Win7>Win10

Steen,

I haven't tried the Linux version because the only computer that I have Linux on is WAY too slow to run anything. I don't want to putz the Win10 machine by fooling with a dual boot, plus I have my PowerDirector software on there. The other Win10 machine has all my email/financial/OpenOffice, etc. Plus i use it for a lot of my browsing.

Oh for sure! Been thinking about the longer term. I can't see myself paying the full price for Protools upgrade if/when I need to.
I reckon Reaper on Linux would be a lovely place to be, if it was stable and all playing nice.

Until I bought the Dell about 8 years ago, I had built every PC from scratch starting with my 386SX system. I could build a system for less money and get more performance then. It got to the point where it was just as cheap and a lot easier to buy a prebuilt system. Instead of buying computer parts, now I spend the money on mics, guitars, amps, recording equipment etc.

No joke! I saved so much money building core2duo/quad machines and earlier.
Got a real shock trying to part out a 'cheaper' i7 rig for a buddy a little while ago. :eek:
 
"I reckon Reaper on Linux would be a lovely place to be, if it was stable and all playing nice."

Go and have a chat with a guy called Folderol over at Sound on Sound forum Mr S. He is a long time devotee of Linux, don't know of he runs Reaper but he will know if it can be done.

I loaned him my KA6 a couple of years ago for a month to try it on Linux. Worked a treat and he bought one soon after.

Dave.
 
Good to know. Thanks, Dave!
Despite being 'experimental' the general feedback seems to be that things are working well.
Most of the complaints I see are around finding compatible 3rd party plugins which, I guess, isn't really a surprise.
Finding that they build for Arm 32+64 was a surprise!
 
I've been clearing out old stuff in the basement and found some of my old computer magazines. Talk about an eye opener, most people today don't realize what computers were in the early 90s. There was a magazine called Computer Shopper. It was tabloid size and about 3/4 to an inch thick each month. On those pages were ads for computer parts, whole systems, monitors, hard drives, floppy disks. This was a typical issue.... Dynamite 486 fully loaded 66mHz for under $2000! You could buy and build anything you wanted from those pages.

Computer shopper.jpg


At the time I was in a computer club and we used to buy a whole CASE of 300 5-1/4" floppys for about $200. It was MUCH cheaper than buying a box of 10 at the store for $25.

The best times were twice a year when Dayton Ohio had ComputerFest and HamFest. It was worth driving 150 miles with a couple of buddies to load up on cases, motherboard, processors. Prices would be 1/2 of what you could buy elsewhere. It took up the entire Hara Arena, including the parking lot. Put about $500 in your pocket and you probably came home with enough parts to upgrade the computer you built last year to the latest spec. Say goodbye to 33mHz, Hello 66mHz! Kick that RAM up to 256KB! No more creeping along at 300 or 1200baud, we've got the newest 2400 baud modem. It might only take you a day or so to get all the IRQs set on the various cards and get it all working!

Now I can go up to Office Depot with $600 and come home with an I7 laptop with 8GB, solid state drive and all the trimmings. Its loaded with Win10 and it just works. No fuss, no problems.
 
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I've been clearing out old stuff in the basement and found some of my old computer magazines. Talk about an eye opener, most people today don't realize what computers were in the early 90s.

Incredible how much things have changed in a relatively short period of time!
I'm too young to remember meets and swaps and that kind of thing, but I definitely remember the restrictions you're talking about and every upgrade completely blowing the last out of the water.

I get the feeling you're going to spend more time in that basement than you originally intended! :eek:
 
Hmmmm..........the joke was posted by Chili........and yes.......there was a :D so.......don't know what you're speaking of.
 
Yikes! Im afraid to post because I feel like such a dumb a$$. I scanned this thread but didn't see what I was looking for. Respectful of everyone's opinions I have a problem that I don't know how to remedy.

I was using win 7 and both cubase and pro tools were working just fine. When I download win 10 neither works! Now I have both win 7 and win 10 on my PC and want to return to just win 7 when everything was hunky dory. How can I make this happen?

Thank you for reading.
 
Depending on the version both cubase and pro tools should work just fine on win10. What problems are you encountering exactly? As for returning to win7 you will probably need a recovery version, hopefully you made a back up? Your license should be good for both 7 and 10
 
Still using Cubase elements and I got a deal on pro tools 10 with free upgrade. This was a few years ago...neither DAW shows up on win 10. When I switch to win 7 I get errors saying something like i will have limited access to the program.

I'm only guessing but could it be that my mbox interface got crossed up somehow when I installed win 10?
 
Still using Cubase elements and I got a deal on pro tools 10 with free upgrade. This was a few years ago...neither DAW shows up on win 10. When I switch to win 7 I get errors saying something like i will have limited access to the program.

