Vista comes set-up for a wide spectrum of users, hence the user interface is designed to look attractive, play nice sounds and provide the best web browsing multimedia experience it can. Due to all it's bells and whistles Vista has a higher system overhead than it's predecessor XP and on lower spec'd machines can provide less than optimal performance when running a realtime application like Scratch LIVE.

Serato recommends Windows XP over Vista due to it's lower system overheads. Check the forum for up-to-date information on recommendations. However many manufacturers are now shipping new machines with Vista pre installed by default and more users are choosing to make the switch.

If you've purchased a new PC with Vista pre installed or you have up-graded your OS to Vista recently you may not be aware there are several changes you can make to optimize Vista for running Scratch LIVE or ITCH. This guide doesn't cover absolutely everything you can do to maximise realtime audio performance on a Vista machine but is intended as a good starting point. Those who are hardcore tweakers there are several web sites with further in-depth information that we link to at the end of the article.


Note: When you see this symbol: -> it will mean “and then select”.

1. When I'm 64-bit

Lets start the ball rolling with a simple check for any brand new Vista users. If you already have Scratch LIVE or ITCH running with Vista then ignore this one.

Vista comes in two different versions, 32-bit and 64-bit. Check your PC for which version of Vista you are using, to find out:

Click Windows start -> right click computer -> properties and look for system type shown below.

Check your version of Vista is 32-bit

If you have a 64-bit version of Vista installed then you must install Scratch LIVE version 1.8.2 or higher, which includes the necessary 64-bit drivers for your Scratch LIVE hardware.

Here is what Microsoft have to say about the differences between 32-bit and 64-bit Microsoft's FAQ on 32-bit & 64-bit Windows.