noynekker
A site I really trust puts it this way . . . "Microsoft will stop mainstream support on January 12, 2015. But the company will keep providing extended support until January 14, 2020."
That said, I would think Cakewalk would offer Windows 7 support as long as a reasonable amount of their users  are still using it, and will most likely go along with the Windows end of support dates. If you're system is never on the internet, and you have some spare parts, you could just keep using Windows 7 until eventually your hardware fails, or until you breakdown and simply must have the new toys offered by Cakewalk on the new hardware that only runs on Windows 10.

I finally broke down and upgraded my Play Pen Computer to Win10. Went smooth as silk and seems to operate a little more "perky". (Tech Talk)
 
I tried the same with my office computer, and Win10 refused to upgrade because my dual Dell U2711 27" monitors were not supported. Unless I can find a workaround (installed the latest drivers from Dell, but they only go up to Win8)), I'll stick with Win7 until my system croaks. 
 
Walt

Thanks to everyone for the great replies!  For those of you who turned off Windows update, I can understand why, but doesn't that make your system as insecure as a no-longer-supported Win7 (come Feb 2020)?  As I understand it, with the Pro and higher versions you can at least delay updates. 
 
Spare hard drive standing by for a go at it tomorrow, same approach as Boydie.
 
thanks again!!

Well, the Windows 10 upgrade took two days.  And finally tonight, it finished.  And Sonar Platinum came up in Demo mode. 
 
great.

trmusic
Well, the Windows 10 upgrade took two days.  And finally tonight, it finished.  And Sonar Platinum came up in Demo mode. 
 
great.

Try opening SONAR from the CCC.
 
Two days seems excessive. Took about 90 minutes for my laptop and a couple hours for my desktop. Then again W7 was up to date so that may have been a factor.

Win7 was up to date.  The delay was caused by "downloading updates" during installation.  After waiting 3 hours for that I stopped it and it took 2 hours to clean up.  Twice through that wasted Sunday.  Finally finished tonight.
 
If I start Sonar through CCC, it knows I have a license, but not if I start from the .EXE shortcut.  It's not seeing my license.  Even after reinstalling the latest version.  Got a suggestion?
 

I tried going through offline activation.  I got the .dat file and imported it.  It didn't work.  Sonar popped up another "Demo Mode" message and nothing changed.

I uninstalled Sonar Platinum.  Reinstalled it from CCC.  No change (except two plugins got deleted!!!).  Unless I start Sonar from CCC, it runs in Demo mode. 
no good.

I've never been able to get Win 10 to work here with Sonar. For some reason after a day or two I'll get "Sonar.exe has stopped working"
Cakewalk doesn't have a clue what causes it. My other daws work fine.
I suspect it has something to do with my Presonus 44VSL, but it only affects Sonar.
I'm going to try one last time before the 29th, but I'm not optimistic.

Craig?  Got any ideas for me?  I put in a help request but I need to work tonight.  Wouldn't have done this in the middle of two projects, but the M$ deadline gave me no choice.  :-/

trmusic
Craig?  Got any ideas for me?  I put in a help request but I need to work tonight.  Wouldn't have done this in the middle of two projects, but the M$ deadline gave me no choice.  :-/

You did clone your Windows 7 drive just before you updated to Windows 10, right? Just replace your Windows 10 drive with your Windows 7 clone, and you should be good to go.
Then again, I guess I just don't understand the rush to upgrade to W10. Is it because the OS is......free? Well, that's nice but, so what? The OS was never free before. SONAR was never free. This rush to upgrade is almost like the Y2k panic. "OMG!! OMG!! I gotta upgrade now while it's.....FREE!! It's gonna cost $$$$millions after July 29, 2016!!"  
 
C'mon guys, the cost to upgrade to Windows 10 Home from Vista is $119.00 right now. The chances of that price going up after July 29, 2016 are, methinks, pretty slim. So, you have a perfectly functioning Windows 7 DAW that you are perfectly comfortable with, and you risk mucking it up (especially at the last minute) because....OMG!! OMG!!....it's FREE??!!
 
trmusic, just put your Windows 7 cloned drive back in, and continue working - that is, of course, if your backup/clone attempt was truly successful. I really hope it was. Just don't let the OS upgrade get in the way of what you want and need to do. Now that you've taken the W7>W10 plunge, make the best of it. But for anyone that hasn't....
 
It's perfectly okay to wait. Seriously. Your Windows 7 DAW's performance (that you are already quite happy with) won't degrade monstrously after July 29, 2016. And, you'll be able to afford the upgrade in a year or two.....really...