Alright, so I've just built a PC for audio production after running Macbooks for 10+ years, and I'm wondering about the ins-and-outs of running k'd audio plugins, etc. in comparison to how it operates on OSX.

-The directory of VSTs on Windows 10 is less regimented than plugins on Mac, right? Should I make a folder in C:\Program Files or does it not really matter as much? Do certain plugin companies want them in certain places?

-DAWs/hosts dialing out: is there a Windows 10 alternative to Little Snitch that monitors/blocks the connections your applications use?

-Host file edits: on some Mac plugins you need to edit the host file to get certain things to run correctly- is it the same here?

-Portable .exe's- when a program/DAW is portable (Reaper, for instance)- should I keep that with its Folder in the same place or a specific place? Or is it just preference?

I'm sure I'll figure all this out on my own, but I would gladly take any advice on general practices or things to look out for... if any more involved K tricks come to mind feel free to describe those as well.

Cheers!

 

- Keep your VST2 plugins in C:\Program Files\Vstplugins\ or in its subfolders. (You can istall them anywhere, but most DAWs look into this directory first, otherwise you need to remember to add proper paths.)

- Keep every portable app in its own separate folder. Such a folder can be placed anywhere (on any disk, in any parent folder).

 

As of Reaper: I always install it in portable mode, of course in a separate folder for every new installation. This way I can experiment with different configurations (skins, scripts, paths, layouts etc.) and these experiments, when done in one folder, don't brake other installation's configs.

 

If you work with video, Reaper needs VLC installed in the system. Make sure you install proper version (x64, I assume, in your case). VLC x86 will work in a x64 Windows, but Reaper x64 won't display videos then.

 

c:vst
--

Windows Firewall Control v5.3.1.0 Final befor malwarebytes
NetLimiter Pro

 

Last edited: Oct 22, 2020

My condolences. If I was you, I would convert that PC into a Hackintosh before having to work with Windows for Music or any Multimedia Production. What Mainboard and CPU are you using? Maybe there are options!

 

And run in an endless spiral of problems...

 

If you have two SSD, install and run all your audio applications, including your sample folder from the second one.
Being using this for years and works flawlessly.

 

What you know about Hackintoshes? Did you use one ever? I've been using them for 7 years now on a daily basis…

 

Over the years theres requests and statements saying "Mac Please!", Why cant we get stuff cracked for mac?, You guys are so lucky etc etc.
Seems to be alot of software for mac these days but just wondering if this was a consideration in your decision.

PC
Firewall can block connections.
Host file can block connections. Ive never blocked one and had one affect function of a program.

Can put your vst folder in multiple locations if you want on any drive.. I prefer one drive but its not an issue. Pizpunta's advice up there is solid. I don't do it this way as my boot ssd isnt that big and I try to keep vst's on another drive.

Portable installs can go anywhere. It only matters that the vst is in the search path of the DAW

I'm a happy PC user for years but would love to see the other side of the world.. maybe when I upgrade I will make this old computer into a mac
I would like to see the DAW Logic one day.

 

@typical-love With Windows 10 everything starts with the build that you choose. Not all Windows builds are the same. We have several threads discussing that, therefore, I am not going to repeat what has been said before. For your convenience i have included some links of these discussions.

https://audiosex.pro/threads/the-windows-10-thread.43034/

https://audiosex.pro/threads/windows-10-building-and-modding-and-custom-os-s.55464/#post-501159

https://audiosex.pro/threads/could-someone-post-a-true-all-in-one-guide-to-make-win10-proper.52465/

VST path? Dont worry about it. Once you have decided on one location a simple registry hack will do the trick. I have attached a file for you to achieve just that. Assuming that you will install them in C: all you have to do is edit it in notepad by substituting the XXX with the name of your new folder. If you moved them to a different drive you also need to edit the drive's letter. make sure that you make "everyone" the owner of this folder and that "everyone" has full permissions.
One thing nobody talks about and which I have been preaching for years is the unnecessary installation of VST 2s whenever VST 3s are available. It does not make any sense whatsoever to have VST3 and VST 2 installations of the same plugin. Whenever available, only install a VST3(64bit) version of any plugin. In Windows the VST 3 installs in a default location which is used by EVERY developer, therefore, all VST 3 get drop in that same folder in C:/Program Files/Common Files/ VST 3.
If a VST 3 version of a plugin is not available, then install the VST 2 version (64 bit) in your custom folder. If you are not using a 32 bit DAW don't even bother with the installation of ANY of the 32 bit plugins.

