LiveTuner optimizes the system based on two simple parameters

Martin Brinkmann
Jan 29, 2014
Software, Windows software
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19

I have used lots of tweaks and programs that shipped with hundreds of them when I was still running the Windows XP operating system on one of my PCs.

While I still tweaked Windows 7 and Windows 8 a bit, advances in computer hardware and the operating systems made tweaks less useful than before.

What most solutions have in common is that they bombard you with dozens of tweaks. Some programs explain what each individual tweak does, while others leave you standing in the rain so that you need to research the effect on your own.

LiveTuner, available for all recent versions of the Windows operating system, falls into the second category, but not for the same reason.

Instead of listing dozens of tweaks in its interface, it will apply the tweaks automatically in the background based on two choices that you make during installation.

First, you are asked to pick the device type, or intended purposes. You can either pick desktop, server or laptops / tablets here.

Second, you pick the primary application type. Available here are Office / Internet, full workstation, online gaming or enterprise server.

Once you have made the selection, tweaks will be automatically applied by LiveTuner on each system startup.

You find five additional options in the interface. Four of them are startup optimizations such as removing temporary files or optimizing the Windows Timer resolution for low latency applications.

Note:The fifth modifies your default homepage, and should be disabled if you do not want that.

The main issue that I have with the program is that it does not list the tweaks and changes that it will make to the system. While inexperienced users may not want those information, I would not really run a program like this on my system if I did not knew beforehand what it would modify or tweak.

So, what the author should add is a list of tweaks that are applied, and that preferably before users hit the install button.

I did continue with the installation of the software for the sake of this article, but would not have done so if it were not for this.

The only information that you get about the tweaks come from change logs posted on the developers website. But here you only find what is being modified or improved, but not the actual values. These values may also depend on your selection during installation.

So, here is a short list of modifications that the software may make:

  • TCP latency optimization.
  • TCP/IP network optimization.
  • Paged / Nonpaged pool scaling.
  • Disable file system tunneling for faster deletions.

Those are not all of course, but since there is no documentation available, it is highly suggested to back up your date before you run the software. At the very least, create a system restore point before you run the program so that you can restore the settings.

LiveTuner comes with an uninstallation option which restores all optimizations and tweaks that were made by it.

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Comments

  1. sades said on January 31, 2014 at 12:00 pm
    Reply

    It does work, but really only noticeable after 2-3 days using it. Probably to do with caching?

    1. Windows X said on February 2, 2014 at 6:33 pm
      Reply

      That’s part of it. It also have paged/nonpaged pooling optimizations along with other filesystem/memory/system optimizations.

  2. Transcontinental said on January 30, 2014 at 11:28 am
    Reply

    Remains that I wonder as I wander …

    – What is the pertinence of setting Windows X’s Live as Homepage, what does this have to do in an application which seems focused on tweeting the system ?

    – Why the mystery of unknown tweaks when it may seem, experienced, that they deliver so little if none enhancements that this could allow a user to consider that 1- it is their insufficiency that explains them not being clearly stated, and 2- that the whole point is in fact to lead the user to change his home page to that of Windows X’s Live.

    – Why is the option to change this homepage systematically reset to “on” every time LiveTuner is called (not remembering past choice to have it unchecked?)

    – And why — but this is apart — does LiveTuner, when removed not reset modified Registry values to what they were when it modified them rather than to Windows’ default?

    Even — even — should Livecore.exe not be malware, the whole LiveTuner application remains IMHO a sum of emptiness minus a few questions above stated.

    1. Windows X said on January 30, 2014 at 3:48 pm
      Reply

      1. Then you should know this is way less troublesome than most installer monetization these days. If you can’t accept this software being ad-supported and not effective more than your tweaks, it’s your decision. Just don’t strongly try to force your opinion to others.

