But are there any good reasons to "upgrade" Win7 if it is working great as is and you ain't too sure about TC drivers for your interface.  The only reason my music rig touches the internet is to update (manually plugged in and no wireless).   I can't think of a reason, except better touch access.
 
@

Aside from a confusing driver issue with my Roland Studio-Captures in my 8.1 laptop, upgrading was absolutely painless. I posted about that issue in this forum yesterday and it was an easy fix once I figured out what was wrong. I see you have windows 7 and I had no problems whatsoever upgrading a desktop of mine with 7 on it. It took about 20-30 minutes to get up and running. I would think that you would like to stay current just for your hardware's sake. Even though Sonar may work 5 years from now doesn't mean that your hardware will and then you buy new hardware that says "Not Compatible With Any OS older Than Windows 10!" OH, BOY!
I have to say I am not a tech guy when it comes to computers and hacking systems and such but I REALLY like 10. I have been a PC guy since Windows 98. I skipped Vista because of the horror stories I heard about it but I have had every version since 98 and I will say I am quite impressed with !0.

AT
But are there any good reasons to "upgrade" Win7 if it is working great as is and you ain't too sure about TC drivers for your interface.  The only reason my music rig touches the internet is to update (manually plugged in and no wireless).   I can't think of a reason, except better touch access.
 
@

Support. Read Noel's comments.

The USA Pentagon paid Microsoft millions of dollars to continue with support for Win XP. I surmise the saying, "It takes a long time to turn a big ship" is true. I fancy a nifty little speed boat with all the latest gadgets for my Sonar.
2020 is much too long compared to the time-frame, Prince wrote a song, 1999. 

I'll do you one better: I'm planning on sticking with Windows 7 and sonar 8.5.3 until I die.

michael diemer
I'll do you one better: I'm planning on sticking with Windows 7 and sonar 8.5.3 until I die.

I don't know how old you are or whether you have any diagnosed terminal conditions, but I suspect your computer will die first.

Noel Borthwick [Cakewalk]
 We will soon stop testing on it though it will likely remain compatible for a long time.

Please don't do that. How soon is "soon"?
 
I like Win7. I paid good money for Win7 Pro for my DAW so it would work with Sonar. I literally built my DAW around Sonar and that was only a few years ago. I'm not saying I am totally against Win10 or upgrading to it but I would kind of expect at least a couple more years of releases being checked on an OS a large percentage of us will likely continue using for a while.
 
Especially if 10 turns out to have hidden/unforeseen irks and shortcomings. Even if you just let the Beta guys on 7 check stuff out. Cripes... I'd join the Beta team if that's what it took but I am mostly useless when it comes to that stuff. I would learn though JUST to keep Sonar properly running on Win7.
 
Just one customer's opinion. Not trying b*tch or keep you guys in the stone age but PLEASE keep 7 on your test list for longer than "soon".
 
Thank you for your consideration on this matter.

Dr., of course support - eventually.  I'm not talking about long term, you can take my Win 7 out of my cold, wrinkled hands.  But for mid-term, is there any practical reason for updating to 10, say right up until the free offer expires?  I know there is supposed to be lower latency innards, but neither Tascam nor TC has released new drivers for my hardware in the last year or so, and TASCAM looks never to for UH-7000.  So until TC releases new drivers, I'll stay happy w/ 3-4 ms in W7.  Some people have had problems w/ the old drivers on 10, others not, according to the forum.  So that is a crap shoot.
 
I do plan on upgrading an all-in-one I got for live use just to see if the TASCAM will work, but it doesn't have FW so no TC.
 
And I never do same-day OS.  I have music to do w/ my rig, not sussing out tech issues.  Been there, done that and I prefer to let the young and knowledgeable and eager do that these days.  Damn it Jim, I'm a recording engineer, not computer engineer.  I usually wait for a bug fix or two.
 
thanks,
 
@
 

BTW... I am one of those not digging the forced updates thing/privacy stuff. So much so I am researching the limited info available on circumnavigating those currently muddy waters.
 
So far what I have learned is that Enterprise will be the ONLY version that allows you to totally forego/choose updates to be installed... at likely $200 a pop.
 
And it yanks a ton of features (due to it being an Enterprise edition for business).
 
I am actually considering paying a premium for a less feature rich product just for luxury of not having potentially harmful MS updates crammed onto my system. That's kind of crazy methinks... but my main question about that is...
 
Will you guys be testing with Win10 Enterprise? Are those missing features going to be a problem for using Sonar or doing audio stuff in general?
 
Really trying to not come across like some paranoid weirdo but I have my own little system for security and not gacking out my systems. So far it's worked well. I don't want to be forced off that path because I'm idiot and I hate having to stop what I'm doing to fix things that were previously not broken.
 
kthx

If you read the Microsoft license agreement for the "free" W10, it says "free for the one machine you put it on", not for the next machine you build/upgrade to replace the previous.  I am assume this means you have to buy W10, so not "free".  If I am correct, you are only getting a "free" W10 on the current machine you are upgrading, not for the machine you replace that with.  Sure you can go out and BUY a new machine that has W10 on it, but then you have to hope that all your music hardware/software is going to be compatible with proprietary motherboards from Dell, HP, whatever.  If I am going to be forced at some point down the road to buy W10 in any case, why shouldn't I just wait?