Topic by bjohn

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Topic: Disabling Windows notifications for live performance?

I normally use Pianoteq on a Mac desktop, but for live performance I got a Windows 10 laptop (better specs for the price and more importantly the ability to upgrade and replace components myself). I'm a pretty seasoned Windows 10 user, but despite disabling as many notification settings as I could find I still occasionally get notifications (including sound) while I'm playing the keyboard, which would be disastrous in a live performance. Is there a master setting for ensuring that no notification sounds play while Pianoteq is running?

Reply by Urs Zimmermann

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Re: Disabling Windows notifications for live performance?

Click loudspeaker symbol in the lower right corner. Then right click on sounds. Then sound scheme "no sounds"

Pianoteq 7 Pro with all pianos

Reply by EvilDragon

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Re: Disabling Windows notifications for live performance?

This is the Focus Assist feature in Windows. Set that to "Alarms only".

Last edited by EvilDragon (14-08-2019 21:36)
Hard work and guts!

Reply by bjohn

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Re: Disabling Windows notifications for live performance?

Thanks, both of you! I'll give each a try.

Reply by bjohn

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Re: Disabling Windows notifications for live performance?

EvilDragon wrote:

This is the Focus Assist feature in Windows. Set that to "Alarms only".

This actually didn't work, surprisingly enough! I set it to alarms only and 10 minutes later up came a loud chime with the computer telling me I needed to install a bios update. So I set the sound scheme to "no sounds" and we'll see if that works. Fingers crossed, as I have a concert coming up in a little over a week.

Reply by EvilDragon

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Re: Disabling Windows notifications for live performance?

Maybe also disable notifications from Settings and Security and Maintenance. Or just disable playing a sound when notification arrives.

Last edited by EvilDragon (15-08-2019 09:12)
Hard work and guts!

Reply by PrinceKorwin

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Re: Disabling Windows notifications for live performance?

It can be a strange solution but what about create Linux bootable CD with Pianoteq?

Reply by EvilDragon

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Re: Disabling Windows notifications for live performance?

That's not a solution, that's a sledgehammer.

Hard work and guts!

Reply by PrinceKorwin

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Re: Disabling Windows notifications for live performance?

Unexpected sound is a minor Windows problem that can be on a musican live performance.
Windows love break performance by rebooting for install updates and so on

https://meme.xyz/uploads/posts/t/l-18264-windows-10-asks-for-updates.jpg

Reply by EvilDragon

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Re: Disabling Windows notifications for live performance?

Windows 10 Pro is not at all like that.

Hard work and guts!

Reply by bjohn

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Re: Disabling Windows notifications for live performance?

EvilDragon wrote:

Maybe also disable notifications from Settings and Security and Maintenance. Or just disable playing a sound when notification arrives.

Yep, I had already done that but they kept coming. I suspect I'm paying the price for being lazy and not doing a disk wipe and bare-metal reinstall of Windows on my laptop when I first got it. It's a Lenovo, and I'm starting to think their bloatware is overriding the Windows settings somehow and playing these sounds whenever it sends a notification. I can try uninstallling the Lenovo tools, and if that doesn't solve the problem I'll wipe and reinstall. I'm at my limit on Pianteq installs, though, but presumably it's locked to my machine and not the OS so if I reinstall Windows I'll still be able to install Pianoteq.

I did get this machine with the idea of eventually turning it into a Linux-only laptop, as I'm comfortable in Linux, but want to use Windows for now for a variety of reasons.