Windows is designed to work with a wide range of applications out-of-the-box, which means that several settings need to be optimized for a DAW like Samplitude or Sequoia to ensure stable and high-performance audio operation.
Power Management:
Power plan
In Windows Power Options select High Performance power plan
Click Change plan settings and set everything to Never
Advanced power settings
Set Turn off hard disk after to 0 minutes
Set both Minimum Processor State and Maximum Processor State to 100
Disable Desktop Slide Show
Disable USB Suspend
Set PCI Express Link State Management to Off
Set Turn off display after to 0 minutes
Unless you have some specific reason set all the sleep and hibernate settings to Never
USB Hub Power
Uncheck Allow the computer to turn off this device to save power for all USB controllers in the Device Manger (right click → Properties)
Graphics card
In NVIDIA control panel → Manage 3D settings → Power management mode choose Prefer maximum performance
Miscellaneous Settings:
Uncheck Allow files on this drive to have contents indexed in addition to file properties in hard drive properties and do not use drive compression
Disable Screen Saver
Set system sounds to No Sounds
In Windows performance options → visual effects choose Adjust for best performance
In Windows performance options → Advanced set processor scheduling to Background Services
Prevent Anti-Virus full scans when running Samplitude or Sequoia, disable scanning of the Program files (VIP, H2, HDP, ...) but also media files (wav, flac, mp3, …)
Minimize running software in the background as much as possible (Dropbox, Skype, Media players etc.), clean up Startup in the Task Manage
Uninstall unused applications and plug-ins
Keep device-drivers up to date, use latest drivers from the manufacturer website
Remove or disable unused devices in the Device manager components (Wi-Fi, webcams, printers, internal sound card etc.)