It's really amazing to me that Bill Gates et al have made such fortunes on this piece of **** operating system.

Burn an image BEFORE you install anything or run any Windows updates!
Just sayin', its working right, right?
IMAGE
 
Tom

Mac and PC's use more or less the same hardware.
More choice = more flexibility and problems.
Less choice = less problems and less flexibility.
 
You pays yers money you takes yer choice.
BTW Windows is Windows even on a Mac/bootcamp, If your machine is more stable on a Mac the only possible factor that could be down to is better and more reliable drivers/firmware (It's the same with PC's that have good and reliable drivers, which requires the user to be extremely careful about what they choose, power <> stability, that way they are less likely to run into problems just like Mac users who are restricted into reliability).
 
Cheers...

That's a good way to look at it, Randy.
It was frustrating seeing you struggle with this and not being able to help. But these guys were on it.
Big sigh of relief.
Carry on, Brother.

If you decide to do this again..
 
Get a copy of Acronis True image, back it up.
 
Install this and check 8.5 still works:
http://www.microsoft.com/en-gb/download/details.aspx?id=30679
 
Download and reinstall the demo.
 
OR
 
Turn your machine into a dual boot, install a fresh copy of windows (after windows update has been installed) with the demo. That will 100% work.
 
Backup, backup, backup, zzz, zzzz ,zzz :)
 
Cheers

Alex - In the past, the too Far past, I've made system images with the built in Windows utility.  Do you think Acronis will really somehow do a better job?

Cactus Music...I then installed X3 Studio and all works just fine...
...I know you might not like to hear this but I would never dream of not having a dedicated DAW computer...

That's great you ran the experiment, Cactus.  Thanks for doing it.  Exactly as I said in my last post, I knew the X3 demo surely had to be working for most people.  For whatever reason, I had a bummer experience, possibly due to a corrupted download file.  That error message I got when trying to run X3 - ""Unable to register the DLL/OCX: RegSvr32 failed with exit code" is one I Googled and found many results for.  Whatever it is, it seems to be something Windows users have seen under various circumstances.  Who knows?  All I know is - the demo didn't work for me, and in the wake, Sonar 8.5 was unable to access the C++ files it needed, while all the other installed versions of Cakewalk ran without a problem.

I too would like to "never dream of not having a dedicated DAW computer" - but you need to understand that it's just not in the realm of reality for quite a few people, me included.  The $1,000 I spent on this computer was an unheard of expense for me, and I'm still not in a position to Dreeeeam of adding another computer to my set up.  

I understand that for some people, it's hard to comprehend, but there are people for whom extra hard drives and additional computers are just out of the question.  They would have to skip paying rent, buying food, going to the dentist - they would have to forgo the necessities of life to have those things.  So I see posts over and over that say "hard drives are so cheap now" and suggestions of the sort - and all I can say is that though they're not meaning to be unsympathetic suggestions, they simply overlook the reality that for some people, those kinds of extras just aren't in the realm of what's possible.  Sub-poverty level incomes are virtually impossible for a lot of people to understand the ramifications of.

Much more to the point of what I'm trying to figure out now - I now have 90+ Windows updates to deal with.  I don't know if I should perhaps just install 10 at a time, and finish them until they're done, or what.

Randy

Cactus MusicHey totally with you on that. I'm blessed to have a son who makes more money than me and likes buying new toys...

Hey, cool.  I should get me one of them rich sons!  I'll look around at Amazon. 
Randy