings
 
General Contact Unit's Avatar
 
Join Date: Apr 2006
Location: In neural firings
Posts: 666
Default

Can you benchmark the warm fuzzy feeling you get from the knowledge that now it's just REAPER and the OS core?
__________________
How much knowledge did you create today?
____________________________________
Today is all you’ll ever have.
-Switchfoot
General Contact Unit is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 04-08-2008, 11:22 AM   #5
StepOne
Human being with feelings
 
StepOne's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jan 2008
Location: CA
Posts: 991
Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by General Contact Unit View Post
Can you benchmark the warm fuzzy feeling you get from the knowledge that now it's just REAPER and the OS core?
Not if its unjustified
__________________
Damn it feels good to be a gangsta.
StepOne is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 04-08-2008, 12:50 PM   #6
General Contact Unit
Human being with feelings
 
General Contact Unit's Avatar
 
Join Date: Apr 2006
Location: In neural firings
Posts: 666
Default

Anything that is used by something else than REAPER is wasted. Every CPU cycle counts.
__________________
How much knowledge did you create today?
____________________________________
Today is all you’ll ever have.
-Switchfoot
General Contact Unit is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 04-08-2008, 01:51 PM   #7
General Contact Unit
Human being with feelings
 
General Contact Unit's Avatar
 
Join Date: Apr 2006
Location: In neural firings
Posts: 666
Default Success: 100% idle CPU

Not yet suspended or killed the system exes as described in the article, but it looks pretty, pretty good already.

One click stops services. The remaining services running:

DHCP client (for Reamote and teh internets)
Plug and Play (Windows)
Remote Procedure Call (RPC) (Windows)
Windows Audio (or you can do it by the meters)

One click freezes 15 exes that can be melted again at the click of a button. These typically consume 3-5% even with the services stopped. That's 3-5% more CPU for REAPER. How many plug-ins can you run in that?

CPU metering done by running
pslist -s -r 1

(-r 1 can be omitted, it's the refresh frequency, which defaults to 1)

100% idle, no changes. Only very small CPU time used now and then by the system exes.

Running LiteStep http://www.litestep.net/download.php?mod=79,module
__________________
How much knowledge did you create today?
____________________________________
Today is all you’ll ever have.
-Switchfoot

Last edited by General Contact Unit; 04-08-2008 at 05:46 PM.
General Contact Unit is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 04-08-2008, 02:02 PM   #8
General Contact Unit
Human being with feelings
 
General Contact Unit's Avatar
 
Join Date: Apr 2006
Location: In neural firings
Posts: 666
Default

We need a simple program:
List processes and allow selection.
It creates two files: Suspend.bat and Resume.bat

Done.

The services can be stopped and started with two existing .bat files, which can be manually edited as needed. Although you could have a wizard for configuring those too:
Do you need to use a series of tubes? If yes, DHCP stop is not included.
__________________
How much knowledge did you create today?
____________________________________
Today is all you’ll ever have.
-Switchfoot
General Contact Unit is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 04-08-2008, 03:00 PM   #9
General Contact Unit
Human being with feelings
 
General Contact Unit's Avatar
 
Join Date: Apr 2006
Location: In neural firings
Posts: 666
Default

Firefox and Explorer work appreciably faster. Tabs switch and windows open quicker. Feels like a new computer. This is so responsive it feels like hardware.
__________________
How much knowledge did you create today?
____________________________________
Today is all you’ll ever have.
-Switchfoot

Last edited by General Contact Unit; 04-08-2008 at 06:16 PM.
General Contact Unit is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 04-08-2008, 03:19 PM   #10
todsandberg
Human being with feelings
 
todsandberg's Avatar
 
Join Date: Mar 2007
Location: Nashville, TN
Posts: 81
Default

This looks helpful. Thanks!
__________________
Tod
todsandberg is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 04-08-2008, 03:24 PM   #11
General Contact Unit
Human being with feelings
 
