BEST Windows version for DAW/Music Mixing?
This means that without unnecessary trash, and performance

 

the latest w10 21h1 is very good finally

 

Only the win 10 is acceptable cos 7 is no longer supported, 8 will be unsupported in 2023 and the 11 not came out yet.

 

The only problem with SOME Win versions are patches preventing "sister site" installs
Once those patches are removed/not installed, i don't see ANY problem

The usual "not optimized" OS means nothing when you DISABLE useless features

Win 7 : no more compatible with most recent softwares
Win 8 : was never right
Win 11 : too early

So ?
Win 10

 

As far everything works I would say nobody will notice any difference if you use your DAW in fullscreen... Snare sounds shit on every OS.

Due to missing updates of Windows 7 I would not recommend it, if you use it in a network with internet. I wonder why Windows 11 is listed, because *nobody* would use it currently for a productive system.

 

As the discussion is about Windows I thought I might mention this video I watched this morning. I'm wondering if running this might improve Windows for music production. Are any of you familiar with Tronscript?

 

All the plugins I use and need work perfectly in Reaper on Windows 7 that is optimised for audio and cut down to bare necessities. For Internet and daily work I use Debian Linux. Using any kind of Windows for Internet is pretty crazy, let alone the Windows you use for making audio. Plus if you use antivirus it will slow down your OS considerably, no matter which one you use.

If I had to use any other Windows than 7 for some reason, I'd rather use Windows 8.1 Ghostmod. It's got a start menu and it's a very cut down version of it. It looks really good, but I haven't tried it yet with audio.

 

windows 10 ltsc. But i guess when 11 ltsc is released i will upgrade

 

I have used 8.1 flawlessly for audio and video since it's release. Before that, I used 7 flawlessly too. Have not tried 10 for audio yet.

 

That's not really true. Even if the min sys req is Win10, this does not automatically mean that a soft doesn't run flawlessly on Win7. But for some it does, no doubt.

 

2016 LTSB Enterprise

 

W8 introduces tickless kernel & W10 introduces RAM compression so they're faster.

It depends on how you define "unnecessary trash" , and what UI you like.

 

I have not noticed anything "preventing" sister site installs except Windows Defender.
I have hundreds of sister site vst installed on 6 different DAWs, 5 video editing suites and dozens of utilities.
It has nothing to do with patches.
Patches may cause some to need re-registering, but it is usually major updates that cause that.
The programs remain installed and just need keygenning,etc again.

Defender should be set to exclude any drives / folders on which you run sister site installers.
Some cracked windows utilities (Minitool Partition wizard for example)ay also need to have its Program folder excluded (or be installed to an excluded location), but nearly all only need Defender turned off during install or for installer to be run from an excluded folder.

 

I use win 7 ultimate. My Win 7 PC has been fully updated with all necessary security patches, is never connected to the net, any programs I require are transferred from another PC with a USB. I already have absolutely everything I require for my musical performing needs and it all works just fine, so I don't give a damn if windows 7 is no longer supported, all my needed programs and plugins are working perfectly and backed up on a separate drive, my HD is cloned. I don't need any support so Gates can go and f**k himself. I'm perfectly fine till I die. My net PC has win 10, perhaps one day I'll install Linux Zorin on my laptop.

 

Last edited: Aug 14, 2021

My sentiments exactly - agree 100%
But still correcting your white lie... You said...

Admit it - you have infinitely more than absolutely everything required and not enough time to even look at all of it.
and if you're as crazy as me you're still collecting

 

What do you expect? Running more instances of a VST? More CPU-power? Not gonna happen.

There are like thousands guides that suggest you to disable certain services, but in the end you don't get any better performance.
If there would be an performance benefit, they would advertise with this (including numbers).

The biggest fuckup with those scripts: They seem to work and some day some windows update will just fuck with you. I try to keep my Windows vanilla and native as possible - at least if you want a productive system.

 

Okay, I'll admit that happens to me but... I CAN QUIT WHENEVER I WANT

 

I still update plugins and DAWs on Win7, so most of them are working fine, even if there is written "Windows 8/10 is minimum". Example - Arturia. And many others. There is not so much stuff which requires Win 8/10 minimum.
Waves since v11, Studio One 5, AOM factory newer than v1.10, and several others are now not for W7, or even W8.
Tone Empire, Beatskillz don't support W7, but they can be installed via Non-Install method. Maybe, some plugins might be installed this way.
Some pro stuff still supports XP or even ME.... Reaper, DMGaudio......

 

My answer is base on the Hardware a.k.a USB ( the port of now days sound card is using)
any slight interference between sound card -> O.S ( bad cable, maybe your touch the usb , ETC ) that result the souncard suddenly lost connection equal to :
win xp -> *blue screen*
win 7 ---> *blue screen*
win 8 ---> sometime blue screen not that often as win 7
win 10 --> 98% change still rock solid ( all you need to do is reconnect it - retry )
that why in the old days people mainly use MAC for live gig, shit like this never happen.

if your care about your precious Mixing/ music Project data never go back to <win10 , sure win 7 / xp is lighter than win 10 i must credit that , but the wager is to big of risk.

 

Can you elaborate on the 'non-install method' for Tone Empire?