I'm only guessing but could it be that my mbox interface got crossed up somehow when I installed win 10?
I don't knife if this is significant but I failed to mention that I have win 7 and win 10 both installed as a dual boot.
 
I don't [know] if this is significant but I failed to mention that I have win 7 and win 10 both installed as a dual boot.
What I would do:

Wipe the disc.
Re-install W7 only
Re-install all your titles.
Wipe my forehead and say, "wow, that was a close one!"

I can't begin to imagine the artifacts that a W10 dual boot would leave on your drives. If you were running fine before the "upgrade", i would seek mightily to restore exactly what I had and nail it down. Once a new system enters, you have no idea how deep it has gotten and what trouble it might leave behind.

Not intentionally, no. I don't believe it's malicious. I just believe that W10 has very specific ideas of what your computer should be doing that may not be congruent with your wishes.

I'm done with the days of me working for my computer and believe wholeheartedly my computer should work for me. This is why I was a Mac guy for so long doing all my music there. Anything that makes a hassle for me is deleted. Discs are cheap. Heck, computers are cheap. You got a W7 activation code right there on the CPU. Re-install and away you go.

Probably time for a hard drive upgrade, anyway. I know this because it's ALWAYS time for a hard drive upgrade :-)
 
That sounds rather drastic. I don't disagree that 10 might leave things on the drive after installing, but before finding out what's wrong with his install, you suggest just wiping the whole thing out and reinstalling everything? Do you know how much of a chore that probably is? I think I'd wait until I knew for sure this was the only option.

But, there is an alternative. You could get another hard drive and reinstall 7 and your programs on that drive, just to get back up and running. That way, you can still investigate the situation between 7 and 10 while still using your computer. And if you have a backup of your old system, all the better. Just restore it onto the new hard drive.
 
That sounds rather drastic. I don't disagree that 10 might leave things on the drive after installing, but before finding out what's wrong with his install, you suggest just wiping the whole thing out and reinstalling everything? Do you know how much of a chore that probably is? I think I'd wait until I knew for sure this was the only option.
Drastic? I call it "cleansing" and yes i've done it many, many times because I have many computers and tend not dispense advice I wouldn't do myself -- which is why I led with that.

I don't think of it as scary or drastic. It can be a bit of chore, yes. But up-front work pays long term benefits. Besides, you can watch TV for an hour while it grinds away on it.

But, there is an alternative. You could get another hard drive and reinstall 7 and your programs on that drive, just to get back up and running. That way, you can still investigate the situation between 7 and 10 while still using your computer. And if you have a backup of your old system, all the better. Just restore it onto the new hard drive.
Uh, waittaminute.... How is this an "alternative"?

You're still installing all your titles. You're still installing W7 from scratch. You're even purchasing yet another HD. So all you've done is introduce another order of complexity to the situation with another piece of hardware to keep track of.

We already know W10 and W7 are not playing well together on his machine. Dunno the precise reason. Maybe no human ever can know. But we do know that W7 worked, so my idea was to return to what worked.

The only way to return to what worked is to remove every vestige of what did not. Whatever caused the problem, you don't know, and I don't know.

Interestingly, I do agree with you in one respect (it's better to agree). Now that he knows W7/W10 is a reactive solution on his hardware, then do as you said with another drive, only leave one drive totally in W7 and replace (not USB) the drive in totally W10 and see which one he can get working better.

Then if W10 works out, super. If not, put on the brakes and go W7. Whichever one he chooses, the other drive is wiped and becomes an archive.

Still a lotta installation, but sometimes that's what they make us do.
 
Here is what you do...l
Replace the HD with an SSD drive...I use Samsung EVO's....500 Gb is under $100 now...
An SSD is the single best thing you can do to improve performance...

If you Win 7 has a good license...Win 10 will install....
Usually to make sure things work....
I download the Win 10 from the link that DM60 provides in the first post...
It will come down as an ISO....use your DVD burner and burn the ISO to a DVD...
CD is not large enough...

With the comptuer running on Win 7...install Win 10 ON TOP of Win 7....It will take a while....
When done...it will now be on Win 10.....make sure it is activated...

NOW...open up the computer and REPLACE the old SATA hard drive with your new SSD drive...

Then with the DVD in the drive.....restart the computer and hit F12 (for Dell)....or F9 (fro HP) or whatever key your
particular brand uses to bring up the boot order....

