XP optimizations for music production with NI could be affecting other programs.

I just went through the following optimizations that a person from NI reccommended for me to go through to tweak XP to behave as efficient and fast as possible for music production with Native instruments software inside and outside of DAWs.

http://tarekith.com/assets/XPTweaks.htm.

To that person I say thanks! They are huge in improving my machine for the best use with NI software both inside and outside of DAWs!

But now I am trying to install Pinnacle studio on my machine for video editing and it does not want to because it says that "the installer has detected that Microsoft windows installer 4.5 and Microsoft .Net is not on my computer Would you like to update the components now?" So can anyone please tell me if any of those windows XP optimizations on the optimization page are tricking the installer Pinnacle studio 14 into believing these components are not there (when they maybe just could be turned off?) I am afraid to hit the update button.

and unfortunately i have to stay on service pack 2 but are those components only service pack 3 components? I am not risking going to service pack 3 after what happened to my machine last time. And especially now after those optimizations.

Thanks and please help.

 

Erik (Tarekith) tends to go way overboard with his tweaks, to be honest; most of them are flat out unnecessary. But no- you haven't disabled anything the Pinnacle installer's looking for.

And no- those aren't SP3 components. The Windows installer update's in SP3 iof I remember, but it's also available by itself. And .NET framework's never been part of the OS service packs- .NET framework's an entity of its own with its own service packs.

Why can't you run SP3?

ew

 

In the past, once I updated to SP3, then something stopped working in pro tools... the transport would not play i think.... so then I did a system restore and that was catastrophic for the machine. But since I remembered my computer always working good enough with SP2, I just told the tech to just put SP2. (And keep in mind, my computer was never a supported machine for Pro tools nor is it now. IN fact, Avid is confused as to why Pro Tools is even working on my computer when it is not supposed to be. LOL)

So would you recommend getting the framework 3.51 and windows installer 4.5 as Pinnacle installer is suggesting? Concerns are there for valid reasons. Is it worth the risk? Or should I just put Pinnacle on my parents computer since I know Ive been updating that one regularly and it is not optimized or anything. And they dont have alot of stuff on there I need to backup in case of failuire. My machine is different as we are talking about a week full of installs again if all goes to hell.

So in conclusion, since Pro Tools is NOT supposed to be working on my machine but luckily is in it's current phase of platforms, should I just leave all frameworks etc the way they are and forget about it and put Pinnacle studio on another computer?

Regardless, I am also waiting on a response from Avid since I ended up there anyways from Pinnacle support as I just found out Avid owns pinnacle. Wow, what are the odds. I also inquired as to whether they can just send me a previous version of Pinnacle studio if it is not worth getting all these components for windows.

 

More apps are using .NET framework, so yeah- I'd do it. And, it's always good to have the latest Windows installer version.

As far as SP3 goes, Microsoft only officially supports SP3 as far as XP goes these days; SP1 and SP2 aren't officially supported anymore.

ew

 

what if this changes things to affect performance of programs? I know little about computers. What if pro tools stops working after changing to that .NET?

 

There should have no problem, just "improvements". Newer .NET framework still support older software, and sometime better. Go ahead!

 

But can anyone guarantee the .NET framework will cause no issues nor the different windows installer? Or can there be no guarantee with regards to this? (waiting on a second response now from Avid)

And also, for some reason, this InstallAware Wizard on my machine which I have never seen before has to now verify the contents of everything i try to install from DVDs these days... this has never happened before - can someone please help because this is very annoying. I just bought Evolve mutations 1 and 2 bundle and this is now happening.

Did I accidentally enable this application to have to come up for all DVD installs now? Can i disable this again? I cant find the disabler anywhere.

 

How can anybody guarantee that? There's an infinite number of variables with a Windows box. It most definitely should work fine, though- if not, contact Microsoft support. The few times I've needed to use Microsoft support, they've been very helpful.

That's due to the version of InstallShield the newer NI installers use; it's been that way ever since NI went to InstallShield instead of Wise for their installers. And no, it can't be disabled- it's there for your protection. All it's doing is checking that the installer contents are correct.

ew

 

Avid got back to me again and said he reccommends .Net 2.0... I am not sure if he just meant 3.5.... but now my question is if its 3.5, can I go back to the one I have now if there is instability?

What about runtime errors possible in music software running in a Daw i have see before with stuff like Kontakt? In other words, all I need to know is if the odds for this happening is in anyway affected with the .Net framework 3.5 going on a machine with XP SP2?

This clarified my question and concern I hope.

 

can possible runtime errors occuring in the future be related to this? anyone?

 

What an amazing question.

 

well since its related to runtime processes, what other question am i going to ask?

 

How can ANYONE answer a question about ANYTHING that's going to happen in the future. A new form of wibble might have been introduced and this could negotiate away from stanley.

 

.NET framework versions are all separate, if you install 3.5, it won't remove 2.0 or 1.1

if a program needs .NET v.2.0, it will use 2.0, if another one needs 3.5, it will use 3.5, one will not interfere with the other and I think they're only used when needed so if Protools doesn't need .NET, .NET won't interfere with Protools and I guess it won't even load in memory(.NET).

Why do you say Protools is not supposed to run on your machine?