Another thing, with Windows is very easy to become a VST junkie. There are so many VST's available for free (legit and non-legit) that if you are not careful within a couple of weeks you will find yourself with a couple of thousand plugins installed without having any need for them. Nobody needs 20 version of a Neve 1073 or 20 versions of API 500 series. Self restrain is extremely important when on Windows.

Lastly, you mentioned Firewall. If you want to get the best out of Windows, disable the AV, Network cards, and firewall. All 3 contribute to problems in a DAW system.

 

MalwareBytes Windows Firewall Controll (FREE) works better than lLittle Snitch (far less hassle).

We run 6 Hackintoshes on 4 x different hardware. Never had a problem

Windows 10 is SPYWARE and VIRUSWARE. Every hacker on planet earth is trying (and succeeding) in hacking it. Never had that problem with my Hackintosh.

You are going backwards, my friend. But I have a couple of Windows 10 PC's UNFORTUNATELY!

 

Sorry, but no… I have windows 10 also and I use MalwareBytes Windows firewall control, too. But calling it easier to operate than Little Snitch is outright ridiculous. :D Did you ever have to find, edit or delete any of the rules you created? Because if you did you would be confronted with this:


Dou you see the drag handle? That's thousands of rules in there usually. Good luck trying to find anything.

Now lets have look at Little Snitches Rule Management:


I rest my case.

PS: If you want something that's actually similar to LS, but not free, then have a look at Glasswire. I think it's the closest to LS on Windows.

 

Thank you! I've been looking for this information. Sorry if this thread was a bit redundant. Thank you everyone who contributed. I'm not worried about losing out on Mac as I have a good enough Mac system and will likely keep running/buying them (depending on how ARM starts to affect everything). Personally, I wanted to get away from certain things about Mac and I plan on never running Logic Pro ever again lol.

Glasswire looks perfect!

 

Yes, that tip is very useful! My primary installation is the default one, and I keep a separate portable install to experiment with scripts, skins, etc.

 

I have sometimes installed only VST 2 versions even when VST3s were available, just to keep all my plugins in the location I chose. Is there any inherent advantage to VST3 plugins, and does it not depend on the code only?
For instance, both the VST 2 and VST3 versions of Roland Cloud plugins use the same amount of CPU when they're idle, even though VST3 is supposed to use not processing when idle.

Guilty as charged.

 

This is how I set up my PC, and I don't seem to have any problems, some tips are obsolete and some duplicated. But as a general checklist from a new install, this helps. I run a small SSD as the C: drive which contains the Operating system and programs, a D: drive that contans program data and a E: drive that's purely for samples and libraries

Visual Effects > Adjust for best Performance (this disables all Aero effects).
Advanced > Processor Scheduling> Background Services.
Advanced > Data Execution Prevention > Turn on DEP for essential Windows
programs and services only.
Press OK when done.

To change your FireWire (aka IEEE1394):
Open up Device Manager and locate the IEEE 1394 Host Controller.
Once there, open Properties and select “Install New Driver in the driver tab.
Choose “Search for files on your computer.”
Select “Choose from a list.” 1394 complient Host Controller (Legacy)” driver will be an option. Select it and press OK

Change Windows Indexing disk drives to Off on all Drives

To optimize your power settings for audio performance, go to Start > Control Panel
> Power Options > choose “High Performance.” Click the “Change plan settings” button, and make sure both options are set to “Never.”

Click on Windows Update on the left-hand pane > Change Settings> Never Check for
Updates... > OK > close the update window.
Click on Windows Firewall > Change settings > Off> OK > close the Firewall window.
Click on Windows Defender > Tools > Options> uncheck “Automatically scan my
computer” > Save> close

Start > type in “indexing options” > press Enter> Modify. In the “Change selected locations” window, uncheck everything except for the Start menu, located in C:> ProgramData > Microsoft > Windows.