General Contact Unit's Avatar
 
Join Date: Apr 2006
Location: In neural firings
Posts: 666
Default

Code:
Name                Pid CPU Thd  Hnd   Priv        CPU Time    Elapsed Time
Idle                  0 100   2    0      0     0:58:46.015     0:41:58.484
System                4   0  75 3425      0     0:01:16.250     0:41:58.484
smss                768   0   3   19    168     0:00:00.046     0:41:58.484
csrss               820   0  10  189   1648     0:00:19.015     0:41:56.359
winlogon            852   0  18  246   3536     0:00:00.984     0:41:44.046
services            908   0  14  194   1524     0:01:51.109     0:41:41.203
lsass               920   0  15  283   2240     0:00:00.500     0:41:40.937
svchost            1108   0   9  148   1716     0:00:01.531     0:41:38.390
svchost            1628   0  20  430   6664     0:00:03.593     0:41:37.828
litestep            724   0  16  469  14360     0:00:43.250     0:40:25.437
pslist             2836   0   3   88   1044     0:00:21.562     0:33:03.484



Name                             Pid Pri Thd  Hnd      VM      WS    Priv
Idle                               0   0   2    0       0      16       0
  System                           4   8  75 3373     852     208       0
    smss                         768  11   3   19    3804     404     168
      csrss                      820  13  10  188   21868    2184    1656
      winlogon                   852  13  18  246   45768    2936    3536
        services                 908   9  14  194   18548    3056    1524
          svchost               1108   8   9  148   35008    4124    1712
          svchost               1628   8  20  430   60188   10552    6664
        lsass                    920   9  15  283   38576     552    2240
litestep                         724   8  16  481   91300   21896   14388
  cmd                            568   8   1   31   30008     816    1976
    pslist                      2656  13   2   87   28528    2472     952

Name                Pid      VM      WS    Priv Priv Pk   Faults   NonP Page
Idle                  0       0      16       0       0        0      0    0
System                4     852     208       0       0     5548      0    0
smss                768    3804     404     168    1676      194      0    5
csrss               820   21868    2184    1656    1712     6615      5   31
winlogon            852   45768    2936    3536    6936     5155      6   49
services            908   18548    3056    1524    1596     1059      4   18
lsass               920   38576     552    2240    4008     4480      5   37
svchost            1108   35008    4124    1712    1732     1171     13   37
svchost            1628   60188   10552    6664   11100     8618     10   66
litestep            724   91300   21896   14388   20020   685342     17   69
cmd                 568   30008     816    1976    1980      892      2   30
pslist             2632   28528    2472     952     952      643      2   26
LiteStep can be killed too and started without a problem. 8 processes is the minimum so far.

Code:
Name                Pid CPU Thd  Hnd   Priv        CPU Time    Elapsed Time
Idle                  0 100   2    0      0     0:58:46.015     0:41:58.484
System                4   0  75 3425      0     0:01:16.250     0:41:58.484
smss                768   0   3   19    168     0:00:00.046     0:41:58.484
csrss               820   0  10  189   1648     0:00:19.015     0:41:56.359
winlogon            852   0  18  246   3536     0:00:00.984     0:41:44.046
[Plug and Play] services            908   0  14  194   1524     0:01:51.109     0:41:41.203 
[No services] lsass               920   0  15  283   2240     0:00:00.500     0:41:40.937 
[Remote Procedure Call (RPC)] svchost            1108   0   9  148   1716     0:00:01.531     0:41:38.390 
[DHCP Client, Windows Audio] svchost            1628   0  20  430   6664     0:00:03.593     0:41:37.828
__________________
How much knowledge did you create today?
____________________________________
Today is all you’ll ever have.
-Switchfoot
General Contact Unit is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 04-08-2008, 03:49 PM   #12
JasonTheron
Human being with feelings
 
JasonTheron's Avatar
 
Join Date: Sep 2007
Location: Medford, OR
Posts: 1,207
Default

Can this be safely utilized in a profile dependent manner (i.e. a multi-user computer)?
__________________
"pff... anybody who has over 900 posts is a total dork..." -Till (Post count of 932 as of the date of this quote)

My Band - http://ischemiacore.com
Till's FR Vote Tracker - http://tillmannn.de/reaper.html -
Underground Music in Southern Oregon - http://www.myspace.com/sohcindustries
JasonTheron is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 04-08-2008, 04:40 PM   #13
General Contact Unit
Human being with feelings
 
General Contact Unit's Avatar
 
Join Date: Apr 2006
Location: In neural firings
Posts: 666
Default

The only processes you shouldn't suspend

smss.exe
csrss.exe
winlogon.exe
services.exe - Plug and Play
svchost.exe - Remote Procedure Call (RPC) without which REAPER won't start
svchost.exe - DHCP Client and Windows Audio
lsass.exe - No audio without it

although you can suspend

smss.exe
winlogon.exe

but since they don't use CPU it's pointless. If you suspend winlogon.exe you can't open Task Manager by pressing Ctrl+Esc.

