All drivers and programs from Windows XP and there on, should work in Windows 7. Microsoft them self are very eager about this new feature in Windows 7.

ORIGINAL: vicsant

All drivers and programs from Windows XP and there on, should work in Windows 7. Microsoft them self are very eager about this new feature in Windows 7.

Are you referring to W7 32bit or 64bit?

ORIGINAL: sgerick

Ok. SO I have run into my first major roadblock. VSTs don't seem to be working at all. I don't get menu option under softsynths or in the effects bin for VST. When I scan existing VSTs it fails about it gets through the Sonar supplied VST.

It doesn't matter it should work in both environments. You can use 32bit drivers or 64bit drivers inside Windows 7 64bit. (haven't tried it myself)

(You will meed to have 64 bit sound drivers, but the rest is quite seamless.)

It doesn't matter it should work in both environments. You can use 32bit drivers or 64bit drivers inside Windows 7 64bit. (haven't tried it myself)

ORIGINAL: John

(You will meed to have 64 bit sound drivers, but the rest is quite seamless.)

So this is not true?

It doesn't matter it should work in both environments. You can use 32bit drivers or 64bit drivers inside Windows 7 64bit. (haven't tried it myself)

John,

I can confirm the above statement is NOT true.


Device drivers link directly with the Kernel process space and have to be the same as the native OS in this case 64 bit.


From the Vista x64 web page.....

The main differences between the 32-bit versions of Windows Vista and the 64-bit versions of Windows Vista relate to memory accessibility, memory management, and enhanced security features. The security features that are available in the 64-bit versions of Windows Vista include the following:

Kernel Patch Protection
Support for hardware-backed Data Execution Protection (DEP)
Mandatory driver signing
Removal of support for 32-bit drivers
Removal of the 16-bit subsystem


Please note that the device driver model has not been changed between Vista and Windows 7 so the above info is accurate for Win 7.
Windows 7 really is Vista R2 (some would even say SP3).

You can however run 32 bit applications within Windows 7 x64 including Sonar 7 x86 and all your old 32 bit legacy synths
There is a slight performance hit running Sonar x86 like this but it is minimal (probably l<3%)

My experiences - nothing but pure joy! Windows 7 RC seems to handle multi thread CPUs a lot more efficiently (I have an Intel i7 920), and as a result everything is faster and snappier than it was under XP Pro SP3. I'm amazed actually - for me, the performance has been significantly ie. very noticeably increased. All plugins work flawlessly. I'm getting lower latency with my Firestudio. I'm a very happy man.

There are some benefts to moving to Windows 7 32 bit from Vista 32 bit

Most notably is the graphics driver optimisation which saves RAM and will raise your max Sonar project size.

We have a couple of projects that we cannot add more synths on XP because Sonar runs out of memory. On Windows 7 there seems to be an extra 100Mb of headroom.

ORIGINAL: John

There are some benefts to moving to Windows 7 32 bit from Vista 32 bit

Most notably is the graphics driver optimisation which saves RAM and will raise your max Sonar project size.

We have a couple of projects that we cannot add more synths on XP because Sonar runs out of memory. On Windows 7 there seems to be an extra 100Mb of headroom.

That is because of Areo and its in Vista. I did a thread that has a lot of info on it. Here is the thread.

Most of the major things in Windows 7 are already in Vista as far as performance and OS protection as well as modernizations are concerned. Think about this, it took over 6 years to get Vista out and here we have Windows 7 in less then 4 years. The bulk of the work was already done in Vista in those 6 years. Windows 7 will inherit all that MS learned plus the machines are better equipped to handle it. That was not the case when Vista came out.