Offline PC Win7 Update Question

Hiya,

Just wondering how everyone approaches updating their OS and compatibility with WL8 and C7? The system requirements page isn’t particularly specific on this and I’m loath to mess with a very stable system with updates that won’t help my issue or are unnecessary.

My DAW is not internet connected in any way, (even turned off all the networking peripherals in BIOS) I have no anti-virus or firewall and only my Audio apps installed. This is following the old-school ‘Every CPU cycle for audio’ theory.

This approach may be outdated but so is my PC (at least I’m consistent).

Recently one of the H264 Video files I received for post editing refused to behave in C7, with the video track reporting a ‘frame-rate miss-match’ and the video playing at a ridiculous stuttering 17.2fps and not syncing up with the OMF imported audio. Every other program plays it back fine (quicktime, VLC, WMP etc) even though win properties tab reports the same bizarre frame-rate.

Searching around has led me to all sorts of crazy Video editing sites and no real solution. Lots of ads selling FPS changing software though… (cough).

The one relevant post I’ve found around here talks about updating Video drivers and Quicktime and here, finally, I’ll get to the point, the new video drivers want .net framework.

I have worked out how to D/L and install the updates but should I update just the .net framework or go the whole hog of service packs or something in between.

Any input would be greatly appreciated and thanks for getting through my rambling word stumbles.

PC

I’ve been entirely online for years, I disregarded the advice at every stage… Therefore I can’t specifically help, except to say that I install everything that MS/Win7 wants me to (including .net things, well, everything except bing desktop) and I upgrade most other software when they need to as well (e.g. Melodyne, Cubase, Autotune, UAD, yes QuickTime for the vid facility etc).

I have to say that if my DAW wasn’t online then it’d be a giant nightmare, and it’s bad enough even being online just with the amount of logins and passwords for each manufacturer!! So, provided they prompted me when an upgrade was available so I can choose when to upgrade, I’d be very happy if they all went to automatic download and install. Less brain power needed. In this respect, Apple have led the way with their user-simple App system.

Mike.

+1 to Gargoyle. Microsoft introduced the “self-healing” concept for Vista, which is now fully mature and stable in Win7/8. .NET is essential for most things like driver updates and general control options in Windows and is also needed for the eLc

Hi again and thanks for the replies,

@GargoyleStudio

Yeah, I suspect I’m in the minority now with an offline DAW, but for me at least I still think that the benefits outweigh the irritations, updating software isn’t too hard and I don’t get distracted by the web.

@henceforth

I do like the idea of a self healing PC and it seems that a lot of people are working that way but personally I don’t like the idea of anitivirus’ and firewalls and non audio programs causing conflicts and facebook and emails and you-tube and improv-sites and and and… I like and need my DAW to be a DAW.
People that come in to record are always surprised that there’s no wifi and mobile phones don’t work in there but after a few hours of not being distracted there’s often a ‘hey it’s great being able to focus’ comment of some sort.
The studio is a work-area and being my own boss means that if I caught myself face-booking during work I’d have to sack him.

I was hoping some-one would chime in with a “you need this update and this but don’t install this 'cause it’ll do this” type of post but I suppose that’s lazyness on my part.
Anyways thanks for the .net heads-up, the updater I’ve sorted allows me to choose the type of updates to install so I think I’ll do a restore point and go slowly slowly starting with Service packs and then .net.

Cheers for the help and I’ll post my experiences here for the next person.

Cheeers,

PC

Hi Paul

If you want simple AV that barely (or rarely) interferes, then use Microsoft Security Essentials (MSE).

As for Browsers that operate well with the audio functions of a DAW, I’d say SeaMonkey is a pretty good choice for a safe and reliable internet browser suite (has email as well).

Great to see you’ve made a real studio, but don’t get hung up on the updates, the power is for you to use a high performance system, which in turn means system utilities will come into play including:

CCleaner, Wise Registry (and disk) Cleaner, BleachBit.

BleachBit in particular allows you to remove all the update remnants from installers which in reality is the major consideration, as well are talking about GB of cr@p left over after updating the OS but as always it is good to seek others’ views.

P.S. If you are especially paranoid, you can also install SpyBot search and destroy to immunize your browser but these of course use memory but can be turned off easily from starting by using RevoUninstaller, cheers

My recording PC is also (offline) I only connect when I need to do windows updates. When I’m done, I disconnect again. Staying disconnected as you record is the best way because you eliminate any possibility for the computer to try to update something creating stutters and so on in your recording making your hard drive work a little harder. When you’re blasting 16 recorded tracks to your dedicated hard drive, every little bit of extra things you can do will help. I also don’t have a virus checker on it because that will run in the back ground and will cause problems too. Hope this helps.

nexis

Hiya Again,

Well as promised, here’s how it’s gone so far…

I found a great free/donation-ware program called WSUS Offline Update http://www.wsusoffline.net/

This app will connect to the MS server and download all the updates along with any extra files you need to install them. You choose which updates you want/need and then just copy the folder across via a USB stick or even a bootable CD/DVD and run it. Done!

