99% of my daw time is spent inside Sonar; OS aesthetics on the way to Sonar matter little to me. With an i7 2600 quad core (Sweetwater Creation Station) running Sonar X3e Pro within W7, my focus is shifted to improving every aspect of music creation and production for the next few years. I plan on falling behind the tech curve. When the time comes to upgrade I hope be more compelling, creating a much higher level. That would be time time spent well.

My daw stays offline except to d/l large files and authorize software. There's no AV. Bill paying, Groove3, Youtube, Ebay, etc. are done on another PC.

My guess is that I'm at a much more beginner like state than most all of you.

When I first installed (the beta of) windows 8, I didn't like it. I didn't like the flat look, the start screen and the fact that it was made for touchscreens and not for mouse/keyboard usage. I know you could work with it with KB/Mouse as well, but it was cumbersome (shutting down the computer was a hassle to say the least).
I did install Win8 (RTM) on one of my machines, and I did like the speed of it. It feels snappier and faster than W7 was on the same machine. Since 8.1 a lot of the issues I had with 8 have been "fixed". Update 1 fixed some more things. I still don't like the flat look of it though. If you have two inactive windows on top of each other, it is very hard to see where one ends and another starts. But overall, I like it, and I installed it now on all my machines (including the DAW system). No issues with any of the systems.
I also installed Windows 10 on a machine, and I like that better than 8.1(.1). It boots up really fast. The machine takes 9 seconds to boot Windows 8, it takes about 5 to boot 10. And, finally some shading behind windows again (even the inactive ones) :) The Start menu is not fully to my liking yet, but as it is a preview, I have a feeling this might still improve.
 
To the OP: If you have compatible hardware, go for Win 8.1(update 1).

kzmaier
Win 8.1 with Classic Shell!  Works fine.  See my sig for hardware.  The Focusrite driver is up to date which helps.

Thanks for the Classic Shell tip! I just installed it on my kid's computer (which I occasionally use for e-mail) and I love it! Much more familiar.

bitflipperBut power users are going to feel like they've been demoted to the kiddie table. It's been dumbed down and idiot-proofed to the point where it's clear they just don't want you to do certain things. Call me a dinosaur, but I shouldn't have to resort to Google just to figure out how to open a port through the firewall.

If one can hate the smell of fecal matter then one can hate an OS.  It's as simple as BitFlipper suggests.  

cpkoch
If one can hate the smell of fecal matter then one can hate an OS.

? I guess going for a crap has occasionally interrupted my workflow..

Since one can make Win 8+ look like the Win 7 desktop without any trouble using the Classic Start program there is no argument in my mind about the GUI being ugly or not. No one needs to use the Start Screen on a desktop computer without a touch interface. There's no benefit.
 
The OS is definitely different, the kernel is two version numbers greater, so we may as well assume that this is due to improvements since the multi-core handling seems better. Whether one sees an improvement in a program due to this may well depend on how the thread handling is done by the program developers - so again you may or may not see any difference in apps running Windows 7 or 8+ unless they are specifically optimized for 8+.
 
There are two Win 8 GUI improvements that I really like. One is the Windows Explorer shell improvements. These may be disabled if you like the Win 7 shell, but you can add a ribbon and stick on some useful buttons like 'Elevated command prompt here' and many of the most common file and folder commands onto the top of the window bar. For example:
 

 
And the move/copy tool can now do a differential copy (only moves the different stuff not the common) with pause and performance display:
 

 
I think there are a lot of other minor changes to the task manager, but I don't remember how it worked in Windows 7, so I'm not so sure about that.
 
In my mind, there's really nothing to dislike. Now whether you want to upgrade or not depends on other issues - like whether you want a clean install or an upgrade-in-place install. For the latter, for those with too many things to attempt a clean install, you have to upgrade from OS to OS - you can't skip a step.
 
I suppose you could try an upgrade using something like Acronis dissimilar hardware restores, but will that work on a new OS? I doubt it. You'd be restoring the old OS.
 

I'm just going to chime in here at the risk of repeating someone's post, but it might be worth considering.  Although Win 8(.1) with Classic Shell as been working well (with SONAR plus), there are some things which are difficult to find or dig out.  For instance, simple settings like your desktop require more time and attention than should be necessary.  But more importantly, things like hardware profiles are non existent.  You may think it's no big deal, but it you had multiple hardware set-ups (and users for that matter) in your studio or home office, for instance, you have to manually make related changes and reboot before getting started.   This can play into your need to optimize the OS for audio, etc.
 
Kind regards,
 
Living Room Rocker

From MS Technet:
 
Use Hardware Profiles to Troubleshoot Services
27 out of 71 rated this helpful - Rate this topic

Applies To: Windows 7, Windows 8, Windows Server 2008 R2, Windows Server 2012

You can use the Services snap-in in conjunction with predefined hardware profiles to troubleshoot newly installed services. For example, by associating a service with two different hardware profiles (one profile in which the service is enabled and a second profile in which the service is disabled), you can more easily troubleshoot hardware problems that might occur with a newly installed service, such as a driver not loading properly.

Membership in Account Operators , Domain Admins , or Enterprise Admins , or equivalent, is the minimum required to complete this procedure. Review the details in "Additional considerations" in this topic.
To enable or disable a service for a hardware profile


Click Start , click in the Start Search box, type services.msc , and then press ENTER.


In the details pane, right-click the service that you want to enable or disable, and then click Properties .


On the Log On tab, click the hardware profile that you want to configure.


Click Enable or Disable , and then click OK .
Additional considerations
To perform this procedure, you must be a member of the Account Operators group, the Domain Admins group, the Enterprise Admins group, or you must have been delegated the appropriate authority. As a security best practice, consider using Run as to perform this procedure.

Use caution when you use this procedure to disable services. If you disable a service for a certain hardware profile, the Hardware Profile settings override the Startup type setting for that service.

In most cases, we recommend that you do not change the Allow service to interact with desktop setting. If you allow the service to interact with the desktop, any information that the service displays on the desktop will also be displayed on an interactive user's desktop. A malicious user could then take control of the service or attack it from the interactive desktop.

If you receive a Connection Manager error message when you open the Properties dialog box for a service, verify that the Remote Registry service is running on the specified computer. If the Remote Registry service is not running, or if the specified computer is running Windows NT 4.0, you cannot view or modify hardware profile settings, but you can perform any other actions.

I think I'd just get a second machine. No hardware changes for me.

Hi John, unfortunately, although I do appreciate the effort, the information you posted does not apply to Windows 8.  If you read the comments below that article, there is confirmation to this fact.  Further, the process is so convoluted (in Win 8, I guess) that it would be another example of how much you have to dig into Windows 8 for things that used to be so easy and simple to access.  Nonetheless, the above does not described how to create hardware profiles (in Windows 8 or otherwise).  However, when reading the comments you will find a link to accessing devconx64 from the WDK (an article I had previously discovered).  Take note again, that this method (and maybe the only method) of creating hardware profiles for Win8 is just as complicated and convoluted and not for the faint of heart.  This is another excellent example of dealing with the features missing in Windows 8.
 
Kind regards,
 
Living Room Rocker