In the Device Manager, you can right-click on any device and choose “Disable.” This will essentially turn that device off, releasing its drivers and stopping any resources from being used to run it. Internet and other wireless cards are typically found under the “Network Adapters category. Onboard audio cards and Web cams will be found under “Sound, video and game controllers.”

Go to Start> Run, type in “msconfig’ (without the” “marks) and press OK. When the System Configuration Utility comes up, click on the Startup tab.
Press the button to “Disable All.”
Click on the Services tab. Check the box at the bottom of the window to “Hide All Microsoft Services.”
Press the “Disable All” button, but only after hiding the Microsoft services. Press “OK,” then “Restart.”
When Windows boots back up, check the box next to “Don’t show this message...” and then press “OK.”


1. Processor scheduling should be set to background services and not Programs.
Start> Settings> Control Panel> System> Advanced> Performance Settings> Advanced Tab> Background Services

2. Visual effects should be set to a minimum.
Start> Settings> Control Panel> System> Advanced> Performance Settings > Visual Effects Tab> Adjust for best performance

3. Switch Off Desktop Background Image
Right Click Desktop> Properties > Desktop Tab> Background None

4. Disable Screen Saver
Right Click Desktop> Properties> Screen Saver > None

5. Disable Fast User Switching
Start> Settings> Control Panel > User Accounts> Change the way users log on or off> Untick Use Fast User Switching

6. Switch Off Power Schemes
Start> Settings> Control Panel > Power Options > Always On> Turn off monitor and turn off hard discs to Never

7. Switch Off Hibernation
Start> Settings> Control Panel> Power Options> Hibernate > Untick Hibernation

8. Activate DMA on Hard Discs/CD ROMS
Start> Settings> Control Panel> System> Hardware > Device Manager> IDE TA/ATAPI Controllers> Right Click Primary IDE channel and Secondary IDE channel
> Properties> Advanced Settings Tab> Transfer Mode to “DMA if available” for both devices.

9. Disable System Sounds Start> Settings> Control Panel> Sounds and Audio Devices> Sounds Tab> Sound Scheme to None.

10. Do Not map Through Soundcard Start> Settings> Control Panel> Sounds and Audio Devices> Hardware Tab>
(highlight your soundcard from the list) > Properties > Audio Devices> (highlight your soundcard from the list) > Properties, and check the “Do not map through this device’

11. Disable System Restore Start> Settings> Control Panel> System> System Restore Tab. Tick the “Turn off
System Restore on all Drives”

12. Disable Automatic Updates
Start> Settings> Control Panel> System> Automatic Updates> Turn off automatic updating. I want to update my computer manually

13. Startup and Recovery Options
Start> Settings> Control Panel> System> Advanced> Startup and Recovery Settings> Untick Automatically Restart

14. Disable Error Reporting
Start> Settings> Control Panel> System> Advanced> Error Reporting> Disable Error Reporting

15. Disable Remote Assistance
Start> Settings> Control Panel> System> Remote > Untick Allow remote assistance invitations to be sent from this computer

16. Fix Swap File (Virtual Memory)
Start> Settings> Control Panel> System> Advanced> Performance Settings> Advanced > Virtual Memory Change> Custom Size. Set initial and maximum size to the same value.

17. Speed Up Menus
Start> Run> Regedit> HKEYCURRENT_USER> Control Panel> Desktop Folder. Set MenuShowDelay to 1

18. Disable Offline Files
Start> Settings> Control Panel > Folder Options > Offline Files Untick “Enable Offline Files”

19. Disable Remote Desktop
Start> Settings> Control Panel> System> Remote > Untick “Allow users to connect remotely to this computer”

20. Disable Internet Synchronise Time
Start> Settings> Control Panel > Date and Time > Internet Time > Untick “Automatically synchronize with internet time server”

21. Disable Hide Inactive Icons
Start> Settings> Taskbar and Start Menu> Taskbar TAB > Uncheck “Hide Inactive icons

22. Disable Automatic Desktop Cleanup Wizard
Start> Settings> Control Panel> Display> Desktop> Customise Desktop> Untick “Run Desktop Cleanup Wizard every 60 days”

23. Disable NTFS Last Access Time Logging (NTFS File Systems Only)
Start> Run> regedit> HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE> System> CurrentControlSet> Control> Filesystem. Add a new DWORD value - “NtfsDisableLastAccessUpdate” and set value to 1.