You should suspend or kill litestep.exe since it uses CPU. You can restart it by running c:\litestep\litestep.exe

The same goes for Explorer.
__________________
How much knowledge did you create today?
____________________________________
Today is all you’ll ever have.
-Switchfoot

Last edited by General Contact Unit; 04-09-2008 at 05:08 AM.
General Contact Unit is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 04-08-2008, 05:15 PM   #14
General Contact Unit
Human being with feelings
 
General Contact Unit's Avatar
 
Join Date: Apr 2006
Location: In neural firings
Posts: 666
Default Process priorities and affinities

When CPU load is high (90-100%), setting process priorities becomes important.

Process priorities and affinities for smoothest video and audio playback in Firefox:

REAPER Realtime Core 0
Reamote Above normal or normal Core 1 (multi core live processing kludge)
Firefox High Core 1

With any other settings sound and/or video may stutter a lot more.
__________________
How much knowledge did you create today?
____________________________________
Today is all you’ll ever have.
-Switchfoot
General Contact Unit is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 04-08-2008, 05:19 PM   #15
General Contact Unit
Human being with feelings
 
General Contact Unit's Avatar
 
Join Date: Apr 2006
Location: In neural firings
Posts: 666
Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by JasonTheron View Post
Can this be safely utilized in a profile dependent manner (i.e. a multi-user computer)?
Only a few, AFAIK non-essential, services remain disabled. A user may click or have in Startup folder one batch file that stops all services and suspends or kills all processes (they may be two separate batch files, one for service stop, one for process suspend/kill). Another click restarts and resumes the processes and services or just the processes or services. A batch can be made that stops stuff and runs REAPER and restores everything when REAPER is closed.

Disabling processes has a major drawback - they can't be started if they're required at some point. Stopping them after log on they can be restarted when needed. The system starts up with (almost) all services and ends up with almost none.

When the user logs off, a log off batch can be run that starts the stopped services.

Do you see any reason why not?
__________________
How much knowledge did you create today?
____________________________________
Today is all you’ll ever have.
-Switchfoot

Last edited by General Contact Unit; 04-08-2008 at 05:33 PM.
General Contact Unit is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 04-08-2008, 05:59 PM   #16
General Contact Unit
Human being with feelings
 
General Contact Unit's Avatar
 
Join Date: Apr 2006
Location: In neural firings
Posts: 666
Default

The services I have disabled because they refused to stop (or some other reason):
Windows Image Acquisition
Themes
Terminal Services
Telephony
System Event Notification
Shell Hardware Detection
Security Accounts Manager
Remote Registry
Messenger
DCOM Server Process Launcher
Background Intelligent Transfer Service
Event Log don't disable if you don't want a long pause when booting

Enable if some software can't start or you miss some features.

If you disable Event Log, there's a pause when starting Windows, maybe because it looks for something it can't find and gives up after a while.

When you are running background software like virus scanners, set them to Low priority permanently with http://www.prnwatch.com/prio.html
so they don't slow down foreground tasks. They run only when the CPU hasn't got any higher priority processes.

I don't know whether it's useful to change the system process priorities (to high or low).

I think I'm done tweaking the system.
__________________
How much knowledge did you create today?
____________________________________
Today is all you’ll ever have.
-Switchfoot

Last edited by General Contact Unit; 04-09-2008 at 09:34 AM.
General Contact Unit is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 04-08-2008, 07:44 PM   #17
eMaRe
Human being with feelings
 
eMaRe's Avatar
 
Join Date: Dec 2006
Location: New York
Posts: 216
Default

This is very good! I'd love to see some others who are good with this stuff test it. Could this be incorporated into Reaper as a button that kills everything and automatically starts them on close? The easier this can be made, the better.
eMaRe is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 04-08-2008, 11:38 PM   #18
carbon
Human being with feelings
 
carbon's Avatar
 
Join Date: Feb 2008
Location: Eesti
Posts: 2,716
Default

I guess the confusion for me at least arises, when I have a lot of services running, that are related to some soft/hardware I have installed and I'm not exactly sure what each service does.

