Just thought I would share my experience changing over to Win10 from 8.1.
 
Installation went OK. First issue was XLN having to add my computer ID again. Went through that OK. Unlike a previous poster, Win10 was in the drop down menu, and once added, all good.
 
Then I installed the new beta driver from Focusrite for my 18i20, and the fun began.
 
Audio was extremely bad. Sounded terrible and full of clicks and pops. Did all the usual parameter changes but nothing worked. Uninstalled and re-installed the old driver. Same. Two hours of mucking around, trying again with the new driver, different interface settings. Heaps of re-boots, turn off everything available not necessary in WIN10 options. Nothing worked, except the very last thing I did, which was re-install the old driver, for about the 4th time, and changed the midi playback buffer size, again, and suddenly everything worked, but I swear, I had done that a few times already.
 
So no idea, but when I shut down last night, it was working, and I will get back to it again tonight to double check all is well, as I need to kick off a new customer project.
 
I expected driver problems I guess, but it's still frustrating, particularly not really knowing what the issue was. I havn't tried keyboards yet...........

I think many people need to consider wiping their windows partition (after they've obtained their product key) and installing Windows 10 clean. It's clear upgrades will not work for some... I'd recommend doing it anyway if people are worried about stability and performance. There is nothing like a clean install.
 
Just backup onto hard drive with trueimage or something first.

Hello, my concern with upgrading to Windows 10 is that my plusgins, of which I have many, may not be compatible. Is this concern, of concern?
 
MAny of the free plugins that I have downloaded, are windows 8 compatible...my fear is that they may not be 10 compatible,
Thanks in advanced for an informed response.

HI
Going Windows 10  Is the way to go,But for some there Is no hurry.
 
If you go Windows 10,you really need a good sound card or external Box ,which I prefer.
To Me a good sound box has to be Focusrite,they are top notch for the price with great low latency.
I have an I7 computer with a Asus PT6 motherboard which is not the latest of Mothers.I updated to 12gig ram and It works fine .
For these motherboards no updates since 2013,but works 100%
You may find that some Vst's may not work,but for the gains the losses are Insignificant.
I have dropped FLStudio as It Is too overcrowded for me and Sonar Is going that way gradually
To be honest I am being won over by Mixcraft Pro 7 as It is very easy to get around and a pleasure to use.
Some may say that It has inferior vst's  and free ones that you can easily get,but the quality Is there in the program.
Certain things are better to deal with In Sonar.
I say go for WIN 10
 
 
atb
John
 
 

Hi did you upgrade or clean install, and what were you running. Grandwizz

Your just installing the patch, you need the original disk first.. I guess the  notes in the  torrent wasn't clear eh.. 

Thanks scook, that's what I thought.  To cactus music, if I wanted a crappy torrent, I would not be installing 8.5. 
I own cakewalk versions 1-8.5 and am long time registered user. Have not been using music software for a few years, and missed the current version deals.
 
But yes of course people are going to think that, I get it.
I already spent too much time trying to locate my original DVD's.
Cakewalk support obviously has my info and waiting for their reply, which will likely be unhelpful, I imagine.
I think I may be able to copy the sonar folder from my old computer and try installing over that, I bet it would work.. hmmm.
 
Thanks

Simply copying the files will not work. The registry entries will be missing.

 I was actually trying to  hint that there was the first disk needed.  I always asume here if anyone is talking 8.5 as a new install it would have to be a torrent as the disks have not been for sale for years and there never was a legal download. And personally I hold nothing against anyone who likes to try Software this way. I used to do it back when. We all become ligit users over time if we like the software and will need to keep up to date. There's no need for piracy in this day and age as most software has demo's and there are many free/ cheap alternatives.
Home studio is only $50 and 100% better software than 8.5 so anyone who wants to suffer all the issues that come with trying to install old versions that is my best advice.  I loved 8.5 and hung on up until X3e but I could never go back, to much has changed for the better.