Compatibility with previous Windows versions no longer maintained

Cubase
41

One example of things that wont work for Win7 for sure is HiDPI support. Currently there is only limited HiDPI support for Win10, but they have written they will continue to work on that, so it’s expected to have full HiDPI support also for Windows (hopefully with C10.5).
But if you are on Win7, just forget about it. As now, but also for all future.

Which says that more things wont work with Win7. It’s already known that these underlying technologies, which Cubase will depend on, need Win10 to work as expected. So Win7 can simply not be used (at least not without several limitations).
There’s a technological advance and it can not be stopped by holding on to the old.

42

So you think it’s a good idea that Steinberg will get someone to load up the finished version on Win 7 and write out a list for the community to say what works and what doesn’t? …Based on one machine/one user?

Firstly, what use is that to anyone right now?, and secondly, why would they do it when they’ve already said they’re not supporting Win 7? The Resources and costs come in to play when they’re actively checking Win 7 compatibility across multiple machines and workflows, and feeding that back into the development of C10.5 onwards. A professional company would have to operate in that way if they put out any kind of notification regarding Win 7 - but they’re not supporting it, so totally nullified.

‘If’ C10.5 runs on Win 7 then the community is far better placed to carry out such testing and report to other users, Steinberg have supported Win 7 since V5, and they specifically designed v6 with Win 7 (64bit) in mind and added VST 3.5, C10.5 is going to be the same kind of move where Win 10 is the primary focus. What matters most is here is what they can utilise going forwards, and shed the skin of a 10 year old OS.

A large number of people still use Win7, not everyone will be able to transfer over right away

Yes they can, large majority of users can easily move to Win10.

They’ve had many years to do so already, and C10 isn’t going to magically break if they decide to take another 12/24 months to upgrade either. Why should their be a sudden immediate panic to ‘transfer over right away’ after sitting dormant on a 10 year old OS anyway?

Which actually means a potential loss in sales.

Improving a product and updating it to the latest technology will have the opposite effect, would you rather see a C10.5 that runs slicker and offers new features? Or just continue supporting Win 7 which obstructs that path?

Besides, they have beta testers, beta testers who run Win7, so I know it was tested. It was tested. As -Steve- pointed out, some things definitely will not work for Win7… which means… it was tested. > :laughing:

But you’re asking for them to specifically tell you of new features and what is and isn’t working with them, and you’re not going to get that for the reasons i’ve pointed out.

The product hasn’t even been finalised yet - so again, what’s the point of beta testing feedback being thrown around the forums? If you want to be running C10.5 and receive support then get on Win 10 - that’s the message, can’t be any clearer.
If it’s a sneaky question so you can find out which new features are being added to C10.5, then you’ll just have to be patient.

43

No, they’ve probably used some new operating system features that are only supported in win 10, so they know immediately it won’t work in 7.

44

Exactly. And I honestly never expected to still be using this same PC. But as long as it continues to function and meet my needs… Especially when you know that waiting means the capabilities get better & cheaper :smiley:

That said I certainly would consider a desirable Cubase capability as reason to get a shiny new PC (but my DAW builder went out of business & finding a new one is just another minor barrier to upgrading :frowning: ).

Seems to me that when MS drops support for an OS we can’t really expect developers to maintain support for that OS. Maybe some do maintain that support for various reasons, but that can’t be a baseline expectation.

45

I hope we’ll see some general improvements if they are changing the codebase - but this could purely be a money/cost thing in regards to support and testing.

Or, as mentioned before it could just be something simple like HiDPI functionality that doesn’t work in Win 7 that has brought on this announcement. We’ll find out end of year, and you can have more ‘fun’ (English sarcasm there!) losing time to Win 10 upgrades if there’s anything juicy in 10.5! :wink:

46

Or, it’s all of the above.

47

… And it should also mean a lot of hours saved onwards for both developers and testers when support is dropped for three (3) additional operating systems (Win7, Win8, Win8.1). No more need to do testing cycles on these systems, but also no more need to “waste” developer hours to have these systems into consideration and troubleshoot issues that may arise from them.
And not hindering use of some more modern technologies.

That should turn productivity up a little bit, since all those saved hours can be spent on more productive things, e.g. developing features and squashing other bugs (none related to old operating systems). And since testing will require less work/time, maybe they could have updates a little more often? Or test more things in the testing cycle.

48

… or they could just fire a lot of software testers. My contribution to all this speculation is that dropping the old Windows versions should free up developers to concentrate on an upcoming Cubase for Linux.

That said, seeing as I’m on Windows 10, Cubase 9 and 10 have been absolutely solid for me, and both Windows 10 and Cubase just seem to keep getting better in terms of stability and “snappiness”. Sure, I have other gripes, but they are largely matters of taste (don’t get me started on the right-click toolbox!), so I have to say to everyone not yet on Windows 10: just do it.

