MANDATORY CHANGES

NOTE: You must make these changes or:

1. Hoster will not run correctly
2. Unexplainable problems will happen
3. You will hear Audio dropouts and stuttering
4. Hoster can crash.

DONE - Change #1: Disable Display Options and Power Management

NOTE: You WILL hear audio dropouts until you make this change.

1. Right click on a blank space of your desktop and click Personalize to see the Personalization window.
2. Left Click the Screen Saver button
3. Left Click the arrow at the right of the Screen Saver drop down list and select (None).
4. Left Click the Change Power settings Link on this dialog to see Power Options Properties window.
5. In the Power Schemes group, click the drop down arrow, select Maximum Performance and close this window.
6. Click X to close the Personalization window.

DONE - Change #2: Update Windows

You MUST do the Windows Updates to run MTU Hoster 4.x or higher. Many users who had weird problems say these disappeared after updating Windows.

1. Windows Updates: Left Click Start button at the bottom left > Left click Control Panel > Left click System and Security> Windows Update
   
   
   • You should see Install Updates. Click Optional Updates and select all that appear. Then click the Install Updates Button. Your computer will start downloading and installing the updates. Follow the instructions as stated on the screen. It may tell you to reboot the computer.
   • Repeat this process until all Optional Updates and Critical Updates shows No Available Updates;.
   • Restart Windows

DONE - Change #3: Disable CDRom Auto Play Option

Disable this option to prevent programs from automatically running or playing a disc you load in the Optical Drive.

1. Left Click the Start button
2. Left Click the Run option
3. Type in regedit
4. Locate HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE and Left click it
5. Locate System and left click it
6. Locate CurrentControlSet and left click it
7. Locate Services and left click it
8. Locate Cdrom and left click it
9. Right click Auto Run and select Modify
10. Set the Value Data to 0 and click the OK button
11. Restart your computer

Programs that can play or run files on a disc include:

• Windows Media Player.
• Audio card Sound Drivers installed on your computer.
• Certain CDG Producers (Example: Sound Choice) add multiple sessions to some CDG discs that display advertisements each time you play a song from their discs.
• Some CD (or CDG) playing or copy software.

DONE - Change #4: Disable Alarm Sounds

Hoster can show Exclamation and Question message boxes that sound audio "alerts". Disable these sounds so they don't disrupt your show.

1. Right click on any blank space on your Desktop screen, and click Personalize to see the Personalization window.
2. Left Click the Sounds Button.
3. In the Sounds Tab at the top, scroll down until you find the Exclamation title and left click it.
4. In the Name: field, left click the drop down arrow and select [None]. This disables sounds when an Exclamation message appears.
5. Left Click the Apply button at the bottom right to finish this selection.
6. Do the same for the Question selection so it will not play sounds.
7. Left Click the OK button to finish and close this dialog.
8. These message boxes will not play sounds when they appear for Hoster or other programs.

DONE - Change #5: Turn off User Access Control (UAC)

If you imported CDG disc KMA songs are stored on an external USB hard drive, the Songs Database will NOT find them unless UAC is disabled. This is a Microsoft Access Database limitation, not a Hoster bug.

Also, Windows 7 housekeeping tasks can interrupt your show unless you disable UAC.

1. Left Click the Start Menu
2. Left Click Control Panel
3. Left Click User Accounts and Family Safety
4. Left Click User Accounts
5. Left Click the bottom item that states Change User Account control settings
6. Drag the slider all the way to the bottom so it states NEVER.
7. When the dialog comes up stating Windows needs your permission to continue left click Continue
8. Left Click OK
9. When asked to Restart, wait until you have done all the changes on this page, then restart.

DONE - Change #6: Turn Off Visual Effects

If left on it can cause; 1) The audio to sound distorted, 2) a delay for songs to start playing, and 3) Lyrics to be out of sync with the audio.