For an example I wouldn't want to accidentally disable my firewall or something.
__________________
projektorn
carbon is online now   Reply With Quote
Old 04-09-2008, 12:02 AM   #19
pipelineaudio
Mortal
 
pipelineaudio's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jan 2006
Location: Wickenburg, Arizona
Posts: 14,047
Default

I wonder if this could help with nasty processes that make laptops sketchy
pipelineaudio is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 04-09-2008, 01:49 AM   #20
Tedwood
Human being with feelings
 
Tedwood's Avatar
 
Join Date: Feb 2008
Location: South Coast UK
Posts: 14,303
Default

May be of some use in some situations but I remain sceptical. I just looked at my task manager, with my browser open and including task manager it shows 34 processes running, each one idling at 0% cpu, meaning I suppose, less than 1% each. Collectively in total they amount to 0% or less than one percent...... until I move my mouse. A small mouse movement takes it to 1% cpu (or less than 2%), rapid circular mouse movement pushes it to as much as 8% GASP!
Moving any window normally is about 4%, typing and keyboard strokes seem to be about 2 or 3 percent.

This may not be a very accurate way of measuring, but unless I am missing something it seems to me I would cause less of an impact on the glitch free performance of my favourite DAW if were to avoid rapid and unnecessary mouse, keyboard and window movements.

__________________
The grass is greener where it rains
Tedwood is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 04-09-2008, 02:27 AM   #21
General Contact Unit
Human being with feelings
 
General Contact Unit's Avatar
 
Join Date: Apr 2006
Location: In neural firings
Posts: 666
Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by carbon View Post
I guess the confusion for me at least arises, when I have a lot of services running, that are related to some soft/hardware I have installed and I'm not exactly sure what each service does.

For an example I wouldn't want to accidentally disable my firewall or something.
When you run the service stopping batch, what remains running is non-Microsoft, such as anti-virus, firewall, defragmenter and backup services.
1 You can look at them with pserv2 (sort by running) and try stopping them. If everything keeps working you can add their names to the stop and start batches.
2 If you can't stop them, disable them and restart.
3 If something doesn't work, you can set them to manual instead of automatic so they can start when needed but not at boot time.
4 If things are still broken, keep them automatic.

If you don't want some service stopped, such as a firewall, prefix the line in the batch with rem. Many if not most routers have hardware firewalls so you don't necessarily need a software firewall.
__________________
How much knowledge did you create today?
____________________________________
Today is all you’ll ever have.
-Switchfoot

Last edited by General Contact Unit; 04-09-2008 at 03:06 AM.
General Contact Unit is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 04-09-2008, 02:51 AM   #22
General Contact Unit
Human being with feelings
 
General Contact Unit's Avatar
 
Join Date: Apr 2006
Location: In neural firings
Posts: 666
Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by Tedwood View Post
A small mouse movement takes it to 1% cpu (or less than 2%), rapid circular mouse movement pushes it to as much as 8% GASP!
Moving any window normally is about 4%, typing and keyboard strokes seem to be about 2 or 3 percent.
Typing 0%. Better.
Normal mouse movement, csrss.exe 0-1%. May be better.
Circular rapid movement no larger. Better.
Moving any window normally, 1-3%. May be better.
Shaking a pslist console window, csrss.exe peaked at 32%. Firefox window shaking spiked firefox.exe at 32% too, the same with an Explorer window.
XP doesn't seem to utilize the GPU for drawing the windows. How's Vista in this respect; any CPU spikes when shaking windows?

What's the use of being skeptical? 100% is 100%. Which part of 100% you don't understand? All you do is click one thing to silence the machine's mind and with another click you get the Microsoft Background Radiation back.
__________________
How much knowledge did you create today?
____________________________________
Today is all you’ll ever have.
-Switchfoot

Last edited by General Contact Unit; 04-09-2008 at 03:12 AM.
General Contact Unit is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 04-09-2008, 03:41 AM   #23
earlabs
Human being with feelings
 
earlabs's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jul 2007
Location: Netherlands
Posts: 1,203
Default

I guess it's not skeptical, but as for me, I have had very bad experiences with shutting things down in the past. Yes, that was pre-xp. BSOD's have ruined delicate parts of my life in the past. I don't need them. I have not tinkered with xp in the past years, because I think things run, well maybe not optimal (what dóes, when you're using msoft?), but good enough.

