It's no secret that, when not set up properly, the
Zune program can really slow you and your PC down. This guide, however,
will show you how to set up your Zune program so that you can maximize
your efficiency and enjoyment. To do this is a three (3) step process.
A little dialogue box should pop up. All you have to
do is go and uncheck the box next to 'Retrieve additional information
from the Internet'.
There you go! Your library is now safe, and so is
your bandwidth and processor usage! If you ever feel like willingly
slowing down your computer, you can always manually tell the Zune
program to update your album info by going to
Options>Library>Find info For All Albums.
Step 2 - Disabling The Marketplace
Surprisingly, the Zune marketplace really slows the program down at
startup and generally causes lag. Why it does this I don't know, but
once disabled, the difference is easily noticed.
There are multiple ways to go about disabling the marketplace. If you
like nice GUI's and doing things easily and efficiently (which is
probably why you are reading this article), you will want to use the
Zune Marketplace Alternator hack made by
Nurta, one of the H&M Members here. It will automatically enable or disable the marketplace for you with the click of a button.
If, however, you don't trust us for some reason, or you like feeling
really smart, you can manually disable the Zune marketplace. First, go
to C:/Program Files/Zune in Windows Explorer.
Once there, your going to want to look for a file
called ZuneMarketplace.dll. Just rename that file (with the Zune
program closed) ZuneMarketplace 1.dll. This will make it so that the
Zune program cannot access the marketplace (because it can't find the
file that directs it to it).
Your marketplace has now been successfully disabled. You should
immediatly notice the speed difference at startup, and that there is an
apparent lack of lag when you are navigating through the GUI. The
marketplace tab will still appear in the Zune program, but when you
click on it, it will display a blank screen.
Step 3 - Changing Priority of the Zune Encoder
One of the definite sore spots when it comes to the Zune is taking all
of that time out of your life to convert videos to the mighty 'Zunable'
format. At this point in time, there is no way around the fact that you
are going to have to convert video, but by doing this easy little mod,
you can speed up the Zune Encoder to convert your videos much faster.
First, begin to convert a movie in the Zune program. This will make it
so that the Zune Encoder executable is running and can be easily
accessed. After doing this, press Ctrl+Alt+Delete to bring up Windows
Task Manager.
Then, click on the 'Processes' tab at the top of the window to see all of the .exe's that are currently running on your system.
You should see just a random assortment of any and
all of the programs you have running at the moment. To add a bit of
order to this mess, click the 'Image Name' column header to arrange all
of the executables alphabetically.
Now, scroll all the way to the bottom of the list of
executables and you should see one called 'ZuneEnc.exe'. This is the
part of the Zune program that conevrts your videos aand music. To
change it's priority, right-click on it and select the priority you
want it to run at. I recommend normal.
You will notice that it is currently set on 'Low'
priority. This means that the computer will process any and all other
data before converting your videos and music. Microsoft did this so
that your media could be converted in the background, having minimal
impact on PC performance. However, this makes the conversion of music
and videos very long-winded. By changing the priority, you are telling
Windows that you want your videos and music to be converted BEFORE
anything else. This will slow down your PC more, but convert your stuff
faster. A trade-off that is very useful when all you want to do is get
your data onto your Zune and get it out the door.
If it makes your computer lag too much, you can always set it back to 'Low' priority.
Well, now you know how to set up your Zune program! We hope this guide
has helped you better understand and utilize the Zune program, and will
limit your frustraton in the future. Thanks for reading, and happy
Zuning!
~ H&M Team
ZuneBoards.com
