Win XP vs. Win Vista/7

[Manuel]

Hardware Profiles?

Well, as this thread is related to computer music at least, maybe some one can help me out here. The issue is:

I use Windows XP SP3 on my PC and I have two hardware profiles configured to be able to switch between a standard configuration which allows me to use my HP Photosmart C5180 All-In-One, connect to internet or network or watch TV with a DVB-T device as well as backing up my user data on an external HDD and a second profile where these features are not available. (I turned off these devices in the device manager and deactivated related services in Windows services)

Now,I know that this feature is no longer available since Vista and so I'm searching for a resoulution to get this to work under Windows 7. I found some tools to get some of this features back to work but it's really annoying to see that there are a lot of new features, that most users will probably never use, but a really useful feature (at least for computer-musicians and DJs) is just turned off.


The point is:
The registry entrys for this functionality are still there, but you can't use this feature anymore. 

Is there anybody out here struggeling with the same issue? Maybe somebody who know a better soultion or another forum, which is related to themes like this? (english or german forums only)

I found this tool named pcwServices that gives me the possibilaty to have at least two service profiles configured, but I can't turn off hardware devices for a profile, third party services installed by software like VMware, Apple etc., or save these settings as an own configuration profile.
Same issue with antivirus software. I run antivirus and firewall only in the standard configuration (Home) but not under profile two (Live). The point here is that most antivirus software can't be turned of if once started. 

Another tool I found is called pcwCapsRun. This tool gives you the opportunity to have an extended autostart functionality, to run the chosen applications only when CapsLock is active after login.

If you're going to perform live or on the way with your notebook, under XP you can deactivate W-LAN, CD-/DVD-drive, Cardreader, networkcard and maybe more to conserve your battery and this is completely missing under Vista/7! (At least saving this settings as a MSConfig profil)

I could also imagine using a online (or my HOME profile) where I have my 1.5TB internal SATA-HDD turned off. I would then use my second user profile without all the sensitive music related files in risk by simply outsourcing my different userfiles on different internal hard drives connected via RAID. (Off course I would have to turn on the first harddrive to register software online. But hey, we can also register offline in most cases!)
 

I know other musicians/DJs using two operating systems to be able to start two different configurations, but that's really not the goal here!

1.	You have to buy two systems (or hack the second one)
2.	You need more disk space
3.	You have to setup two systems
4.	You may need two licenses for some applications
5.	You'll get problems if you try to use you user data on both systems

(I use the registry editor to outsource all user files on a second HDD)

-> HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\ProfileList
or
-> HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\User Shell Folders
-> HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Shell Folders
etc. so that there is no user folder under C:\Documents and Settings\.

Does somebody know how this could may workout on a Mac? Is this feature available in any other OS then XP?

Any suggestions are welcome!

BTW: If I would be a chief developer working for Microsoft, I would push this feature to the max by implementing the ability to set a standard user profile for each hardware profile!

[vaikl]

On OSX I could simply setup different admin users, who can configure their own sets of preferences (networking interfaces, printers/scanners, CoreAudio/MIDI devices and so on). Switching users is a matter of some seconds.

But I think the main reason for not supporting hardware profiles in Win7 anymore is the fact that most external hardware should be plug/play compatible today and because of that you don't have to restart Win and load a driver every time you change your hardware.

[Manuel]

On OSX I could simply setup different admin users, who can configure their own sets of preferences (networking interfaces, printers/scanners, CoreAudio/MIDI devices and so on). Switching users is a matter of some seconds.

Thanks for the advice!
Sounds easy. Is it possible to configure services in the same manner? And what about storing userfiles on a second hard drive?

But I think the main reason for not supporting hardware profiles in Win7 anymore is the fact that most external hardware should be plug/play compatible today and because of that you don't have to restart Win and load a driver every time you change your hardware.

Yes I know, but this is something that really su**s! I use this to turn off internal devices as well, and under XP this is working great. My power supply isn't that strong and so I can turn of every device I don't need to produce music on my LIVE profile. Another reason is my third internal HDD as well as my external HDD are off. That conserves and protects them. (Right now I have Win 7 installed on one of them internal hard drives, so this drive is turned off in both MSConfig profiles)

[vaikl]

Thanks for the advice!
Sounds easy. Is it possible to configure services in the same manner? And what about storing userfiles on a second hard drive?

In the UNIX/OSX world just everything that runs in background is more or less a "service", based on the user configuration. This process-oriented approach allows the user to run own services (beside some kernel-based ones that are systemwide necessary). And you could store userfiles just anywhere, the system automatically creates symbolic links for them.

[Manuel]

Now that I bought a new PC with 64 Bit support and a multi core processor, I had to install Windows 7, because Windows XP 32 Bit doesn't support the 8 GB RAM and Windows XP 64 Bit doesn't support most applications.

Well, I'm pretty much done with setting up all my software and configuring the system to fit my needs. The user files are outsourced to a second HDD and everything is working fine so far.
The only problem I still have is, the hugh number of processes running in the background. I'm still using TuneUp Utilities and there TurboMode and ProgramDeactivator are a big plus for me. I love this program since 2006, even if some people say that it would be useless. In fact it's not!

I just wanted to know if anybody knows something about "Login Scripts" and how they work.
As far as I understand, you can integrate batch files to configure the services that run when you log in as a specific user. Of course I have different user profiles for music production and other purposes like internet and so on. And yes, I know how to configure the auto start programs for those profiles, but I also want to be able to turn off all the useless processes, I don't need for music production. Doing this manualy is really a PITA. 

So, if anybody can help me out here, I would really appreciate to know about it. 

Thanks in advance,

Manuel

[CC4]

Imagine the headaches you might have if you upgraded to Windows 8.

Are you at least familiar with Autoruns?
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-ca/sysinternals/bb963902.aspx