So, whereas you may be correct I will think twice before I start pulling switches the purpose and workings of which I do not fully understand.
__________________
EARLabs Studio for Creative Mastering www.facebook.com/EARLabsStudio
WWW www.earlabs.org
earlabs is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 04-09-2008, 03:46 AM   #24
Tedwood
Human being with feelings
 
Tedwood's Avatar
 
Join Date: Feb 2008
Location: South Coast UK
Posts: 14,303
Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by General Contact Unit View Post
Typing 0%. Better.
Normal mouse movement, csrss.exe 0-1%. May be better.
Circular rapid movement no larger. Better.
Moving any window normally, 1-3%. May be better.
Shaking a pslist console window, csrss.exe peaked at 32%. Firefox window shaking spiked firefox.exe at 32% too, the same with an Explorer window.
XP doesn't seem to utilize the GPU for drawing the windows. How's Vista in this respect; any CPU spikes when shaking windows?

What's the use of being skeptical? 100% is 100%. Which part of 100% you don't understand? All you do is click one thing to silence the machine's mind and with another click you get the Microsoft Background Radiation back.
Shaking Firefox window 28% - better.

I don't see being skeptical as being a fault GCU.

Skeptical just means I am unconvinced, unconvinced that any of this would be of any benefit to me in a real life situation. I am skeptical out of ignorance because I am not an operating system guru. It's only my logic for what it is worth that tells me if everything is as you say and there are no potential nasty side effects or dangers, that I can indeed allocate 100 percent of my cpu to Reaper, even though I only actually need about 30 percent, as opposed to allocating something like 99 percent to Reaper and having only 69% in reserve as opposed to 70%.

When I go out for a walk I suppose I could make sure I have nothing extra in my pockets that might cause me to expend unnecessary energy getting from A to B, but if I have a little loose change I don't change it up for paper money, or take no money at all. I just make sure I have something to eat before I go out.
__________________
The grass is greener where it rains

Last edited by Tedwood; 04-09-2008 at 03:50 AM.
Tedwood is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 04-09-2008, 04:05 AM   #25
General Contact Unit
Human being with feelings
 
General Contact Unit's Avatar
 
Join Date: Apr 2006
Location: In neural firings
Posts: 666
Default

"Shaking Firefox window 28% - better."
You may have a faster CPU or not shaking vigorously enough or not using pslist to monitor the value.

I haven't been able to break anything yet by not running processes, I mean really break, damage or destroy something. If something doesn't work, one click and it works.

The next thing to try is disabling device drivers with pserv2. I've 91 running currently. A few may be unnecessary. For that I'll need a hard drive image I can return to if things don't work. Using a virtual machine isn't the same, because hardware has different drivers.
__________________
How much knowledge did you create today?
____________________________________
Today is all you’ll ever have.
-Switchfoot

Last edited by General Contact Unit; 04-09-2008 at 04:50 AM.
General Contact Unit is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 04-09-2008, 04:49 AM   #26
FilthBrothers
Human being with feelings
 
Join Date: Apr 2008
Location: Sunshine Coast - Queensland, Australia
Posts: 2
Default Kill processes and get on with it

I love the idea of a batch file to stop processes not required AND if it quacks like a process, it's a process and they ALL use resources!

I'm now shaking my mouse at 15 second intervals and I've been doing it for 15 minutes. One thing I have noted in this period is that my musical creativity has ceased.

Don't let the tools get in the way of the job.

I'm back there baby.