24. Disable Notification Area Balloon Tips
Start> Run > regedit > HKEY_CURRENT_USER> Software > Microsoft> Windows>
CurrentVersion> Explorer> Advanced. Create a new DWORD value called
EnableBalloonTips and set to 0.

25. Disable CDROM Autoplay
Start> Run> regedit> HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE> System> CurrentControlSet> Services> Cdrom. Set autorun to 0.

26. Disable Disc Indexing Service
Right Click Start> Explorer> Right Click Each Disc > Properties > Untick “Allow Indexing Service to index this disc for fast file searching”


I think this bit deletes the 3d folder in windows explorer
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\MyComputer\NameSpace
Locate the subkey named {0DB7E03F-FC29-4DC6-9020-FF41B59E513A} under NameSpace in the left pane. Right-click it, select “Delete”, and confirm you want to delete the key.


Then, head to the following key in the Registry Editor window. You can copy-paste the below line into the address bar or navigate using the left sidebar.

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\MyComputer\NameSpace
Again, locate the subkey named {0DB7E03F-FC29-4DC6-9020-FF41B59E513A} under NameSpace in the left pane. Right-click it, select “Delete”, and confirm you want to delete the key.

Hope this helps

 

Stay OFFLINE with your Power Audio Workstation (HäckSoftPC) Since 20 jeahrs my DAW Pc is oflline , No Anti Virus Prg iam running .I use
spybot S&D with manual updates and Zone Alarm portable , I USe 4 PC . 1 Master WIN/OSX and 2 SLAVE Intranet homenet ofline only .laptop Hp
for WWW surfing testing etc LINUX / WIN , OS ; Windows XpPro x64/x32 , 7x64 Enterprise/32, WIN 10 Enterprise LTSC x64 MAC elCapitain. .LINUX Ubuntu Studio
welcome to 2020 digitaldiversity .Hardwarefetisch is ok but incompatible . No viruses detected since 2012 , THX R2R .
and there is no Virus in WWW for WIN XpPro X64 Endebbed)in the year 2020. Eveything workin prearty good WITHOUT Dongel"Eldorados"

DAWs SONAR 6,7,8,8.5,X1,X2,X3-PLATINUM PRO /Kinetic 2,ORION, CUBASE Pro 5 ,8 ,8.5, 10,10.5 NUENDO 4,8,10.5 / ABLETON 8,9,10 / REASON 5,6,BITWIG 3
ProTools 10.5 ,12.3 / Sequoia 12 / FL-Studio 12,20 / ACID 7,8,NEXT ,PRO 10, /MASCHINE / Logic 9,X / VSL ESSP / VST-STACK , Reaper5,6,Mixcraft 7 , STUDIO ONE 2,3,4,5

No updating OS . .Manual when needed. language etc. Runtimes VisualCC Driver etc. Keks,

U can use Windows in VR maschine MAC or MAC in VR Maschine PC or ucan START MAC OS or WIN / LINUX OS .

YEP offline is LUXUS

 

my MAC is online
My Audio PC is OFFLINE
As far as performance goes, ill take the Pepsi Challenge against a mac audio machine with similar spec any day. not to mention my out of pocket hit is way way way less then buying a similar spec'd MAC and lets face it Apple died with Steve Jobs.

About Hackintosh its cleaver but too much of a pain to build as a daily driver with. having to have specific hardware n all. ive built a couple and was pretty much. underwhelmed. if you. have it and you like it bully for you, it aint for me.

 

I have a hackintosh, I boot it up when im in a 'bowling with lane blockers' type of mood