The clock is ticking for the free upgrade to Windows 10 from Win 7 and I just wondered if you planned to do it? After much thought I’ve decided to stay with Win 7 64 bit as I have a stable system that is working well and I hope that it will be supported for quite a few years to come. Any final thoughts on the best thing to do at this point?
Rob
I’m torn too. But with the clock ticking I’m leaning towards the upgrade. I’ve upgraded my other computers to 10 awhile back, so I feel comfortable using 10. Although I still prefer 7’s easy to use Start menu over the clunky boxes on 10. I am concerned that in the future I’ll have to move to 10 because something requires it & then I’d need to pay MS for it. Also I’ve seen folks I trust on this forum saying it works fine for them.
At least I’ll get rid of the annoying upgrade to 10 popups (but sadly then join the update windows when big brother, er Microsoft, tells you to scheme).
Upgraded 2 weeks ago. Very pleased. No problems with any software I’ve been running, from Cubase to Adobe Premere, After Effects, etc;
DO IT 
Why wouldn’t you? You are already in the past. Soon you’ll be stuck there. Windows 10 is a superior OS. I’ve used W10 since the Insider Program began in 2014 and as frustrating as it was in the very beginning it was very interesting to see it develop into a fast stable OS system and the day Steinberg gave the ok I updated my two 8.1 systems running Cubase. No looking back ever. I continue to participate in the Insider Program and running the soon to be released “Anniversary” version (on computer that are not DAWs) I can say that this update takes it to a whole new level. I hope Steinberg is testing internally this major update so soon after its release they’ll give approval to run Cubase with it. Once you use W10 and you have to do something on a W7 machine you ask yourself how you tolerated Win7 OS. That is my option based on my experience.
Using Windows 10 here on two different DAW computers… It has been a painless transition - things are working very well! 
WillB,
I am assuming your question “why wouldn’t you?” isn’t rhetorical. In my case I have an older Focusrite Saffire firewire interface that doesn’t work on W10 so I’ll stick with W7 on my DAW for now. I’m holding out to see if Thunderbolt interfaces become mainstream and then update my system rather than pick up a USB interface with greater latency (although the new Scarlett 2 range looks interesting).
I too have been using W10 on another machine since the Insider days and it is an improvement over W7 but to put things in perspective; over the years I’ve seen much larger step changes like Dos to Window so this one doesn’t seem so important to me.
Thanks for asking.
I appreciate the perspective. I wonder if you might elaborate on what you specifically find so superior. I’ve been running Win10 on two non-DAW systems for 6 months or so I am familiar with using it (and have to admit it is a vast improvement over the mess of Win8). Most of the changes I find kinda meh, either being almost the same as Win7 or different but not particularly better or worse. But there are a couple of things that I still prefer how Win7 behaved.
One is the Start menu (at least they put it back in). In Win7 it’s a clean easy to access list of alphabetized programs & folders. In Win10 I get a bunch of blocks arranged in seemingly random groups - which can be rearranged, thanks MS for taking something easy and making it more work for me to manage. And yes I know I can go to All Apps (yeah an extra click!) to see the list. But the list is now clunkier to use because everything got bigger ('cause MS needs it to work with tablet fingers even if I don’t).
The other thing I find really annoying is having minor OS updates forced upon me. At least I figured out how to let me choose when it reboots instead of just doing it. But I half expect to log into this forum and find an 8 page topic that was started last night about how the latest MS push broke Cubase.
From my experience I’ve found the Win10 changes to range from neutral to mildly annoying. And that might be fine if there were other things that were “WOW!!! I’m so glad I can do that now”, but I haven’t seen them (although they might be there).
All that aside, it’s probably that I haven’t spent much effort studying the ins-and-outs of Win10, because there is enough for me to do already. I’m willing to believe that I might love Win10 and am quite open to hearing what might cause that to happen.
I suggest you research the subject on sites such as WindowsCentra,com and WinBeta.org. There are excellent articles and WC has a vast forum.
Obviously using Win10 should show you the way forward and your issues with Win10 vs. Win7 are subjective preferences some of which will be changing in a few weeks as the Anniversary release approaches. If you have an old computer just join insider Program to experience it in its current state right now, and it is close to release with many more features and improvements to the entire Win10 ecosystem ie desKtop, tablet, mobile, Xbox One, HoloLens, OneDrive etc etc.
One of my Insider test computers is a eight year old Lenovo Thinkpad and Win10 runs great on it.
The forced updates and the weird privacy settings (resetting themselves partly by those forced updates) are an issue, don’t you think?
Here’s a dude who explains pretty well what’s going on: Prevent Windows 10 Spying On You, Privacy & Security Matter! - YouTube
I prefer staying on Windows 7 for the while, giving me the feeling of having more control over my computer instead of my computer is working for itself (respectively for unwanted OS modifications) in the first place before I can start to work.
It is pretty likely that the ‘free’ upgrade offer will be continued anyway.
I upgraded and all was a mess.
So I’m back on Win 7.
I’m pleased to say GodMode still works on Windows 10!
I am still on Windows 8.1 and fairly happy - although part of that is using Classic Shell to create the illusion of Windows 7. I am primarily worried about UAD and Windows 10. Also doing an over-install has caused me many issues on my laptop and I can’t face the week or so of downtime re-installing and authorising etc.
I will upgrade to Win10 before the offer runs out simply to take advantage of the free licence. But, I may well just go back to using Win7 anyway. The advantage of upgrading is that you actually activate the free Win10 licence for your hardware but you don’t necessarily have to keep using it. So if you clone your Win7 disk first, then clone your Win10 disk, you can go back to Win7 and always pop back up to Win10 later when your favourite devices/software/whatever is supported. Or you can then go for a full clean install of Win10. But the point is that you’ll always have Win7 as a fallback.
BTW, word is that the MicroSoft roll-back from Win10 to Win7 doesn’t always work! So, clone your system disk before upgrading. Having said that, when I upgraded a big old Sony Vaio and it failed due to the graphics card not being supported I did actually manage to get back using the MS roll-back method…
Also, I’d recommend GWX Control Panel by Ultimate Outsider to get rid of the Win10 popups. Looks like its even written by a musician! I’ve got this running on many Win7 PCs now, all fine.
http://ultimateoutsider.com/downloads/
Mike.
The US government still uses 8" “floppies” even in the Nuke Defense Agency. I guess if you know how to use it and it works why change?
I believe Win7 MS support (obviously incl further development) ended last year after 6 years.
Just out of curiosity, have you traced the FW issue to an actual Windows problem, or is it driver related?
I’m asking because I’m using a FireWire interface as well, and it’s flawless…
Cheers,
Benji
What is the basis of your concern with UAD? Problems with UAD would be a showstopper for me.
For what it is worth, I use a UAD PCIe card and have zero issues.
B.
WillB…
For being such a savy microsoft insider, it amazes me that you do not know that windows 7 is officially supported until 2020…
I have been on W10 for a few months now.
running all sorts of software (photoshop, indesign, cubase, premiere)
easy upgrade, no issues to report.
much nicer experience than 7 (never touched 8).
How is it a nicer experience?