dcmg
My SONAR "end of life" contingency plan involves doing a fresh W10 install on a new C Drive.
However, I'd like to maintain my *current* C drive so I can continue to work on projects.
( Swap new drive, do my installs, swap back to current drive when it's time to work. Switch to new drive when all is configured and good...then clone the new drive and stick it on a shelf if ever needed)
 
I've never done this dance with a Win10 OS. Previous Win installs had a 30 day grace period before having to register the OS with the mothership. This always gave me time to do installs but still work on current drive until the new one was working well.
 
Anyone who's done this, please advise on any gotcha's to this plan.
( I won't do many 3rd party plug in auths until the drive is pretty much ready to go, so I think I will sidestep those issues.)

Windows 10 can be installed and used indefinitely without activation.  You will see a nag, and some customization options will be unavailable until activation.  Microsoft has changed their grace period for Win 10 to Lifetime". 

abacab
 
Windows 10 can be installed and used indefinitely without activation.  You will see a nag, and some customization options will be unavailable until activation.  Microsoft has changed their grace period for Win 10 to Lifetime". 

That's what I've found, which is perfect. Most of those customization options are items that I don't need at this time anyhow. I've been building a good clean system drive with SONAR and Studio One side by side, should be ready to shift to that drive shortly, but still have some client files in SONAR on current drive and I'm to superstitious to shift while I'm in the middle of projects :)
 
This process takes the stress out of the transition from SONAR to Studio One. Should have plenty of time to get fluent in SOP but still have access to SPLAT as needed. As long as MSoft doesn't do anything bizarre to W10 while I'm transitioning, should be golden.

I'm in the same boat, but mine is leakier. I'm still rockin win7 but I figure a change to Studio One will be a good time to change everything, because what the hell these days.
 
I'm buying a new SSD and will install Win10 on it. I'll pull the win7 ssd out and use it as a paperweight. I'll reload all the programs. I'm going through my old uncompleted Sonar projects and exporting stuff out of them, so I can begin new mixes with them in Studio One.
 
See you in 2027.
 
cheers,
-Tom

So far this process has worked nicely.
 
I was able to do the fresh W10 install, SONAR and Studio One, all the plugs, configured and working before really flipping the switch to this new drive ( doing client work on the prior drive).
 
New drive is now running lean and mean, cloned with the clone sitting on the shelf for the inevitable SONAR project that returns from the dead and needs to be transferred. 
 
At this point I'm anxious to make the switch to Studio One. For the occasional tweak when it doesn't do something SONAR did, there are 5 other things that it does better and more logically. I'm not sure I'm going to really miss SONAR ( after 20 years of loyalty...)
 
Onward and forward. Appreciate the input from many of you fellow SONAR users over the years. Think I will miss this community more than the actual software :)