Choose to boot from the DVD drive....
It will show 2 options to install Win 10....one is to keep everything and the other is to delete everything.....choose the delete option...
Next screen should be to delete the partitions...there will be 2-3 partitions from your old Win 7 installation...
Delete all partitions...
Then create new partitions...
Now let the installation continue until done...
There will be a point where you indicate what name you want to use...
Look in the lower left corner of the screen and it should say something like Local Account....
IMHO...use the local account otherwise you will get a Microsoft account and additional advertising and tracking
will be activated....

What you are doing is first installing Win 10 ON TOP of Win 7....that allows you to get the license key from
Win 7 installation and Win 10 will use that....this will be a "digital key"....
After you have installed Win 10 ON TOP of win 7....then you can re-install Win 10 and get a fresh install
and completely wipe out all vistages of Win 7...

I'm in the business and I have installed probably 200 Win 10 using this method...

Questions....I'll check in from time to time...
 
Drastic? I call it "cleansing" and yes i've done it many, many times because I have many computers and tend not dispense advice I wouldn't do myself -- which is why I led with that.
...

drastic if he had no backup. And at least one of my purchased softwares only allows you to install a few times, before you have to go through quite a mess to get another code.

Cleansing, yes...but if the above is true, there are complications. I don't see a problem, if it's the only thing you can do, but I was just saying there are other options. Maybe somebody else here has a way to make it work without wiping the drive and starting over.

And until then, by using another drive to do as you say, he would at least have a working DAW to use until a solution could be made. You know, W7 is going away and if his computer is connected to the Internet, he won't be able to keep it on W7. So, ultimately, he has to go to W10 at some point. So, by using another drive to reinstall, he saves that first drive, in case a solution is found.

I understand that you think I agree with your reinstall, by going through the motions of installing everything again. But, that's only if he needs to use his computer in the mean time, until a solution is found. And he doesn't need to install everything...just the necessary music software. But that would still be quite a chore to do, if not necessary.

I do agree with your option, as it is giving him a clean install and getting him back up and running. But, if he needs to have W10 by the end of the year, he has some sort of bug in that upgrade that he'll have to find before then.
 
Maybe I wasn't thorough enough...this strikes me as a group of pretty sharp computer people....of course you make backups before you do ANYTHING.....that's a given....and if all your software came on a CD....then you should have all the licensening codes you need....OR you should have your software as a download and saved someplace with the necessary documentation....and if some software maker will not let you reload their software on a new or rebuilt computer.....maybe you are using the wrong software....I don't know off hand any software maker that does that....but I'm sure there are a few....

Now...as far as moving to W10 is concerned....I see from previous posts that everyone is aware that Microsoft will stop supporting W7 on Jan 14, 2020....you do NOT have to upgrade to W10....it just means that you will not get
any more security updates...OS patches etc....gradually over time you might become a virus magnet....depending on how good your anti-virus is....But I would think that you could run another year maybe two before you really HAVE to do SOMETHING...and Linux or Mac are both viable options.......

NOBODY is going to PREVENT you from continuing to use W7....In fact...Keep W7 but disconnect it from the internet...no worries...ever...

On average it takes me about 6-7 hours from the time I start the initial install of W10...swap HD'...do a clean install of W10...get the updates....and sometimes that can take a couple hours...move the data from a backup and reload all your programs....and be working again....and then I 'modify' W10....I usually install Classic Shell v4.4.109...earlier versions don't work so well with W10....Classic Shell gives a start menu
much closed to the look of W7 rather than the crappy interface W10 gives you....And a little googling around will give you plenty of info on what W10 services you should turn off to maintain as much privacy as you can...

Now...a word of caution...When W10 first came out and Microsoft was forcing upgrades to W10....a number of my clients wound up with bricks....would not boot....I had to pull the data off and rebuild the PC using W7 or W8.1 which ever one they were using....then reinstall the upgrade to W10....there were a LOT of problems...and it seems to be...how "corrupted" is your W7 installation....???....do all kinds of virus scans...MBAM...all that stuff and run chkdsk /f ....get the old HD in good condition and get the crap that gets in your pc by just being connected to the internet over time...

I maintain that moving to an SSD.....put your OS and programs on the SSD....keep the SATA HD....make sure you have all your data off it.....reformat it and use it as a data drive....set it as Drive D:\ for example....making your CD drive E:\....SSD's have come way down in price....it is the single best thing you can do to increase performance.....and if you are at 4Gb of RAM on your old W7.....get 4 more Gb of RAM and run on 8 Gb....you will notice a definite improvement...

The oldest computer that I installed W10 on was about 7-8 years old...I think it was about a 2010 Dell something or other....I did not put an SSD in that one...They were pretty expensive back then....kept the SATA drive....I did not notice ANY increase in speed....I think the notion that just upgrading to W10 is going to improve your life is false....If you want really fast get a new computer and look for one that uses the new M.2 NVME drives....holy crap that is fast...!!!...Look for an i5 9400F...6 core and it "zips"....you will need a graphic card with that particular i5...

