1 - Windows 10: There is a folder where you can drop shortcuts to the programs you want to run when you login: C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\StartUp
2 - I'm going to go out on a limb and predict this will be a low priority but cool if they do it feature. Few people have computers with the touch bar (and none of the Windows users) so there might not be a lot of incentive to add this. That'd be a nice bonus for TouchBar Mac users.
3 - Personally, if you can afford it, get a small mixer (they'll be probably $50 USD) - you'll need at least 2 pairs of inputs and the appropriate cables. Then you can run the output of the mixer to headphones or a small amplifier. That's what I did. A digital piano with an Aux Input will work, too. but if you don't already have one, will be much more than $50.00 USD. My new piano has an Aux Input and that does work fine.
4 - The macBook Air should have no trouble with the program. The screen might be a tiny bit small - but I'm using a Windows Surface Pro tablet with only a 12.3" screen. It's small, but workable. There is a setting in windows to control the bandwidth used for these automatic downloads - set it to the minimum. That might not be good enough but would be worth trying. They really need a setting for amount of CPU to use, and Idle activity for updates.
5 - Registered devices is manageable from the website Your Account page. Sign into the Playground Sessions page. Where you see your name at the top right, you can pull down the menu with "Your Account" in it. There is a navigation box with "Download / Installs" which you can then manage the two devices (just unregister one and log in to Playground Sessions on your friends laptop - it should register there. Then unregister your friends laptop when you are done testing and log back in on yours).
6 - Automatic Login would have to be "configurable" since some people share the computer and piano with family members, and they will want to sign in with their individual accounts. But I like this idea if you're the only one using the computer for Piano Practice.
7 - Yes, it should work the same on a Mac Book.
8 - I move the mouse "out of the way" when I'm using the app. If you use the mouse to click the start and stop, that will keep the mouse out of the way. But if you use the extreme keys to start, the mouse could be anywhere. You might have to just keep an eye on the mouse location.
9 - Zooming is a challenge. The software isn't set to dynamically arrange the music - so that when you zoom in the measures that "fall off" the screen edges would be mapped to the next set of measures and flow down the music. ePub readers often can do this with their native text, but PDF files tend to be fixed so that you can only zoom so far. This would be a large, though I think worthwhile, change to the basic program. But having dynamic sheet music is a big challenge.
10- You can definitely benefit using a separate large monitor. I used to do this on my big screen here (it has multiple inputs - gaming PC on one connection and my Playground Sessions dedicated PC on the other. I found that the location of the monitor is as important as the size. So I usually just look at the Surface Pro screen and not the one to the side (which is positioned more for the benefit of the gaming computer).
11- That is one of the strange bugs, because it isn't happening on my Surface Pro. But then maybe I haven't reached the songs where it is more common. There is a font package you can probably install to fix the boxes, but the
support@playgroundsessions.com folks will have to guide you which font has gone missing. It's a Windows bug, not a PGS bug, as Andrew noted.
== Just keep playing. Just keep playing. Just keep playing, playing, playing! ==
-- jbs --