fireberd

I bought a new laptop last year, a Dell Inspiron 15 5577 (7th generation i5) that is sold as a "gaming" laptop with an M.2 SSD (fast).  I wanted it for on-site recordings.  I tried tweaking it for audio recording including removing Dell added software and even some other software and settings but could never get it clean and had Latency Mon issues and some dropouts.  I restored the original Dell factory image and installed a second SSD.  I only installed Win 10 and minimum drivers on the new SSD, and Sonar, nothing else and it works great for recording.  I still have the original Dell install if I want to use it for general PC work.  Its set up as dual boot for whatever use I want. 

Did you ever check that out with Autoruns? (that is a nice "msconfig" utility that will show you all the things Win10 can hide from you). One thing I have noticed with Win10, is that they make it easier to hide entries within the machine, so stupid things like NVIDIA's telemetry data becomes an issue, etc. "Simple" maintenance doesn't go as far as it used to, and "settings" getting reset after major updates is not cool.
 
As far as the OP, I do not see many earth-shattering improvements that would get a Win7 user excited. If you step from Win7 Ultimate (or better) to Win10 Pro (or below) you actually lose safety features (they require Win10 Enterprise, or Win10 Educational, to retain).

I did everything I could trying to tame it, including running WinPatrol that allows disabling startups, services, tasks etc.  Removing with Revo Uninstaller Pro that also scans the registry and allows deleting registry entries.  I also had some help from Dell specialists and Dell user experts (my status on the Dell user forums is "Rockstar" as I've done support since 2002).  I was down to one dropout about every 4 minutes when recording and could never track that down.  The PC came with an M.2 SSD and space for either a laptop hard drive or a full size SSD.  I had a spare SSD so I installed that and loaded Win 10 and only needed drivers nothing else.  Latency mon was "happy" and I did an on site 10 song recording session without any problems.

Craig,  I am finally considering moving to Win 10 after speaking with Noel and some others.  Just wondering if there were any audio-specific tweaks that you used to make your daws work better?  Any thoughts or direction would be greatly appreciated.  Kind of like to know what I am facing before I jump off the ledge.  Thank you.

Studioguy you should not need to do anything with Windows 10. It has the best audio of any Windows OS. It will prove to be an easy upgrade if your hardware is up to it. 

The only things I've done is set the Power Plan to High Performance and disabled "Fast Startup".
 

That's a start.  Thank you.

WOW! JUST WOW! Who knew that this one little post would spawn all this sexy dirty tech talk of another age.  Reminds me of the rare moments when I'd hear my Dad's generation (The Greatest) talk about getting to 3rd base with a girl.  I say that VERY respectful to you guys, AND the greatest generation. And I even got the legend Anderton to appear 1-2 times on my thread.
 
Well, I have Audition CS6, and when I tried to update it on Win7 for days, I then tried it on my Win10 laptop and it fit like a glove.  I don't know if I said it earlier, but the IT local dealer I bought my ASUS laptop from told me he was very hesitant to migrate to Win10, but he said there was very significant latency improvement with Platinum when he did make the jump.  Problem is I'm in school right now at Full Sail and I really don't have a full weekend to load that and the rest of my s'ware, AND troubleshoot anything.  So, for now I'll just have to limp along.  Maybe then I'll try the new Platinum.
 
Ciao 4 Now
KC

Considering that Windows 7 has only 1.5 years left of support, if everything is working well, why change? Why upgrade to Windows 10, with all its issues,  before you have to? Get another year and a half out of it. Then decide if you need to change. Many plan to keep it. I'll never upgrade to W10. I will keep my music computer offline and continue to use W7 as long as I can. If it stops working for my music, then I'll figure out what to do. Leave well enough alone.
 
Just, as they say, my two cents. your currency/level of paranoia may vary.