1. Left Click the Start Menu
2. Left Click Control Panel
3. Left Click System and Security
4. Left double click on System
5. Left Click Advanced system settings on the left side
6. When the Dialog comes up stating that Windows needs your Permission to continue click Continue
7. Left Click the Settings button under the “Performance” area
8. In the “Visual Effects” tab, left click Adjust for best performance
9. Scroll the very last item on the List, and left click (checked) Use visual styles on windows and buttons
10. Left Click Apply and OK
11. Restart now or after installing Hoster

DONE - Change #7: Turn Off "Aero Theme"

If left on it can cause; 1) The audio to sound distorted, and 2) Lyrics to be out of sync with the audio. 3) Hoster to crash after playing a song

NOTE: If you have an NVidia GeForce 8200M graphics card (value line, shared memory card that is not capable of displaying Aero) you will not see the Aero Theme to disable. Don't worry, its already removed/disabled by this card's video drivers.

1. Right click on the Desktop where there are no icons
2. Left Click Personalize
3. Scroll down and find Basic themes and High Contrast, and left click Window 7 Basic
4. Close the Personalize screen to finish.
5. Restart now or after installing Hoster.

DONE - Change #8: Disable Windows Search Indexer

1. Left click the Start Menu, then left click Run. Type services.msc and then hit Enter.
2. Scroll down and locate Windows Search,then double click it.
3. Left Click on the Stop button to immediately stop the indexing service if the service status shows “Running".
4. Under Startup Type, select Disabled to permanently disable the indexing service so that it won’t run again.
5. Click Apply then Ok
6. Now you can close the Services dialog

 

POSSIBLE REQUIRED CHANGES

We say "possible" here because it depends on your computer and what types of files you want to play.

DONE - Change #9: Allow Windows Media Player to Play Local Files

It must be set as below or Video files will not play at all.

1. Open Internet Explorer
2. Left Click the Tools Menu at the far Right Side
3. Left Click Internet Options
4. Left Click the Advanced tab
5. Scroll down to the Security section
6. Left Click Allow active content to run in files on My Computer and Allow active content from CDs to run on My Computer
7. Restart now or after installing Hoster 4

DONE - Change #10: Install Video Codecs

You need to install Video Codecs on your computer to beable to play different types of Video files in Hoster.

1. Download the Video Codec Pack from: HERE
2. Make sure that you click on where it states: Download [K-Lite Codec Pack X.xx FULL] where X.xx is the version number.
3. Save this file to your computer and then double click on it to run it, Follow the onscreen instructions.
4. Once installed, you will beable to play video files in Hoster.

DONE - Change #11: Enable Dual Display

1. Press the Windows Key, bottom left of the spacebar (Windows Flag) and the letter P key at the same time.
2. You will then see 4 boxes pop up that you can click with your mouse. Left click on Extend, this should now turn on your extended monitor.

Install At Least 2GB Computer RAM

With Windows 7 and Hoster 4.xx with 10,000+ songs in your Songs Database, your computer needs at least 2GB RAM to run safely and reliably. With insufficient RAM, you may be importing disc 670 and weird bad things start happening... for no apparent reason... out of RAM!

Processor Speed Should Be At Least 1.3GHz

Hoster 4.x requires at least 1.3GHz to safely run all the new features. If you have a tightly designed Laptop or Shuttle computer, you may not be able to buy and install a faster processor as the Power Supply may be insufficient for an upgrade. However... adding a faster processor MAY or MAY NOT require more power. If you don't know, you need to find technical help to do this for you. With parts and labor, it may be cheaper to replace the computer.

Hard Drive Free Space

Most users don't know that Windows REQUIRES free hard drive space to perform "housekeeping" tasks to run reliably. Some experts say you need 25% free hard drive space, but at least 10% would be a minimum. If you have a 100GB drive, you need at least 10-25GB free. With a 250GB drive, you need 25-60GB free. If you see your hard drive light flashing a lot after 5 seconds when a new song starts playing, your drive may be "thrashing" due to not having enough free space. If you see this, add another USB external 1 Terabyte hard drive and copy your karaoke, audio, and videos files to it so your C: drive has more free space.