Hi,
I‘m about to setup a new windows system on a bit older (but sill good enough) Lenovo W530 (6 core, 32gig RAM) laptop.
I am reading a lot about dropouts and other performance issues with Cubase and Windows 10.
Before switching to linux (for 3d reasons) I was always happy with Windows7 Pro … Are there any other reasons why I should use Windwos 10 now with cubase or should I better install Windows 7 64bit Pro again on that laptop (when planning only to do music on that laptop) ?
Thanks,
Boris
My Win7 to 10 OS upgrade went very badly over several attempts (basically it would run ok for a while and then it hung - not Cubase, Windows hung). So I’ve kept my DAW on Win7 and it works fine. At some point MS will drop support for 7, but I figure by then I’ll want a newer computer anyway.
But it works just fine on Win7.
Any idea when will that happen?
Mr. Google tells me that MS will drop extended support Jan. 14 2020. But historically they have still provided updates for major security risks even after extended support is dropped (but not the small stuff). And of course the PC will continue to run after that date (until suddenly & without warning at the worst possible moment it doesn’t run).
My current rig is already 4 years old which in computer years is like 73 or so.
So really no advantage to install win10 for music whatsoever? Now is the time for me to decide… basically doomsday 
Not as far as Cubase is concerned. Plug-ins only care about the OS to the extent that it is 64-bit.
I’ve got Win10 on two PCs I use for non-music stuff. 10 is a bit Apple-like in that it often decides what is “best” for you, even if you might disagree. For example, unless you have Win10 Pro, Windows will decide when to perform updates & some reboots - this can be very annoying (lesson - get the Pro version if you get 10). Also Win7 is easier to get under the hood and tinker with settings than 10 is. 10 also installs & background runs tons of stuff that makes it feel more sluggish to me, but I haven’t gone in and gotten rid of what I don’t want - so that’s not a fair comparison.
You don’t need to do any optimization in Win10, it is good for audio right out of the box.
You can get rid of some of the indexing and stuff, Win 7 needs a little more work.
Win10 feels snappy, boots faster, even on older hardware.
I’m still running on a win7 upgraded to win10 Maschine and the only negative thing I have found are the forced updates.
At the same time I have had no problems after any of the updates, even the yearly big updates that essentially is a new OS being installed.
I would however be hesitant installing win10 on an win7 laptop, there are often drivers for trackpad, webcam and gfx that are different from the mainstream components. I have had issues with finger print sensors and keyboard Fn keys not being recognized.
They (ASUS and Lenovo) eventually released new drivers that fixed the problem.
But do you really need that hassle?
I run Cubase on both Win7 and 10 machines.
Overall I prefer Windows 10 but am quite happy with the performance on my ancient Win 7 machine on which a Windows 10 upgrade wasn’t possible.
The advantage of Cubase on the Windows 7 machine is track names wrapping on the mixer (broken for Win 10)!
That aside on an older LapTop I agree with peakae and think I’d stick with Windows 7 anyway if that’s what it was built for. For a new machine there’d be no debate and I’d definitely go the other way.
For a new machine there’s not much choice in the matter.
I try to remember to run Windows Settings/Update & Security at the beginning of every session to force the system to finish updating before getting started. It’s no guarantee that the thing won’t call out for a Pizza or something, 
but it increases the odds that it won’t be downloading in the background.