Some suggestions to ease the pain: dual-boot or use an additional boot disk so you can switch back and forth until you’re completely happy with the transition. Without going into too much technical detail here in this thread, it’s relatively easy and cheap to back up everything, fit an additional harddisk and change the boot order in the BIOS. You can disable the port your current harddisk is on to protect it. Install Windows 10 on the new disk. You can switch back and forth by switching the boot disk in the BIOS.

Slightly more involved is dual- or multi-booting, where you can have multiple OSes on different partitions of the same disk, but it works wonderfully once set up properly. I have one laptop with Windows 10, Windows 7 and a minimal Windows XP for really old stuff and I can pick the OS from a boot menu using BootIt, which also has a utility for creating image backups of individual partitions and even entire disks.

49

$150 dollars for Windows 10 upgrade. Old keys not accepted. LOL

$150 dollars for spyware and Cortana. No thanks.

Just like Windows 10 will be around forever, so will win 7. Rethink this one Steinberg, honestly rethink it.

You going to lose ALOT of customers.

50

Don’t be so silly, they will lose far more active customers if they’re not evolving the product. Plus they will fail to attract new customers. You won’t suddenly lose the ability to run Cubase 10.0.x and it won’t deteriorate in any way.

If you’re happy to stick with a 10 year old OS, then why is it so hard to use a 1-2 year old DAW once C10.5 and C11 comes out? You either want progression or not, and no-one is being forced to upgrade - if you want to stick with what you have, then do so. If you want improvements then upgrade, it’s a very simple logic, and takes a matter of hours. You’re months away from running an insecure/exploitable OS which will start to lose online services radically - which isn’t great if you’re running a cloud service for archive/backup or frequently going online with it.

Actually, you probably aren’t using online/cloud as you’ve mentioned fear of being spied on.

If you’re scared of Win 10 and Cortana, then best cut your bank and store cards up, wear a bag on your head when you’re walking or driving, blank your numberplate, throw your phone off a cliff, cancel your internet and cover your house in a foil dome to prevent any hardware directly seeking a wifi/4g signal to track activity.

51

Ouch.
Good thing I’m on windows 10,
but everyone else I work with in the industry are on windows 7

52

Hello

I`m looking for information on Windows 7 end of life Support for Cubase 10. Will Windows 7 be support for the future update and if so do we have a date at witch point they will stop supporting it.

Thanks

53

If you load more than one OS on separate partitions on the same disk, couldn’t you just use the bios to select which one or do you have to use a utility? Why is it more involved to partition the same disc for this method? Wouldn’t you just create the partition for the second OS and install it on that?

54

You can’t select which partition to boot from using just the BIOS; you could use fdisk (come with Windows) to change the active partition, but it’s easier and less error-prone to use a boot utility.

You really need to know what you’re doing, and understand how partitioning works, because if you make a mistake you could lose everything on the disk. Boot utilities just take all that risk away but, if you like to live dangerously and are not afraid of the “fat finger” effect, then fdisk and fsutil are your friends …

55

Or why mess with partitions at all. Based on this dual boot comment I decided to give the Win10 upgrade another try. So far (knock on wood) I’ve not run into any of the issues from my previous upgrade attempt. So I just might be joining the modern world.

But rather than messing with a partition I just cloned my system disk to a new larger SSD, changed the boot order in the BIOS and now the new disk is on Win10. If I want to get Win7 I can in the boot. But I’m not really interested in jumping back and forth between OS, just in being able to boot into a stable OS (which was a big problem last time). Once I’m sure Win10 is OK the old disk can be repurposed for sample libraries.

Was quite surprised at how cheap SSD’s are going for now. I noticed a disk that I bought one year ago, exact same disk now costs half of what it did then.

56

Thanks for the reply.
Which boot utility do you recommend?

I’ve partitioned most of the drives in all 3 'puters that I built. I guess there may be a difference in adding an OS?

57

Hi Rodger,
I’ve never had a problem running W10 as that is the 1st OS I tried on my most recent 'puter build.
I didn’t like the layout but that wasn’t the issue.
My problem with 10 is that you no longer have the same update control and you’re stuck with what MS wants to put on your computer, regardless if it is compatible with all your soft and hardware or not. That’s why I want the insurance of a dual boot. W7 works great with what I have. Granted 10 may work more efficiently in some aspects but I just don’t like MS being in total control of my build. There have been some incompatible updates in the past but with W7, I was able to uninstall them.

58

I can pick the OS from a boot menu using BootIt, which also has a utility for creating image backups of individual partitions and even entire disks.

59

It isn’t just about performance parse, it is also about installer code, drivers and other features that rely on newer frameworks as well as the application being able to support components and plugins.

This is the point though that SB is making, go with the flow or get out.

60

Steinberg, I will stay with Win 7. I won’t let MS blackmail me to upgrade to Win 10. There is simply no reason to upgrade to Win 10 instead of MS blackmailing users to do so, which is simply inacceptable. If you won’t support Win 7 anymore, you are blackmailing me to upgrade to Win 10, just as MS does. This way you are forcing your users to change to another DAW.