Rock out
FilthBrothers is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 04-09-2008, 04:52 AM   #27
General Contact Unit
Human being with feelings
 
General Contact Unit's Avatar
 
Join Date: Apr 2006
Location: In neural firings
Posts: 666
Default

Don't get me started on Vista... In fact I've already done it! Just a few more services remain but it gets lean. Does it also get mean remains to be benchmarked.
__________________
How much knowledge did you create today?
____________________________________
Today is all you’ll ever have.
-Switchfoot
General Contact Unit is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 04-09-2008, 05:23 AM   #28
General Contact Unit
Human being with feelings
 
General Contact Unit's Avatar
 
Join Date: Apr 2006
Location: In neural firings
Posts: 666
Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by eMaRe View Post
This is very good!
Not just very good, it's



Excellent.



...no..., it's



EXCELLENT.
__________________
How much knowledge did you create today?
____________________________________
Today is all you’ll ever have.
-Switchfoot
General Contact Unit is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 04-09-2008, 08:15 AM   #29
General Contact Unit
Human being with feelings
 
General Contact Unit's Avatar
 
Join Date: Apr 2006
Location: In neural firings
Posts: 666
Default

When you need to return Windows to default status, not just restarting the stopped services, you can enable the disabled services using Pserv2 and then starting them.

I tried starting every available service. There are a few services that can't be started; apparently they must be loaded at boot time by setting them to automatic (or some of the disabled services need to be enabled, manual or automatic, at boot time):

COM+ Event System
Net Logon
NetMeeting Remote Desktop Sharing
Network DDE
Network DDE DSDM
Performance Logs and Alerts
Remote Access Connection Manager
System Restore Service
Uninterruptible Power Supply
Windows Driver Foundation - User-mode Driver Framework
Network Provisioning Service
__________________
How much knowledge did you create today?
____________________________________
Today is all you’ll ever have.
-Switchfoot

Last edited by General Contact Unit; 04-09-2008 at 08:17 AM.
General Contact Unit is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 04-09-2008, 05:02 PM   #30
General Contact Unit
Human being with feelings
 
General Contact Unit's Avatar
 
Join Date: Apr 2006
Location: In neural firings
Posts: 666
Default Context Switching

The following substantial improvement is achieved by just one click and it can be undone fully just as easily and quickly. Nothing to be afraid of, nothing complicated. It's like a light switch.

CPU % isn't everything. There's stuff happening called context switching that you don't see in the CPU %. Judging by the CPU % your system may seem idle, but it's actually busy context switching.

When a context switch happens some other process wants the CPU's attention and it switches to that process. That can't be good for the software you're running, can it?

Here's a rough benchmark with some margin of error because I got the values by watching real time numbers, but you can see a trend.

Context switches happening per second
(i.e., the number of times REAPER loses the attention of the CPU to some other non-essential process)

Columns, what's running:

1 Services default, processes running (some normal daily software)
2 Services off, processes running
3 Services on but disabled a few as listed above, processes suspended
4 Services off, processes suspended (this is what you get with the click)

Code:
2050  1840  1695  1688  Interrupts          
1524  1380   672   620  System Idle Process 
 800   680   560   546  DPCs                
 580   560   550   470  System 
 360   290   170   140  csrss.exe  
 168   134    25    22  explorer.exe 
  63    35    21    15  services.exe            

5545  4919  3693  3501  Total
Explorer.exe has roughly 8x more context switching and services.exe has 4x.
Maximum is 1.58x minimum.
Minimum is 63% of maximum.
Total 2044, 37% more context switches happening per second.

The difference in Process Explorer's System Information Context Switch Delta: 3200 maximum, 1300 minimum.
Maximum is 2.46x minimum.
Minimum is 40% of maximum.
Total 1900, 60% more context switches happening per second.

"A context switch occurs when the kernel transfers control of the CPU from an executing process to another that is ready to run. The kernel first saves the context of the process. The context is the set of CPU register values and other data that describes the process' state. The kernel then loads the context of the new process which then starts to execute.

When the process that was taken off the CPU next runs, it resumes from the point at which it was taken off the CPU. This is possible because the saved context includes the instruction pointer. This indicates the point in the executable code that the CPU had reached when the context switch occurred. "

source http://osr507doc.sco.com/en/PERFORM/...ching_cpu.html
__________________
How much knowledge did you create today?
____________________________________
Today is all you’ll ever have.
-Switchfoot

Last edited by General Contact Unit; 04-09-2008 at 06:07 PM.
General Contact Unit is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 04-09-2008, 10:35 PM   #31
jakerock
Human being with feelings
 
jakerock's Avatar
 
Join Date: Sep 2007
Location: Brooklyn
Posts: 821
Default

I am married to a woman with OCD, so I understand completely.

