It depends on what you need the Windows OS for, and it depends on what you use for making music. It also depends on some other "factors"...

If you're doodling with hundreds of VST plugins and 8 different DAWs, using Internet [which is IMO insane with any Windows, but newer is usually better for Internet] at the same time, never finishing any project and collecting 2-bar "songs", don't mind having troubles with incompatibilities here and there, don't mind general troubles with MS and their latest OS, don't care if something gets lost, I say just go with it.

It will most probably make you happy, and you can brag to your friends how you're using the glorious latest MS Windows 10. Nevermind the fact that Windows 10 is not generally accepted as positively as W7 or XP, or Linux and OS-X. Why not bragging with "Hey, I have the newest Ubuntu 16.04!" or "I have Debian 8.4 installed!". Confuse them, be the coolest guy on the block. The guy who's different and smart, and knows how to use Linux, too. I tell you, people respect me a lot, and even more when I tell them that I'm using Linux on my computer. It is cool to use Linux. Windows is last century's news, and just "meh" no matter the version that you're using.

If you're a professional or just a person who uses 1-2 DAWs, many VSTs, finishing your projects/songs regularly, taking security of your files seriously, you should use Windows 7 or maybe 8.1. Depending on the software you use for making music. For Internet you can use a VM-ed Windows whatever, or Linux whatever, or you can install dual-boot Windows/Linux.

If you're a professional or just a person who uses 1-2 DAWs, many VSTs, outboard hardware synths and samplers, finishing your projects/songs, taking security of your files seriously, you should use Windows XP or XPx64, or W7 if it works with all of your hardware. For Internet you should use a different computer, dual-boot, or Virtual OS. Some of my hardware doesn't work with W7 properly, so I use XPx64 on my main computer and W7 on a laptop. For me anything beyond W7 is not even an option. I also dual-boot on both machines with Debian Linux for Internet and regular usage so all my data is safely away from the Internet, malware, and viruses.

So it is actually not that simple, as your friends or aforementioned "doodlers" might think. Also, when I install an OS I work with it for many years, generally until the computer falls apart. Installing an OS *for audio work* is nothing entertaining for me. I personally don't care what OS for audio is on my computer for as long as it works with everything, and I mean EVERYTHING as in *EVERY-F***ING-THING* I throw at it. Unitor 8, Midex 8, Adaptec SCSI anybody? How about Sounddiver, MIDI Quest? Firewire interfaces? "Thingies" like that. It is not that simple for me to just say [Yaawn] "I'd like to upgrade from this boooring OS I've been using last 2 years." I have to test and consider many different things before doing that. That's also why my clients need me... because they also think it's "just like that" [snap!].

Cheers! Enjoy whatever you choose to do, and make some nice tunes!

 

Last edited: May 14, 2016

@SineWave basically you got it all covered and there isn't much to add.
And thanks you for the Virtual Box advices you gave on another post, running Ubuntu 16.04 right now from it and loving it for my Internet browsing.. Having a windows and feeling safe online, I didn't think that was possible.

 

My 2 cent's Win 10 is great but takes much more resources to run.
More bloatware and shite that no Audio production unit really needs. However it is a huge improvement over win 8 imo.
Win 7 is also great and is good for low spec machines.

It all down to your machines specs and your specific needs.

The only trouble I have had is that certain DEV's have not updated their drivers yet so you may come up with some driver troubles as stated but these problems are being sorted rapidly. So if you have a real high spec machine I7 32GB whatever windows 10 all the way.
However get rid of all the facebook crap and rubbish you don't need and optimize specifically for your needs. A high spec graphics card helps also with certain things. If it a laptop well that's that out the window.

If it's meant for Audio production etc well use it for that & just that.

Depends on other things such as your primary DAW.

If u have a low spec machine win 7 could be a better alternative.

Only u can decide & there no harm in trying.

Pain in the ass but u can always Backup and restore to windows 7 directly from windows 10. Good luck.

 

People conveniently forget Windows 8(.1) exist. It's got the tickless kernel of W10 (=faster than W7), minus the frustration of getting W10 to work your way.

 

+1 - WIn 10 has been nothing but awesome for me. No issues whatsoever.. everything runs better, faster, more stable, A+ from me.

