"My dad bought Home Studio 9 a few years ago and loves it. He doesn't want to learn a new software unless he has to. He now has a PC with Windows 7. Does anyone know if it's compatible? He does still have the serial number and original CD although the CD says it's compatible with 95/98/NT only. thanks! KC" It IS possible to use CWHS 9 with Windows 7, but in an "indirect" kind of way. You will also need the RolandED U-8 Digital Studio that was originally supplied with CWHS 9, and you will also need an external MIDI keyboard or other device to be able to play back MIDI. Audio can be played back by connecting the headphone output on the U-8 to either headphones or amplified speakers. If you don't already have the U-8 and an external MIDI device, this may not be a financially feasible solution (unless you are REALLY REALLY determined). VMware Player is a freeware program that allows you to set up a guest operating system inside of your host operating system (in this case, Windows 7). You can look up VMware Player's site and download the program from them. After installing VMware Player, you will need a Windows 98SE disc to install it as a guest OS under VMware Player. You will need to have the Win 98SE product code for your disc to do this. After your Win98SE guest OS is up and running, close it and close VMware Player. Go to Roland's web site on your host OS (Win 7) and find the Win 98SE driver for the U-8, download it, and burn it to a CD, or better yet, a rewritable cd. (Although there is a U-8 driver on the CWHS CD, the latest one from Roland will usually work better). Start VMware Player and "play" the Win 98SE guest OS. Put the CD with the U-8 driver in your disc drive, plug in the U-8 USB cable and turn it on. You should get the new hardware installation wizard window. Follow the instructions and tell it to look on your disc for the driver. After installation of the U-8 is complete, remove the disc, put the CWHS 9 disc in your disc drive and install CWHS 9, You will need the CD key and the product code to do this. Hook up MIDI cables to the appropriate ports on your external MIDI device and the U-8, and your ready to use CWHS 9. With the exception of your CD drive and monitor,Win 98SE on VMware player is unable to communicate directly with the hardware on your host computer (such as speakers, USB 2.0 devices, etc). However, it does seem to be able to communicate with 1.1 USB devices such as the U-8, which is why you need the U-8 to be able to hear anything being played on CWHS 9. Maybe there is some some other 1.1 USB device that would also allow you to hear audio and MIDI, but I don't know. To transfer a completed file made with CWHS 9 from it's Win 98SE environment to your host OS, you will need to enable folder sharing in your VMware player and set up a shared folder. You can read how to do that through VMware. (The Win 98SE environment can only read a disc your computer's drive, it cannot burn any files to it.) Anyhow, that's what worked for me. HTH Regards, Ty

This thread is almost 2 years old.
But, if another person comes along with Home Studio 9 wondering if it will work with Win 7, I suppose it could be beneficial.

I had the same problem now and stumbled over this thread during my search for a solution. I bought this program about a decade ago but never really found the time to check it out. Now I wanted to give it a try and installed on my Windows 7 system. When I tried to start it I received a message about an error in the sequencer DLL. I tried Windows 98 compatibility mode but no success. However now I read that someone used the program successfully on his Windows XP-system before he switched to Vista and so I tried Windows XP SP3-compatibility mode and the program started up just fine. I will report in case there are any problems but so far it's a promising start.

I was able to get cakewalk home studio 9 to work with windows 8.  right click on the cake walk icon and select properties.  Then go to compatibility and run the program in the xp mode.  Ran great for me.  I too have been using this a long time and wasn't looking forward to having to change.  I have an old Korg M1 and I use the program as a sequencer for my keyboard.  I don't know if any other programs would do the same thing or not.

chuckebaby
there is no such thing as homestudio 9..

Sorry, but that's the funniest thing I've read today.
 
My 1st Cakewalk purchase was...........  Home Studio 9......... in 1999. Coming from an 8-track analog setup, I thought it would be sufficient. I've since upgraded and use the X series. No way "8 Is Enough!"
 
Obviously HS9 is no longer supported but the best way to see if it works is to install it. Windows will tell you if it can or can't. Once installed it may not work as expected or it may run just fine. It works perfectly on my XP sp3 machine. I actually have a few older programs made for Win98 and XP that work great on Win7 even tho people told me they wouldn't.
 
Steve

LOL, a great, important and funny post. I just reinstalled Cakewalk Home Studio 9 on my laptop (Acer Aspire model 5552), Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit SPI, AMD Athlon II P340 Dual-Core Processor, 4.0 GB Ram, ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4250.
 
I have Sonar Home Studio version 4 but do not have the CD Key or serial # as I stored the cd in a different case and cannot find the information. Funny thing is I bought/purchased both these programs from Guitar Center and registered online with cakewalk.com but no longer have access to the registered username or email.
 (maztech) is correct, right click on the cake walk icon and select properties.  Then go to compatibility and run the program in the xp mode.
 
I am of course still trying to resolve the issue with obtaining the cd key and serial # for the Sonar but until then, this works. It is still a great program for recording ideas, demos or just to have fun. I also started in the 80's with a Fostex X-26 cassette 4-track recorder and believe that even a very old version of digital recording software is better than nothing and certainly better than me using that old tape machine again. The volume is low but you can hear a simple recording of a band I played in with my wife singing hear:  
We set-up the band in her hair salon and mic'd everything and recorded track by track.
 
Oh, I laugh also, it is the funniest thing I read, "there is no such thing as homestudio9"       I still have it and it is very much alive ..............   
 
Peace to all and keep playing music,
M.D. Shinn

 
the link for the demo we recorded ...........  it didn't show up in my 1st post

didn't show up in 2nd either ............. oh well .............    )~

That's weird, try the songs forum:
http://forum.cakewalk.com/Songs-f89.aspx
 
thanks.

BTW there is no such thing as a demo!
Opps...