This is one of the biggest wild goose chases I have ever seen.

And from the man who would rather have reaper rewritten in 3D so that he can see his plugins, rather than buy a big monitor!!


I hope that somehow it can be not be offensive that I am amused.
Best, J
__________________
www.jakerock.com
www.sebadoh.com
jakerock is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 04-10-2008, 01:42 AM   #32
FilthBrothers
Human being with feelings
 
Join Date: Apr 2008
Location: Sunshine Coast - Queensland, Australia
Posts: 2
Default Switch? - what switch?

Hey GCU - you say "The following substantial improvement is achieved by just one click and it can be undone fully just as easily and quickly. Nothing to be afraid of, nothing complicated. It's like a light switch."

What are you talking about here, a batch file? or did I miss something? I just want to turn off unwanted crap and the batch file approach looks like the go.

Tell me what the "switch" is pls

Cheers

FB
FilthBrothers is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 04-10-2008, 02:01 AM   #33
Alex Stone
Human being with feelings
 
Alex Stone's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jul 2007
Location: Reaper Fine Arts Department
Posts: 1,607
Default Lean machines

GCU, i'm not altogether surprised with your results. For those who are a bit longer in the tooth, we had two programmes that killed a lot of the crap running in the background, called 95Lite, and 98Lite. When i bought and used these,(and i was running cubase back then) the performance jump was considerable, and everything ran a lot better. And, in a major difference to today's wondows versions, explorer wasn't 'builtin' so you could extract and destroy that as well. It took a little tinkering to get them right, and there were quite a few sites that offered information and research based on particular tasks, i.e. 'A 98Lite Pro Audio Setup', etc...

Good luck with this, GCU. I may be a total Linux user these days(and yes, i've just dumped OSX off the G4 laptop, and installed Fedora 8 for PPC. Woohoo, performance jump and no bloat), but it would be interesting to see others get the chance to streamline and refine their whendows machines and performance.

Perhaps you and the mighty Dux should get your heads together, and come up with a 'generic audio setup' (within the bounds of HW, obviously). I would hope enough xp and vista users here would be willing to test this, and help not only themselves, but the wider community at large.

I respect and admire your efforts, and willingness to share them with others.

Alex.

__________________
www.openoctave.org
Alex Stone is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 04-10-2008, 03:35 AM   #34
General Contact Unit
Human being with feelings
 
General Contact Unit's Avatar
 
Join Date: Apr 2006
Location: In neural firings
Posts: 666
Default

Scroll up and DIY or perhaps you need an installer.

This is what the installer would do:

First it copies PsKill, PsSuspend and PsList (so you can see it's working) to the %WINDIR% (C:\Windows). ProcExp.exe is also included. With it you can right click processes and suspend/resume/kill them.

A window should pop up. Since it's not yet done, you need to look at the process list in ProcExp or PsList or Windows Task Manager and type the names of the processes into a batch file as described above. If saving with Notepad, you should select Save as type: All Files and type the name with .bat included, like Processes Off.bat

Processes

Which processes do you want to [s]uspend, [k]ill? s/k/space/up/down
(You don't want to suspend or kill processes such as a mouse driver)
Run this again if something doesn't work or becomes sluggish.
[k] explorer.exe
[s] firefox.exe

Services

Which services do you want to keep running? y/n
[y] Internet (needed for Reamote)
[n] LAN
[n] Themes
[n] Printer
[n] Scanner

Do you want to do it with two clicks or one click or both? 1/2/3

The results would be:

1

Off.bat (stops services and processes) or KILL 'EM ALLbat
On.bat (starts services and processes) or RESURRECT 'EM ALLbat

2

Services Off.bat
Services On.bat
Processes Off.bat
Processes On.bat

3

All of them


Disable some services so you get a cleaner system? y/n
Wait a few seconds during boot to get the absolute minimum (disable EventLog)? y/n

It disables these services

Windows Image Acquisition
Themes
Terminal Services
Telephony
System Event Notification
Shell Hardware Detection
Security Accounts Manager
Remote Registry
Messenger
DCOM Server Process Launcher
Background Intelligent Transfer Service
Event Log disabling causes a pause during boot up

