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Taming the Windows wisptis.exe audio glitch monster

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Lauwerk

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Taming the Windows wisptis.exe audio glitch monster

PostTue Jul 21, 2015 8:38 am

Concerning Windows 7 Pro:

Operating a Windows system for Hauptwerk has caused me to thrash around for solutions to various system issues, including audio glitches. I recorded some of my experience in a previous thread, http://forum.hauptwerk.com/viewtopic.php?f=16&t=12407, which began with Windows “Tablet” issues but concluded with my learning from Jan Loosman of the contribution of the Superfetch service to audio glitches. I now keep Superfetch (aka “stupidfetch” online) set to “Automatic,” but I “Stop” the service as a part of starting Hauptwerk. I have also reset some other services (particularly those that automatically call up internet or even some local activities) to “Manual” or “Disabled” – my Hauptwerk computer is almost never connected to the internet.

The present contribution refines the earlier one. I had no audio problems with my first (NEC) touch monitors prior to the last driver update that I downloaded for their 3M touchscreens. This last 3M driver accessed, for the first time, the Windows HID (Human Interface Device) software. This new utilization of HID released HIDeous storms of audio glitches upon touchscreen use. The obvious and fully successful remedy was to revert to the previous 3M touchscreen driver.

This year (2015) I upgraded my touchscreens to a pair of ēlo monitors which provide tremendous improvements both in touch accuracy (perfection beyond edge-to-edge, no front bezel) and in display clarity (all glass). However, under Windows these ēlo touch devices are strictly HID. This meant that using the new touchscreens in full mouse emulation mode again caused paroxysms of activity in the Hauptwerk CPU meter and hailstorms of glitches in the audio. Using the ēlo monitors in a single-touch mode eliminated the audio glitches, but it also meant that I could no longer swipe multiple stops on a Hauptwerk stop jamb or move a scrollbar or panel with my finger on the screen.

I have finally had the time to research and experiment, and this (not in historical order) is what I have learned concerning wisptis.exe.

1. Full name: Windows Ink Services Platform Table Input Subsystem. wisptis.exe is a subcomponent of Windows HID.

2. wisptis.exe is universally understood to be “CPU intensive.” This is one reason it is controversial. Opinions range from the formally correct, “It is in no way a virus,” to my favorite:
“Resource hog, bad design. Let's start calling these things what they are; I didn't ask for it to be installed, it is detrimental to my system and nothing I want on my system requires it to run. It's a virus. I don't care that it comes from a company. I should be given the option to remove it easily or to not install it in the first place.”

3. As implied in the preceding quote, wisptis.exe cannot be uninstalled; it would be automatically reinstalled, anyway (apparently by/for Windows, MS Office, or Adobe). I doubt that older online recipes for removing wisptis.exe are still valid.

4. I did find a method to deny permission to wisptis.exe, effectively eliminating it. Since this method was reversible, I tried it. In the absence of wisptis.exe activity, the computer no longer responded to touchscreen activation at all, although the mouse and keyboard worked normally. This was not an answer I could use.

5. By accessing the wisptis.exe process in the Task Manager window, I changed the Priority level for each of the two wisptis.exe instances from “High” (default) to “Low,” which is the lowest possible setting. MAKING THIS CHANGE DID ELIMINATE THE CPU OVERBURDEN AND AUDIO GLITCHES CAUSED BY wisptis.exe WITHOUT ADVERSELY AFFECTING TOUCHSCREEN USE. This was the answer I needed: I can now use the ēlo monitors in full mouse emulation mode. By the way, when running Windows in 64-bit, the Task Manager shows two instances of wisptis.exe processes, one designated SYSTEM and one for a user account, and the Priority setting needs to be changed for each of them.

6. Changing the Priority for wisptis.exe as described above does not change its default Priority setting. In an attempt to essentially change the default, I installed a free utility called Prio which acts as a “Task Manager enhancement.” I CANNOT RECOMMEND THIS “ENHANCEMENT.” (i) I found that although Prio could remember and automatically modify the Priority setting for some processes upon startup, it was not able/permitted to do so for wisptis.exe. (ii) During the brief time I left Prio in my system, I repeatedly experienced an odd circumstance in which, during abnormally decelerating sample set loads, a message suddenly appeared that indicated that the cache file (which had been in use) was deemed “present” but “cannot be found.” [Finally: a state of machine memory with which I can commiserate.] Furthermore, while attempting to rebuild a thus-damaged cache, a wav file was described by the system in the same way. After immediately uninstalling Prio (using its own uninstaller), I was able to rebuild the damaged caches without incident and without needing to reinstall anything. I believe that everything is back to normal.