      2. Most of tweaks are briefly declared in

      http://www.windowsxlive.net/windows-x-optimizer-project-report-2/

      Main optimizations: SSD, disable autorun for XP security, some OS tweaks
      CPU: L2 cache and some worker thread optimizations
      Memory: Low/High memory mechanism tweaks, paging and caching
      Device: Worker thread boost and pool optimizations
      Application: Multimedia/Networking tuning, priority tweaks, application-specific tweaks

      That should give some ideas. I was lazy to copy paste every tweak names in there making it too cluttered to read. It’s like not I intend to hide it as I explicitly stated each changes I made during beta builds. And over half of them don’t have constant value meaning it’ll be much longer than ones with constant value to explain.

      3. I’m not sure about everything but I’m sure explaining it to you would eventually lead to pointless tweaks bashing and I don’t see how applying tweaks from Microsoft documents will lead me to glory even though I put some effort researching optimal ones myself and using some from other people’s posts in websites.

      4. I respected your opinion to not use it or dislike it. But when someone posting it’s good for them, you just jump out saying beware. It’s detected as virus and popular 6 antivirus said so! After proving them all being false positive, you just make another post like although it’s not a virus but I hate to see app with act of profit in mind like setting homepage, it doesn’t do anything good to my PC and also revert my tweaks back. So what? It can’t be good on someone else’s machine at all? Is this your politeness? Sometimes it could be crueler than straight assault.

      5. Guess you’d think that way. Nothing is wrong thinking like that but making profitable freeware sounds like a crime is going a bit too far IMO.

      6. I’d rather have tweaks back to default and play safe rather than restoring back for some tweakers that have chance to screw up their PC. I already explained why but let me say again. If they have tweaks before applying LiveTuner, they can also tweak after applying. And by some chance restoring gave them trouble, they will surely blame LiveTuner for messing up not their incompatible tweaks they put before. I hope you will respect the decision to keep the defaults instead of restoring previous values.

      Regards,
      Windows X

      1. Windows X said on January 30, 2014 at 7:55 pm
        Reply

        For 6 that could be nonsense to you, it may not be nonsense for others. As for me, whining about restore tweaks back to defaults because they have to apply them all over again is nonsense while most people made it into single registry finishing re-applying process in 3 seconds.

        About setting homepage, it also help tracking updates of my projects and I have less trouble trying to submit new projects and updates everywhere I know. The main reason I added setting up default homepage back then was to reduce the work I have to do posting updates in forums and submitting apps to lots of communities. But as I found its marlet value for monetization later, I don’t feel the need to sugar-coated it as it wasn’t wrong thing to do in the first place. And I also think this would make it easier for you to accept it and drop this off so I said it that way.

        About your boot settings problem, I didn’t setup any boot configuration. What could relate to boot-time stuff is prefetching. I won’t risk optimizing boot sequence having chance to make Windows unbootable in first stable release. I think you mistook my software for your own problem. If you want to prove me wrong, post your boot optimizations here and I’ll check with my Windows defaults to see if there’s any overlapping stuff there.

      2. Transcontinental said on January 30, 2014 at 4:48 pm
        Reply

        Well, at least we know the reason of the HomePage-LiveCore affair : monetization. I had no idea, but it would have been honest to declare the HomePage implications.

        Last point (6) is nonsense. Previous points are boring, but a good start.

        Resumed : An acceptable sum of acceptable tweeks (except changing the boot settings, especially when not reverted). One reason again to propose a choice of tweaks and/or revert to user’s configuration.

        Remember to back up your Registry if you intend to use and happen to remove this Eldorado.

        Still, this livecore.exe is bothering.

        Don’t take my word, of course.

    2. Windows X said on January 30, 2014 at 11:55 am
      Reply

      1. Why do most freeware optimizers offer unrelated software, toolbar, setting up default homepage and search provider and you don’t seem to care?

      2. Why don’t you read my blog since development report #2 up to stable release?

      3. Will explaining all made tweaks and reason for setting each make it less empty for you? I’m sure doing this will lead to your another pointless argument.

      4. Why did you falsely accused livecore having 6 virus instead of 6 apps reporting the same homepage thing? Are you really power user?

      5. You made it sound like all freeware devs have to make clean and nonprofitable app to please you. Why do I have to? Are you sending me allowance?

      6. Why should I restore to previous tweaks that could affect additional tweaks after LiveTuner having chance to harm PC? Pro tweakers like you should have tweaks.reg file to easily tweak again instead of adding manually in regedit.