But I do notice if you're doing any kind of heavy work in W10....you really should have 8 Gb of RAM....W10 will run ok on 4 Gb but if your doing any multitracking...get 8 Gb...


You CAN install W10 WITHOUT wiping the original hard drive....just choose the first option that I mentioned....then you toss that old SATA drive in a drawer and you have all your old data...your old W7 and you can plug it in anytime you want....

The very latest version of W10 is 1903....the version that comes from the Microsoft download is 1803.....If you currently have W10 installed....you can check your version by going to the search bar next to the start button and typing in winver .....
 
Now...as far as moving to W10 is concerned....I see from previous posts that everyone is aware that Microsoft will stop supporting W7 on Jan 14, 2020....you do NOT have to upgrade to W10....it just means that you will not get
any more security updates...OS patches etc....gradually over time you might become a virus magnet....depending on how good your anti-virus is....But I would think that you could run another year maybe two before you really HAVE to do SOMETHING...and Linux or Mac are both viable options.......

Have to? Not at all.

In my world, the Opsys is of only medium utility, not the star of the show. The app is the star. So the judgment of what I HAVE to do is made from the app, not the Opsys product.

When and if my apps stop working for me, then I'll consider the opsys approach. I did it before when I went from XP to W7.

Example: SolidWorks is something I use. They upgrade every year. Thus far, I've done quite well with my latest version at 2015. W7. I tell clients to save off to generic formats (if by chance they are providing geometry) and everything works fine. No fuss- no muss.
My larger competitors are all latest-version/W10 but they are large corporations and I am a Small Business. Large Corporations have no choice. Their legal dept and their exec leadership have zero clue about computers so the safe path is latest-on-latest (except hardware :snicker:) to keep 'safe'. I don't have to outlay that expense.

And as I don't have government contacts and don't believe in bilking the taxpayer, I'll never be their size, anyway (sorry, that isn't meant to be political, but genuine business)

I got into Mac at 3.1 and stopped at 9.1, never got into X because it didn't bring anything to my studio. I continue to do all kinds of music with full midi/audio integration. Didn't HAVE to upgrade after 30 years because I don't care about the opsys, only about the results.

NOBODY is going to PREVENT you from continuing to use W7....In fact...Keep W7 but disconnect it from the internet...no worries...ever...
Why disconnect? I have an XP box from over 15 years ago that still does internet just fine. In fact, it's main use it to transfer from ftp sites when large data is involved.
I have a RISC box that still uses Netscape! (A bit short on features, but it can be persuaded :-) Hardly my first choice, but I've done it.
Neither seem to be virus magnets.

Now yes, I can agree - I have 3 W7 boxes that have never been connected to the net and never will be. No worries. That's mostly because I simply use the internet, it's not my lifeblood, and besides, computers are really cheap. So having a box more-or-less dedicated to a purpose is safe, inexpensive, and easy. I don't have to be-all and end-all in a single box. My studio is 2 Macs and 2 PCs and never connected to the net. No worries, just like you say.

But I also don't do online gaming. I'll admit complete deference to anyone else on that subject.

In a large corporation, the accounting dept won't allow such processes. They won't allow a Craigslist computer in the house. I don't keep engineering data or music files on the same box as anything that talks to the net. I can reach across with a USB stick/drive when i need transfers. That's pretty darned safe.

My online unit (a laptop) is a my "road whore". It might be infected with a lotta stuff, but I really doubt it. It's been reloaded twice in the last 8 years running W7 and runs great right now. It's twin is loaded with Mint 19.1 and will soon be my go-to net/email/etc. laptop and this one will get one last cleansing.
 
Caution! PC numpty about to opine!

I think what Fingerz means is software, DAW registration codes? I have Samplitude Pr X3 and MAGIX give you 3 "goes" so I have it installed on this i3 HP laptop and an Asus MOBO AMD 6core. Now, as I understand things, if I were to install W10 on a fresh SSD I would use up my last code and then have to hassle MAGIX for another if I wanted a fourth?

I have read of others who migrated to 10 and had this exact problelm, getting new codes from the likes of Focusrite.

Some years ago I DID blag a second code from them for Sam SE8 (came free with a magazine) but WHAT a palaver!

So, my plan is to keep this laptop and the Asus off the net and buy a W10 laptop for "office" and net duties. I do hope however that I can go on the net from time to time to check for updates to Sam, Reaper etc? I shall actually buy Reaper again for the W10 machine, I really should learn to use it a bit!

Dave.
 
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