Hello "music Lovers" The day has come when my offline studio computer can't sit and smell the flowers under the cork-oak anymore. I've come to a point where I see more advantages than disadvantages of, first and foremost, upgrading from WIN 7 s * n * et activated to win 10 san *** preactivated. The reasons are becoming pretty many. One example is that my little friend UNO Synth has had a tough time in the win 7 environment. The sound card in my ULTRA Nova (quite useless with integrated sound-cards in synths but it is not my supernovas fault) only manages to make itself heard after a lot of reboots and new installations of Novation Asio USB drive day in and day out ..
Ok a lot of text about nothing so now comes one or two questions about connecting the studio computer. Quite novice about this.

1. I have a "legit" license for Live 10 Standard but use a "try out" version of Live 10 suite. I like Ableton and keep looking for promotions with discounted upgrade prices. I don't want us to get mad of each other before I can afford the update. I have skimmed through many uploads of "try on" versions posted but have never found text that reads like this "you have to do this and that with for example .com files and you can´t do so etc. etc. I know that Ableton calls home based on the logs on the computer. What is the best way to go? I have unchecked all things from "look for upgrades automatic" to "share your data for a better yadyada.

Nowadays, I always buy plugins from producers who can still spell a reputable serial number that they gladly give me in my account or email it to me. Never more a sinking SEK to producers that harass customers with Third-party license managers with suspicious .exe files that often require more time to get started than the time I actually use the product. And purchases where you have to register your mail on three different pages. The next day, three new people multiplied with four spam emails over a day with an 80% discount. ONLY four hours (year-round) left on usually old software that is in a version change. Worse than horse dealers and car junkers .. Then it is a dream to get a "try out" copy which is further optimized by extremely capable individuals and takes less time to get started than the time it takes to enter the first email address at the first of three professional spammers.

So I maybe has one or seventy-eleven "try on" plugins installed, 100 % VST(i)s and no stand alone program.
Now there was quite a lot of text again but now come ask two!

2. My second question is: If I'm connected for a few hours, without starting Live and therefor no plugins either. Then pull my cable out from the router (no wifi) and starts trying to make some music. Is this possible or does the plugin call home even when they are not started when I am online
?
Thank you for taking the time forcing the txt mass <3
And thank you in advance for some info how things work. Extremely grateful to every "in-puts" and apologize if this has been addressed many times. I just want to make sure I understand these two important issues for me. Thank you for your time and as I said, I be very grateful for an exhaustive response.
One last addition before I stop wasting on 1's and 0's and your patience.
I don´t care much if one or seventeen plugins become bulky and refuse to start, it is not the whole world. But it gets a lot messier than sitting at the offline computer WITHOUT a single notification of something imported is recommended to me, not an email, not a beep, no nothing.. Just Vakuum and pretty badly produced music =)

Regards / Plast

 

Hiya.
If it's just/only your "try before you buy" plugins that you have on your system, and no other un-legit software, then the plugins will only try to call home when you open up Ableton, or even just when you go to use one in Ableton. But you should still have either blocked them from calling, in your hosts file, or at least have something like HandsOff (I think it may be a windows version similar to the network monitor Little Snitch for Mac) installed.
Otherwise, no worries. No plugins should dial home if you haven't opened your daw whilst online. I can think of other k'd software that might, but you haven't asked for that.
This is my experience of going online without daw/plugins happening; but it's not impossible that you may have a plugin I don't, which is able to try to do so. So be careful!
I hope I've at least understood (some of) your question, but I'm not sure.

 

Ah sorry. This will dial home, if you haven't blocked it as I said.
As will your legit Live 10 Standard.
So you need to search for 'editing the .hosts file', and/or find a suitable Network Filter/Monitor for your OS.
Shame you can't just stay on W7 and go online with better security. W7 is still the best, even though it's not 'supported' now. Was it ever?! lol

 

Last edited: Feb 3, 2020

Thank you! Yes Win 7 is unbeatable in so many ways. And I have not taken a a final decision yet. And UNO synth and its incompatible software I can have as book support on the shelf. Thanks for explaining! <3

 

You're welcome!
Just to add, more specifically, when you open a daw whilst online a network monitor will reveal "AbletonLive wants to connect with Native Instruments/FabFilter/whatever".
So the plugins don't have to be opened, and they use the daw to phone home. Just as the daw will try and call home to daddy too!