Of course I upgraded to a 3K monster PC as well and a SSD so.. Im sure that had something to with it

 

Hey mate, are you going to make any W10 themes?

Building a new Monster PC here myself. Should be done next week :D

 

Win 8.1 here; switched from 7. Absolutely no issues. Waiting for W10 issues to be completely ironed out before I try it.

 

MS is lying through their teeth when they say that new Windows is faster, mates. Every new Windows version I have tried had never been faster than the last one. That is, it depends on what you mean by *faster*. I mean how many plugins I can run before I start hearing crackling. I made a comparison of XP, W7, and W8.1 with Reaper and a hefty project recently, and it turned out that W7 is just a tad slower in DSP processing than XP, and W8.1 is up to about 20% slower than XP. I've seen benchmarks that try to prove otherwise but those benchmarks are always rigged in some way. <-- paid advertisement? Probably. MS is in deep shit and they're doing everything in their power to make people use W10.

I've been with Windows since MS-DOS times, and I tell you it is getting slower all the time! It doesn't matter what PC you're using, and how much faster it boots <-- it's just a stupid caching trick, it is still slower! That is a massive rubbish myth that it is alright if you have a more powerful computer. It is true to an extent, but your top-of-the-line i7 will start to crackle playing your project in W10 and W8 sooner than in W7 and XP because there is more stuff working in the background in W10, 7 and 8 in comparison to XP. They are just more bloated, simply put. Any background task, no matter how powerful the computer, is bad for real-time performance! That is, unless your OS has a real-time kernel. But Windows will never have that. Linux has it, and it is used for Linux audio and video workstations.

Since I've made my own benchmarks they can all suck my behind-hole, because I saw it first-hand how much "faster" W7 and 8 are than XP, and I don't think that by some magical trick W10 works faster than those. And since I'm very familiar with the inner workings of Windows since day one I am really not surprised at all. There are so many background tasks in all these modern Windows. No background task is good for real-time performance, and that's what we need the most. MS doesn't give a flying potato about real-time performance.

So believe whatever you want, mates. I believe in what I experienced myself, not some MS propaganda nor its fanboys. Try doing your own benchmarks sometime, it might be eye and mind opening for you.

Cheers!

p.s. I'm also not at all concerned with modern PC hardware not working with XP. That's also a rubbish myth. Everything works perfectly well in XP no matter the hardware configuration. <-- this is one of the things I am really thankful to Microsoft about - the backward and *foreward* hardware compatibility. However, the hardware compatibility with older *audio hardware* sucks, but that's generally not Microsoft's problem. W7's compatibility with SCSI and Firewire is, though. They screwed up there. Even worse with W8.

 

Last edited: May 15, 2016

never change a winning team but MS or is it NS now is bringing all those spy/malware/keylogger shit to windows 7 and 8 as well...
apple os and windows users have already sold their soul to the devil...

 

I'm very thankful to Cockos that they're not forcing their users to upgrade from XP. Pretty much every big corporation does that. Native Instruments, Steinberg, Avid and Cakewalk, off the top of my head.

Thank you Cockos! So I can use Reaper with XP and allll the nice 90's and 00's audio hardware.

 

Do it.
I made a fresh install.
I had a crash with a Mac partition (my own fault) and then i said Fu** it.
I have a SSD and i created a data RAID1 on 1TB HDDs.
Now i have 2x Win10. DAW and Video editing. And it rocks. Its super stable, fast, no crashes. Better windows settings, dual screen, ...
And when you and your software are ready (updates, settings...) you can disable windows updates via services.
Make a image with acronis on a ext usb drive and you are super safe.

PS: and when you want to use your 32bit stuff, pls buy jbridge. Its awesome. No crashes here too

 

Well. These days even the Native Instruments installers require at least Win7 so please finally throw your "glorious" shitty XP out the window. It's obsolete. It should've been buried years ago and forgotten. The only reasonable options on the Windows side are now 7, 8.1 and 10. And from there, there's not much difference overall. 8.1 is a lot faster than 7. 10 is just about the same as 8.1, not much difference there. In terms of "how many plugins can I put". Just stop installing Win10 on your ancient dual core processors from the last ice age. Get a proper setup, slam win10 on it and off you go.

 

This +1000000

 

No problem here with win 10. Awesome OS!