      Some even stated clearly it reduced his boot-time by 13 seconds and you said its dangerous. After I proved you wrong, you changed topic to bashing deafault homepage and doesnt help you at all. I don’t have to make you like it and you don’t have to make everyone hate it. I hope I made this clear enough for you.

      1. Transcontinental said on January 30, 2014 at 1:06 pm
        Reply

        1- It seems I care. I learn that you consider your application in the lot of others I care for as well ;

        2- I read everything, your blog included, I could find about LiveTuner. What have I missed ? A few hints about the curves of the development ? I read them as well.

        3- You seem to be sure of everything, when I’m only stating facts. Do explain everything, but it is a risk, that of stating common little tweaks accessible everywhere that would diminish your application’s glory ;

        4- I have not accused LiveCore.exe of being malware, neither have I defended it of not being it. I have stated what VirusTotal thinks about it. I understand your eagerness to take advantage of my politeness when considering, objectively, that an analyze can be wrong ;

        5- I have never elaborated my opinion regarding freeware, but now that you bring up this topic, I’d say that I should have : yes, freeware is not meant to hide a source of non-stated profit ;

        6- Because not all users are pro, for one, and because it is a tradition within programmers that respect their work as well as the user, to leave the place as it was when they arrived.

  3. jasray said on January 30, 2014 at 12:54 am
    Reply

    No problems here, and I use Hitman Pro. My system was rather tweaked anyway, but whatever modifications were made did provide a bit more “snap” to the system. Oh, the Full Workstation setting–I used that at work; it shaved 13 seconds off the boot time according to WiseCare 365 Pro. Hope the developer continues his project.

    1. Transcontinental said on January 30, 2014 at 1:50 am
      Reply

      Please do send Livecore.exe in your LiveTuner folder to VirusTotal.com and tell me what you read.
      As for Hitman Pro, surprising it doesn’t notify you about the Livecore.exe issue, because here it did.
      HitmanPro sometimes declares false positives, that is why I search for confirmation at VirusTotal.com, and as I said the detection was not a lonely detection by an unknown antivirus, but 6 (six).
      Finally, as I already mentioned, for those who remove LiveTuner, be aware that registry settings as tweaks that you may have set will be replaced with default Windows settings. And that is annoying and a very bad point for a developer who aims simplicity. My boot settings themselves were reset to Windows default !

      Last but not least, I have noticed NO difference with this funny application’s mysterious tweaks. None, nada, nichts, rien.

      1. Windows X said on January 30, 2014 at 2:10 am
        Reply

        It’s just antivirus falsely accused ad-supported file to be malware. All livecore.exe did was setting up homepage if checked and do selected startup optimizations which are

        1. clean temp folder
        2. set explorer priority to high
        3. set timer resolution to 0.5ms
        4. perform idle task every day for server

        Nothing else. All 6 reports are like this

        Ad-Aware Gen:Trojan.StartPage.pq3@a01T4Vei 20140129
        BitDefender Gen:Trojan.StartPage.pq3@a01T4Vei 20140129
        Emsisoft Gen:Trojan.StartPage.pq3@a01T4Vei (B) 20140129
        F-Secure Gen:Trojan.StartPage.pq3@a01T4Vei 20140129
        GData Gen:Trojan.StartPage.pq3@a01T4Vei 20140129
        MicroWorld-eScan Gen:Trojan.StartPage.pq3@a01T4Vei 20140129

        It’s 6 apps reporting the same setting default homepage as trojan. It doesn’t even have network connection request and work fully offline. I made this app to fix dad’s PC problems so why would I include malware code into project I’m using myself and send to my friends and family to use? What I might benefit from doing this? Hacking your computer? Think of it!

  4. Transcontinental said on January 29, 2014 at 10:43 pm
    Reply

    I’ve just tested LiveTuner.

    1- Running LiveTuner (no install process) develops two extra files in its folder, one of them being Livecore.exe. Livecore.exe handles system’s HomePage to be Windows X’s Live
    – Livecore.exe has 6 negative results on VirusTotal.com ;
    – As mentioned in this article, the fifth option “modifies your default homepage, and should be disabled if you do not want that”. It does respect the user’s choice, but checks it every time the setting’s page is opened.