Here's the
Code:
@echo off
sc config stisvc start= disabled
sc config upnphost start= disabled
sc config TermService start= disabled
sc config TapiSrv start= disabled
sc config SENS start= disabled
sc config SSDPSRV start= disabled
sc config ShellHWDetection start= disabled
sc config SamSs start= disabled
sc config seclogon start= disabled
sc config RemoteRegistry start= disabled
sc config Messenger start= disabled
sc config DcomLaunch start= disabled
sc config BITS start= disabled
sc config wuauserv start= disabled
rem  sc config EventLog start= disabled 
rem disabling causes a pause during boot up
and asks for restart.

If you want to restore the disabled services to default settings you can run Enable Disabled Services.bat and it might also try to start them (some may require restart).

like this
Code:
@echo off
sc config stisvc start= auto
sc config upnphost start= demand
sc config TermService start= demand
sc config TapiSrv start= demand
sc config SENS start= auto
sc config SSDPSRV start= demand
sc config ShellHWDetection start= auto
sc config SamSs start= auto
sc config seclogon start= auto
sc config RemoteRegistry start= auto
sc config Messenger start= auto
sc config DcomLaunch start= auto
sc config BITS start= auto
sc config wuauserv start= auto
sc config EventLog start= auto
You can put Services Off.bat in the Startup folder so you get
minimum services by default.
__________________
How much knowledge did you create today?
____________________________________
Today is all you’ll ever have.
-Switchfoot

Last edited by General Contact Unit; 04-10-2008 at 07:15 AM.
General Contact Unit is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 04-10-2008, 03:55 AM   #35
Art Evans
Mortal
 
Join Date: Feb 2006
Posts: 6,654
Default

Enditall
SmartClose
Autoruns

are programs I seem to have on my system which seem to be related to the above discussion. Just throwing ideas into the pot in a hurry!
Art Evans is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 04-10-2008, 04:04 AM   #36
General Contact Unit
Human being with feelings
 
General Contact Unit's Avatar
 
Join Date: Apr 2006
Location: In neural firings
Posts: 666
Default

For some it's a wild goose chase, for some just common sense.

Wild goose chase gone wild, I suppose:
http://www.boot-land.net/forums/
http://www.nliteos.com/

Unsurpisingly I've used 98Lite. Thinking about replacing Explorer with http://www.nu2.nu/nu2menu/
__________________
How much knowledge did you create today?
____________________________________
Today is all you’ll ever have.
-Switchfoot
General Contact Unit is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 04-10-2008, 06:57 AM   #37
General Contact Unit
Human being with feelings
 
General Contact Unit's Avatar
 
Join Date: Apr 2006
Location: In neural firings
Posts: 666
Default

Anyone help with the installer? Perhaps an AHK script?
__________________
How much knowledge did you create today?
____________________________________
Today is all you’ll ever have.
-Switchfoot
General Contact Unit is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 04-11-2008, 12:03 PM   #38
jens
Human being with feelings
 
jens's Avatar
 
Join Date: Feb 2006
Location: Basel, Switzerland
Posts: 4,715
Default

so where's this button again?
jens is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 04-11-2008, 01:01 PM   #39
General Contact Unit
Human being with feelings
 
General Contact Unit's Avatar
 
Join Date: Apr 2006
Location: In neural firings
Posts: 666
Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by jens View Post
so where's this button again?
Scroll up and DIY. It's all there.
__________________
How much knowledge did you create today?
____________________________________
Today is all you’ll ever have.
-Switchfoot
General Contact Unit is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 04-11-2008, 03:03 PM   #40
stratman
Human being with feelings
 
stratman's Avatar
 
Join Date: Oct 2007
Location: Exmouth, England
Posts: 2,687
Default

OT. Something about this thread reminds me of Ultragod.

http://www.cockos.com/forum/showthread.php?t=4003

Pete

Last edited by stratman; 04-11-2008 at 03:48 PM. Reason: typo
stratman is offline   Reply With Quote
Reply

Thread Tools
Display Modes

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off

Forum Jump


All times are GMT -7. The time now is 05:55 AM.


Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.8.11
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, vBulletin Solutions Inc.