 

Honestly, I can't understand all the paranoia about Windows and internet. I've been using the native Windows defender app with its native firewall and Hitman Pro since Windows 8 and never caught any viruses.

This is more about having healthy browsing habits than anything else. Of course, if you're the kind of guy who clicks penis enlargement adds or who gets excited to receive an email from a billionaire African prince who needs your bank account info to share his money with you, then you're guaranteed to have trouble.

Anyway, back to Windows 10. It wasn't very stable in the early releases. Now it seems that everything is fixed. I haven't experienced any issues for a while. It's a very responsive and polished system.

I'm also a Linux user, currently running Elementary OS. Although I like it a lot, I've tried to use it for music production (and graphic design) several times but could never adapt. Ultimately, the annoyances always end up outnumbering the benefits.

 

Last edited: May 15, 2016

I'm updating all my past themes to Win 10 and uploading to wincustomize.com.

pretty much out of the designing new WIndows themes business.. waaay too much audio GUI work to do

 

You didn't read one sentence of what I said, didn't you? And for people like me XP is a necessity, not a choice. If I had a choice I would use only Linux Debian for everything. XP and W7 are still the most compatible Windows OSes around that work with everything. Just a marginal number of programs doesn't work in XP. If I need something really badly and it doesn't work in XP, I use W7 on my laptop for that.

Usually when there are problems with programs or plugins it's Windows 10 to blame, then W8.1, and then W7. In that order. All of you who say that Windows 10 works perfectly are speaking out of your behind. Where are your arguments, benchmarks, proof? You have nothing. Just throwing "facts", from [very limited] personal experience with your PC. I work with dozens of PCs, but admittedly I do use only a few different configurations. However, when it comes to computer audio forums everybody is a computer technician suddenly and everybody knows everything. Until they don't, and people like me have to help. And I like to help. But people who's job is to know such things get drowned by the computer noob mob on topics like these. I have tried and worked with so many operating systems and computers beside PCs, Windows, and OS-X during my 30+ years of working with computers. For me, anybody who didn't work at least with XP is a computer newbie.

Anyway, enjoy whatever you use! It is not my business, so I shouldn't care.

"Goodnight, thank you, and may your God go with you" - Dave Allen

Cheeers!

 

Last edited: May 16, 2016

Don't even bother with facts @SineWave , the bloatwares, the spies, the bugs, none of that matters. They read MS brochure, it says that Windows 10 is better, safer, faster. No way MS could lie.

 

My audio interface doesn't have drivers for Windows 10. Sure it's not Microsoft's fault, but why should I upgrade to Windows 10 then? To have driver problems with my hardware and worry about telemetry spy that I can't disable? Nothanks. My computer works flawlessly as it is.

In fact, I reinstalled Windows XP on my girlfriend's computer because it was MUCH faster in a dated machine. Just work with what you have and stop worrying abot updating to the next "thing".

 

I think you should listen to @Demon and upgrade. Unless you want to constantly stop processes, device disconnect to the internet and still have the "trustedinstaller" try to change your win7 pc into a win10 it doesn't matter.

After all, when win10 pulls a win8 and becomes the next pig, you can skip win11 and upgrade to winOneDozen.

The only reason for the additional resources and computing power necessary to run win10, is because of the additional surveillance and other tools running in the background. If you use an iPhone*, ur used to being surveilled, and the arm up ur bum using you as a sock puppet now is more comforting than annoying.

My dad was a programmer of computers when you had to use wires and a peg board. There were days I went to his job and used to type on punchcards. He had a saying other than KISS, it was: "If it's working, don't fk'ing fix it!"

Listen to your @Demon and just upgrade.

-----------------------------------------
*Yes, google's android is another "total dominance" warfare tool. Even their saying alludes to The Hobbit's, "one ring to bind them all" with you're one log on for all their "tools." "Focus on the User, the rest will follow." which replaced googles: "Do no harm" is scary shitte too. Don't worry though, given Atlas couldn't even walk last year, and is now running in snow, all this doesn't matter anyways (Boston Dynamics was bought by Google last year or so):

If you need to understand what intentions the makers of Atlas have for it's robot, watch what they do to it, as "demonstrations." They should have considered the obvious symbolism of those choices.

 

Last edited: May 16, 2016