I'm always looking for new ways to boost my PC's performance so I can squeeze a few more digital audio tracks or real-time effects out of my projects. I'm sure you are too, so I'd like to share a little tweak with you.

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WARNING: This tweak involves changing the Windows Registry, and this can lead to problems if you don't follow the instructions exactly. So proceed at your own risk.

By adding a single value to the Registry, you can tell your PC to give priority to the program running in the foreground while reducing the processing power given to any programs running in the background. To apply the tweak, do the following:

1. In Windows, click the Start button and choose Run from the menu.
2. Type in REGEDIT and click OK.
3. In the left section of the Registry Editor, click the plus sign next to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE key.
4. Under that key, click the plus sign next to the System key.
5. Under the System key, click the plus sign next to the CurrentControlSet key.
6. Under the CurrentControlSet key, click the plus sign next to the Services key.
7. Now under the Services key, look for a key named BIOS. If there isn't one, then right-click the Service key and choose New>Key from the pop-up menus. Type BIOS for the name of the new key.
8. Right-click the BIOS key and choose New>DWORD Value from the pop- up menus.
9. In the right section of the Registry Editor, type CPUPriority for the name of the new DWORD value.
10. Right-click the CPUPriority value and choose Modify from the pop-up menu.
11. Choose Decimal for the Base parameter.
12. Type in 1 for the Value Data parameter.
13. Click OK.

Now restart Windows to see if you get any kind of boost in performance. This tweak may or may not work. And if you experience problems, try using 2 in step 12. Windows uses 3 by default. Also, NEVER use a value of 0 because that will lock up your PC.

Scott R. Garrigus is the author of Cakewalk Power! and Sound Forge Power! He is also the publisher of the DigiFreq music technology newsletter. Learn about more cool tips and techniques for your music software and have the chance to win free music products by getting a FREE subscription to DigiFreq... surf to:
http://www.garrigus.com/scott/subscribe.html

 

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