Ok I’m not sure if this is a topic well covered already but I’m sure I wil be advised if it has.
Firstly I’m running Nuendo 13 on Windows 11 Pro (23H2) on a computer with the following spec:-
Intel(R) Core™ i9-9900K CPU @ 3.60GHz 3.60 GHz 64Gb RAM
I have two WDBlue SN570 2TB NVME devices for OS and storage.
I’m sure I’m not alone in trying to have my DAW co-exist with all my other stuff eg. Outlook,Photoshop, Norton, OneDrive, etc but I appreciate it is not ideal.
My plan is to just use Nuendo 13 on its own but I am conflicted as to how to approach doing this. Should I just set up a new account in Windows 11 as user Nuendo (assuming Nuendo does not need to have admin rights to run!?) and re-install everything for that user or go the dual-boot method and have a true “clean” install that eliminates unwanted devices and software?
If I go dual-boot I would want two x Win 11 installs and I have heard that is problematical with licenses for Microsoft?!
Any insights greatly appreciated.
Is anybody out there successfully achieving my desired setup already?
[1] Cleanest solution: A second PC. Advantage: Hardware & software optimally configurable for DAW. Disadvantage: costs.
[2] Next cleanest solution: Dual boot on one PC. Advantage: Windows can be configured completely independent. Disadvantage: Workload, two partitions to be maintained, re-boot required to switch over.
[3] Least clean solution: Another user. Advantage: Little effort. Disadvantage: Only User related data are separated, Computer related data are still shared.
I think the first question really should be how much you actually gain by separating the two.
As far as I know Microsoft apps won’t slow your system down. Yes, they load a bunch of processes but they all sit idle in the background as long as you’re not using them. And some apps like OneDrive can be disabled, and then started manually if you need it. Photoshop should take zero cycles unless you start it.
As for Norton and other anti-virus / anti-malware software I would just skip it and rely on the built in Defender instead. I’ve had zero problems with Defender. It isn’t intrusive and I haven’t gotten malware.
I know that doesn’t answer your actual question, but I really think the above should be the first consideration. Is it really worth the effort and inconvenience? Are you already hitting a wall in terms of performance?
You make some very good points and I could exist with my system if I had the patience to close down all the non-essential processes (One drive, Adobe creative background processes, Norton, etc.). However, I do need them in my normal work life and so I really need to ensure they are running when I am working. Stopping them all and going in to DAW mode every time would only work for so long before I gave up!
When these processes are running in the background, I am having glitches happening in playback on a regular basis, hence my desire to isolate my environments from each other.
I think you should run that latency checker software. If I’m not mistaken it will tell you which processes are taking up cycles so you may be able to target them quite efficiently.
You could also probably make sure they don’t start by default. That way a reboot will start your system without those processes and if you then need to start working on something that isn’t audio you can start them manually. If I remember correctly a lot of processes start automatically once you launch the “main” application. So if OneDrive has several processes and they’re disabled they’ll start once I start “OneDrive” as a service/app.
And lastly, you could probably just batch script the whole thing and then drop a shortcut on your desktop. In other words for example have a batch process that kills all non-audio processes that you’ve singled out, and another that launches them. Boot in the morning. Default processes on (for example). When you want to work on audio just double-click the shortcut. Done (?).
Just trying to give you options that are less time consuming, less cumbersome and taking up less space than dual booting.
