Question about XP Home Edition

[Cygnus X1]

How do I create a "clean" user account, with admin priveleges, with XP HE?
When I try to do it, it copies over all the settings I have on my primary login.

I want different logins for gaming, and for sound recording, that won't load
all the stuff that has accumulated over the years into my settings. For example, for recording, it wants to run through every sound app I have ever used, like the old audiorack (which I like for playing things, but not recording), c-media 3d audio stuff, etc. I want just the basic windows sound mixer on this one, and use N-Track to have access just to the windows controls, and not the other apps.

Do I duplicate my current settings and roll back apps I don't want? Or will those changes affect the whole system?

[hippietim]

The problem you are encountering is that almost all applications are installed per-system rather than per-user.

You really just need to uninstall some stuff altogether.

[Cygnus X1]

The problem you are encountering is that almost all applications are installed per-system rather than per-user.

You really just need to uninstall some stuff altogether.

I was afraid of that. Time to just get a Mac Notebook for recording only, then? Woof.

Thanks, HT

[442w30]

You can load microsoft "Virtual PC 2007" and install another instance of Windows XP on that same system from scratch "inside" your old system.

I am not sure of the licensing issues (do you need 2 XP licenses?) or its compatability with sound production software (I believe all your attached devices become virtualized - latency?), but it's worth a shot. That way you have many "OSs" running @ once and the drivers/apps don't jack with each other.

another option that is similar in theory is VMWare workstation, but it costs more.

AFAIK the microsoft version is "free".

[hippietim]

I wouldn't use a VPC for serious gaming or recording - the performance is not likely to be acceptable. Not all devices tunnel properly either.

[DrDoug]

You could use the msconfig utility in XP to set your startup options, but I have not tested in on a per user basis, just for diagnostic work. Open the Run dialog, type in 'msconfig' without the quotes, then run it. You will have a variety of startup options that you can set in there.

If you are not afraid of the Registry, you can open it and edit the 'run' and 'runonce' entries for your various logins. Some programs that start up at login are user specific, some cover all users. You may have to take some out of the all users settings and move them to the specific users that you want them to load under.

I do this on one of my systems as I don't want certain things to load when I am gaming, and others to load when I am video editing. So I edit the Startup groups for all users and the specific user, and same with the registry settings for the 'run' and 'runonce' for all users and the specific user.

Hope this helps! If you right click on your Start button, you will see "Open" and "Open All Users". If you open both, and then open the Programs folder in each one, you will see the respective Startup group (folder) for that user and all users. Arrange the apps in these the way you want, but there are still some that load via the 'run' and 'runonce' entries in the Registry.

It can be done, but it takes a few to configure them. I agree with hippietim, VPC would not be a good idea for this project.

[xenophobe]

You can use msconfig.

You can save different profiles to load> click My Computer> Properties> Advanced> User Profiles Settings.


There's also a free application that does this.
http://www.niris.co.uk/products/gameprofile.html

[Spivonious]

To answer the licensing question for VirtualPC, yes you would need two copies of XP to do that legally.

It sounds like you've got a lot of junk piled up over the years. I'd back up my documents and other things that aren't replaceable and then format the hard drive and do a fresh install of Windows. You can mess around with msconfig and take out startup items you don't need, but nothing compares to a nice fresh clean install.

[Cygnus X1]

To answer the licensing question for VirtualPC, yes you would need two copies of XP to do that legally.

It sounds like you've got a lot of junk piled up over the years. I'd back up my documents and other things that aren't replaceable and then format the hard drive and do a fresh install of Windows. You can mess around with msconfig and take out startup items you don't need, but nothing compares to a nice fresh clean install.

Absolutely. I still have apps from my 386 Windows 95 loaded and occasionally using, the Audiorack app being one.
I also have a WD 80 gig starting to go south on me. The OS is on the other drive, so I need to clean a lot of things up. Time to roll up the sleeves and get to work. It's seeing the secondary IDE drive as an unformatted disk ("Would you like to format now?")...Hell No!, it sometimes comes back after a full reboot.

[toejam]

Download CCleaner. There's an option in the tools section to remove programs or just remove them from startup.

http://www.ccleaner.com/
http://www.piriform.com/