I hope this won’t make us long for the paperclip… 
Funny, you beat me to it…
No Problem!
I’ve been using it all day. Still no problems with it and still loving how stable Win 8.1 and C Pro 8 is! 
“There are 10 types of people in the world: Those who understand binary and those who don’t.”
Man machine. Without a keyboard, how would we reprogram a computer. Artificial intelligence, just tell it to alter itself. If someone just told you to change, would you? Intelligence? One has got to admire the irony. 
Hey Cortana, I’m tired, not inspired, and I’m going to bed, make a hit song for me then turn off the computer.
Thanks. 
I’ve just swapped out my mechanical OS HD for an SSD. Windows 8.1 is flying faster than usual! Wish I had bought one sooner!
Jono
48" 4K TVs are cheaper.
Why do you need a monster graphics card? Cubase isn’t a high end video game! Two el cheapo graphics cards outputting to two monitors each will do the trick. If your Win 7 is stable - back it up an leave it - Windows 7 64 is an outstanding operating system, fast, pretty lean and generally very reliable. I won’t upgrade my Win 7 setup until the day Cubase stops working - I suspect that will be a very long time. Macs? Pah overpriced and over-rated - particularly as they are PCs internally anyway - for twice the price.
IMHO Steinberg should spend a few quid and create a Linux distribution optimised to run Cubase and Wavelab - supplied for £20 extra with Cubase. It would be rock solid and they wouldn’t need to keep changing their software (introducing pointless bugs) just trying to keep up with OS changes - most people who are serious about music production have a dedicated music PC anyway.
I have actually changed to Win 8.1 and love it. Very happy to upgrade from Win 7 (I loved Win 7 by the way). Cubase Pro 8 is working great for me.
I need a new GFX card as mine is utter Dogs Brown. Its a very cheap fanless Nvidia GT520. I get weird mechanical noises when I am not playing Audio and Pixels move about when looking at a blank Desktop . I have decided (just because of Finances) to get a couple of 2.5k Dell screens once I research a suitable GFX Card. This is for a different thread though really.
I’m happy with Win 8.1 and C Pro 8 (now on an SSD).
Microsoft has always made legacy considerations a priority. And Vista doesn’t start with a 9.
Not attempting to convert you or anything, but a lot of this “bad” you hear, is just that, hearsay. Like any OS, the initial release can be shaky, e.g. Vista is a prime example. Other companies, like Google and Apple, suffer this too.
An often forgotten point about Microsoft, is the experience from an extended history with a gigantic user base. The other two companies really does not come close to the combination of timespan and populous.
People b&m over the problems they experience with Windows, but consider taking various car parts and build your own car. Wouldn’t be the smoothest cars around, unless you’re a good mechanic, I think. I say they do a pretty good job of making it all work together, most of the time. Sure there’s bound to be trouble here and there. 10% of 100 million users still makes a lot less noise than 10% of a billion. So you’ll hear it. 
Microsoft Research is 7 years older than Google, the entire company.
Considering Apple’s dramatic increase of R&D from when his death became known, one have to reflect on Job’s statement about R&D: “Innovation has nothing to do with how many R&D dollars you have. When Apple came up with the Mac, IBM was spending at least 100 times more on R&D. It’s not about money. It’s about the people you have, how you’re led, and how much you get it.”
These companies have lit a fire right under Microsoft’s hams, and it appears to have a good effect! 
Windows 8 is basically Windows 7 (with some changes obviously, which is based on Win32) with the extra Windows RT (aka, metro, modern UI, etc., which is based on WinRT) operating system. That’s quite a feat, IMHO.
In the end, all you have is a few choices and the brand matters little. Branding (whichever brand) is brainwashing, after all. What does matter, is what it enables you to do and how well.
There were 10,000 changes between the developer and consumer previews of W8 alone, so who knows how many from W7 to W8!
Branding is useless unless it signifies a consistent and reliable set of products and/or services.
The point was that it still contains Win32 (or in general terms, “Windows”) and is generally compatible with most software working on previous Windows versions. There are always lots of little changes, even between service packs. My choice of words were obviously misleading, I apologize for having said it with such sarcasm.
One can argue branding all day, but in the end, it exist in order to sustain a bond to a consumer, for the simple reason of profit. That’s it (or the companies wouldn’t spend millions on it). Branding is a way to keep the customer coming back for more, to not go elsewhere, a way to get customers to act as allies against other brands. Branding is even a business in itself!
IMO, any quality involved is purely coincidental with a brand, product and some timespan.
Check out Hislop’s definition here, doesn’t it sound like he’s talking about something like Apple, Microsoft and Google? Then read Kapferer and Keller’s. I think Hislop “gets it”, while the others are trying to sell something.
Just my opinion, mate, and I am obviously no expert by any means.
Sorry Elektrobolt if you took my words as countering what you wrote, as I did not intend them to be argumentative, but as hopefully interesting asides to your main statements.
I suppose I was highlighting the consumer end of branding, as opposed to what a company’s marketing experts want from branding.
Minor quality or operational issues are unlikely to affect the impact of branding, but a couple of lemons will undo a great amount of the goodwill generated by $millions of brand advertising.
Except, of course, for those who go berserker trolling forums to counter any hint of rational discussion, let alone criticism, of their beloved brand.
BEWARE: Off topic!
It is interesting how we rank the past, present and future as sort of equals, though the past and future are infinite, and the present is infinitesimally small.
However, the present is the only time where decisions can actually be made, and so is the only opportunity to change one’s life!
How much does the OS affect your workflow? From getting a song idea to finishing the track - how much time do you spend playing with the OS and how much time do you spend inside an application? - whether that be Cubase or some mastering suite. I would argue, hardly any - the OS is irrelevant - my music PC isn’t even (normally) connected to the internet - if it works it gets left alone - why go to the risk of upgrading the OS when your recording studio is functioning perfectly? Surely this is what we are all here for? For Cubase I was on a windows 2000 PC for over ten years - problem free until I needed 64 bit for more modern samplers with their 3-5Gb memory footprint - if I didn’t need that I would have stayed put - and as Windows 7 64 professional will happily address 192Gb of memory (far more than my current hardware) - I think I’m future-proofed for a while yet!
I know the OP resolved the issue, but I had switched when I needed more ram for EW samples… reason being win 8.1 was cheaper than win 7 professional… nearly 100$ cheaper actually… which came in handy when I spent almost 700$ on ram.
What I noticed changing from win7 64 bit ultimate to win 8.1 pro:
- no longer problems with hardware drivers (intel).
- windows 8.1 and programs are starting faster.
- I think (my feeling) that there is a better HD management,
they are responding faster (Raid 0).
Your particular drivers are better in 8.1 - not a 8.1 benefit - just a dose of good luck. All my drivers are rock solid under windows 7 - lucky me.
points 2 and 3 will be thanks to point 4 - you’ve set up RAID 0 which will boost disk performance significantly. RAID 0 was available in windows 7 - it was called a striped volume. I’ve gone over to SSDs - the performance will blow RAID 0 with traditional drives out of the water. RAID 0 means if you lose a drive - your data on both drives is toast - little chance of recovery unless you pay a data recovery expert - not an avenue I’d go down - IMHO either do RAID properly with redundant drives or don’t do it at all.