    2- Having noticed no improvement whatsoever, having had livecore.exe diagnosed by HitmanPro and confirmed by VirusTotal (6) as malware, I removed LiveTuner.
    Problem here was what I feared and mentioned above :
    LiveTuner uninstall reverted modified Registry values not to what they were when I installed LiveTuner, but to default Windows values. I had tweaked several values, and therefor had to do it all over again.

    My advice : do not install this application.

    1. Windows X said on January 30, 2014 at 12:35 am
      Reply

      Virus total reported it malware because of ability to set homepage. It’s false positive as livecore did nothing that could actually harm PC. It only does what startup optimizations promised. It’s just antivirus falsely accused ad-supported file to be malware and if you think this kind of thing is bad, does adding install monetization with other bundles sound better like most free optimizer apps these days?

      Restoring tweaked data back to previous values isn’t considered safe measure since it may conflicts with other additional tweaks put in after. Reverting back to Windows defaults guarantee to have Windows booting safely while previous tweaks may not if there’s incompatible tweaks added after optimization.

      It’s your choice if you don’t like it but if you dislike this program just because it has ability to setup homepage and doesn’t revert your tweaks back, you’d be better off with your own stuff. Please understand that developers these days can’t eat free stuff of thin air and make everything that could please everyone.

  5. Windows X said on January 29, 2014 at 8:20 pm
    Reply

    Hi there. I’m developer of this software. You can find some information about tweaks I put in this link

    http://www.windowsxlive.net/windows-x-optimizer-project-report-2/

    You can also check on development until stable release in

    http://www.windowsxlive.net/tag/livetuner/

    The reason why I didn’t explicitly explain what tweaks I made is because there’re 2 kinds of users using this kind of software, people using what they know and they don’t. LiveTuner was developed for people wanting to fine tuning their system without having to know about actual work.

    I developed Fidelizer before this program and found interesting result. At first I made software for the sake of running it for better audio sound. Some people inquired about explanation of what it does. I made it and then they asked further about allowing them to customize it. I implemented it and starting to confuse end users and that’s just 4-5 basic things to do here. In LiveTuner, it may need 2 dialogs, one for simplified version and one for geek version with lots of headache to make it customizable and has auto selection feature shown there.

    About restoring optimizations, uninstalling program will revert all optimizations back to Windows defaults and all optimizations I put in are safe and will make Windows boot without problem.

    Regards,
    Windows X

  6. JohnMWhite said on January 29, 2014 at 6:56 pm
    Reply

    Martin, did you notice if the tweaks actually made much difference to how your machine ran?

    1. Martin Brinkmann said on January 29, 2014 at 8:09 pm
      Reply

      No, not really but I did not benchmark anything, and I’m only doing Office work and Internet stuff on this PC.

      I think that you are likely to notice an effect if your PC is not the fastest to begin with and if you never applied any tweaks to it in first place. It may be beneficial as well for gamers, but that is to be tested.

  7. Transcontinental said on January 29, 2014 at 4:43 pm
    Reply

    Not only are the modifications not clearly detailed but above all I see no option to revert those modifications, and this point is for me determinant. A one-way ticket has led me in the past to uncomfortable situations, to put it mildly.
    Maybe I’ll be missing some nice improvements but I won’t take the chance, blindly.

    BTW, what is the difference between Office / Internet and full workstation, please ? Thanks

    1. Martin Brinkmann said on January 29, 2014 at 5:37 pm
      Reply

      Not sure. The changes are reverted when you uninstall the program (run it again, select uninstall).

      1. Transcontinental said on January 29, 2014 at 6:15 pm
        Reply

        I had considered that possibility of having modifications reverted along with the application removal, but if this sometimes is the case, not always. Moreover I remember a tweeting application which had the ultimate of insanity : when removed it would reset registry values not to what they were before the application install, but to their default values. That was on XP and it had taken me a deal of work to reset my values …

        So, an application such as LiveTuner may be nice but, frankly, I don’t understand how a programmer can even propose a tweet application with so little details. Amazing.

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