And that normal is now as follows. At the beginning of each Hauptwerk session, I need to take a few moments to do the following (not in any specific order) to defeat audio glitches:
---- Stop the Superfetch service
---- Set the Priority for each wisptis.exe process instance to “Low”
---- Put Norton 360 (admittedly my choice for security) in “Silent” mode (stops background activities)

Codicil:

Not unlike Marco reported under http://forum.hauptwerk.com/viewtopic.php?f=16&t=14069,
I have recently experienced a single, isolated audio glitch 20 minutes or so after at least some startups. As I recall, this pattern began a couple of monthly patches ago. I have not found evidence of the offending activity in the Event Viewer, though looking for it has led me to trim some other unnecessary activities.

Now what will Windows 10 bring???
Don Vlazny
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telemanr

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Re: Taming the Windows wisptis.exe audio glitch monster

PostTue Jul 21, 2015 9:22 am

I have two HP touch screens with their supplied software with no cpu increase or any problems whatsoever and I can swipe stops with no problem.
Of course I'm only using that computer for Hauptwerk so I don't use superfetch (nor do I on my regular computer for that matter).
How did wisptis.exe get installed? I certainly want to avoid that ever happening to me.
Rob Enns
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Lauwerk

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Re: Taming the Windows wisptis.exe audio glitch monster

PostTue Jul 21, 2015 10:18 am

Hi, Rob -

As far as I know, there is no way to have a Windows OS without having its HID suite of apps installed, which includes wisptis.exe. What I have read indicates that MS Office (which I do not have on my HW computer) and Adobe Reader (which I necessarily but sometimes regretfully do) both require the presence of wisptis.exe. I do not know why -- and I don't seem to be alone.

My guess is that your HP software is sufficiently self-contained so that it does not call up any wisptis.exe function. That was the case with my earlier 3M touchscreen drivers.

As far as Superfetch is concerned, I have never knowingly "used" it. However, after learning of its association with audio glitches (which result from its background activity), I found that entirely disabling it did seem to lead to a gradual degradation of system function, as "advertised" in its description in the Services panel. By leaving Superfetch set to "Automatic" I now let it do its thing while the system starts up and during monthly Microsoft patching. I always stop it during HW use, which, of course, is most of the time.

Perhaps your HP software will never require interaction with HID. However, as particularly Windows OS becomes increasingly infatuated with onscreen control, hardware vendors may find it convenient or even necessary to buy into Windows HID routines, just like 3M and ēlo apparently did. That is one reason I wonder where Windows 10 is headed. For my own needs, I have learned to tame wisptis.exe, which I understand is also utilized in Windows 8.x. Will that suffice in the future? I certainly understand Martin's conservative approach toward announcing Windows 10 compatibility with HW.

Best regards,
Don
Don Vlazny
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evertjan

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Re: Taming the Windows wisptis.exe audio glitch monster

PostTue Jul 21, 2015 11:35 am

Don

for pio setting in Windows and saving this setting you can use the program ProcessHacker. It's freeware and open source. And there is also a portable version of this program.

The website http://processhacker.sourceforge.net/ is temporarily in static offline mode (not available). Take a look here for the portable version http://www.portablefreeware.com/?id=1934
And pick up the portable version: http://sourceforge.net/projects/processhacker/files/processhacker2/processhacker-2.36-bin.zip/download and run the 64 bit version.
Right click with the mouse on wisptis.exe and go to the menu item Priority.

Give it a try.

If Windows is on a SSD always disable Superfetch & Prefetch in Windows 7 / 8.
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Lauwerk

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Re: Taming the Windows wisptis.exe audio glitch monster

PostTue Jul 21, 2015 1:30 pm

Sincere thanks, evertjan.

I appreciate your tip, but I don't expect to try it too soon. I admit that I am "spooked" by the rather threatening but admittedly uninvestigated and unexplained behavior that I witnessed with Prio in my system. I have yet to really demonstrate that the largest negatively impacted sample set is entirely intact. Reinstalling, reloading, and readjusting it would cost numerous hours.

Besides, out of several attempts, Prio NEVER succeeded in resetting the wisptis.exe process priority to what I had "saved," whereas it ALWAYS succeeded with every other process I tried. I don't know whether any hack will be able to (safely) scale the ill-tempered Olympus on which wisptis.exe has been placed.

Right now I am satisfied with manually resetting these process entries upon startup and grateful that at least for the time being, doing so accomplishes what I need.

Thanks again.
Don
Don Vlazny

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