I’ve so far installed all the service packs and Win7 updates with no hassle at all. The only rub being that as my WIN7 had never been updated at all it was a 1.65gb download.
Everything seems to have gone well and I’ve even lowered my buffer settings to 128 (mostly 20-30 Audio tracks with plugins at 24/96) with no issues so far.
Tonight I’ll be installing all the .net updates.

I don’t think I’ll ever connect my DAW to the internet, too much at stake for me and the process above is pretty much a hit “run” and do something else for an hour or two.

@nexis, I totally agree with the stay disconnected, but if you’ve got a second PC or laptop you can do all your net and other stuff on that and have a nice clean windows install just for music. turning off all you network adapters in BIOS opens up hardware resources and IRQ’s (I know this isn’t so much of an issue as it used to be) and WIFI esp is known to create pop and crackle issues.

Cheers for your thoughts and I’ll get back once I’ve got a vibe on the next lot of updates.

Good work

Hi, i agree with Paul in most of the things, my PC is also disconnected from the net when i work, although there’s a connection to a router. But the computer is phisycaly disconnected and i only connect it when in need to do updates, and stuff like that. No Facebook, no youtube, no games, no Office, nothing else then the DAW and all my other programs and plug-ins. But a connection to the net is needed when you have to do upgrades, updates and all this stuff. And nowadays there are programs and aplications that only install in a net connection environment. Also note that you’re runnig Win 7 32 bit. Why? Win 7 shoud be 64 bit, in order for you to get the best of your OS and machine. Well, that’s my opinion. All the best

I also agree with Paul but I simply Disable my network (Local area Connection) when working
Also I use the free IObit Game Booster 3.4, it allows me to selectively switch off all the processes I don’t need at the time, ie., printer etc. ( It works by temporarily shutting down background processes, cleaning RAM, and intensifying processor performance. )
Its really simple 1 Ckick->Start Work->1 Click-> back to normal.
Thanks for the info about WSUS Offline Update, I’m using it now.

My DAW is also offline, I do all internet stuff on a laptop. Never do any windows updates, they are simply not relevant (Win7 SP1 and done) for an offline computer. Most of the stuff is fixing safety problems.
All music software updates are done offline, Addictive Drums is the only one I use where offline updates have been abolished. I install AV & activate the windows firewall, do the update and disconnect.

However, I used to be dainty and ran dual boot on my laptop, one system for web/office, one for audio only (in the good old XP days). This doesn’t seem to be neccessary anymore. For location recording my general purpose laptop just works without trouble. For a demanding project I’ve done lately, 48 channels of live recording, 3 1/2 hours long, I’ve installed an audio only system again. No AV, firewall, nothing. The smallest set of needed audio tools only. Just to be sure no secret computer phantom would interfere :mrgreen:

On every computer I use and have used, I’ve definately turned automatic updates OFF for windows and for any other application (Adobe Reader, Open Office, QuickTime etc. - by default most of them have automatic updates enabled). If desired I can check for updates manually.

Right but .NET is important for the working of the OS itself, not to mention eLc which is integral to the functioning of cubase in the realm of dongle calls.

Yes. Don’t exactly know about the details, just often observed that offline installs update the runtime environment (or however it’s called) automatically if needed. No problems that far but if any appear I do necessary updates of course but not the massive amount of stuff that fixes troubles my DAW just doesn’t run into. I dare to say so as it just works. That experience is actually what leads me to the said conclusion that most of the updates are not needed for an offline workstation.

net frame is important , look back to c6 on xp we had to make sure NF 3.5 with sp1 was installed to be able to run c6 on xp . and I hate to admit it but goforth is right NF and elc do go hand in hand

Ahoy Again,

Well I’ve now installed all the .net updates and all appears to be well. It’s a bit slower booting up though…

Cubase seems to be running fine with no change in CPU usage etc. That said I haven’t had to track anything yet, but I’ll do some CD Listening and record it to multiple tracks and see how the files turn out.

That said this whole update thing only came up because, apparently, I needed to update my Video drivers to fix a frame-rate miss-match issue with some H264 files. I’ve now updated my video drivers and the miss-match issue is still there, GRRR.

Ohh and for the record; this is the first time I’ve updated win7 since I installed it six or so months ago, I’ve never had an issue with the dongle installing or running so kudos to Steinberg on that front, if it needs .net, it had it in the installer (unlike Nvidia)…

Cheers,

PC

.NET updates will slow boot time, but the increase in stability and all-round performance gains cannot be understated.