Transition to Win8

I've made the jump to Windows 8 x64 on my DAW (actually it's a TRIPLE BOOT. with Win7 x64 and Ubuntu 12.10 as well.. startup is fun with menus but it works great!!). Win 7 is still there until I'm done with the transition over to Win8.. but so far it's been smooth. Of note: * My three UAD1 cards are running fine so far... using driver version 5.8. * Focusrite Saffire Pro 40 is using MixControl 3.1 which supports Win8. Performance has been solid... ran an old project with nearly 50 tracks on my Win7 setup (when I got the Focusrite recently).. and it would glitch occassionaly)... the same project has been perfect so far on Win8. Just FYI. =)

I should receive my new DAW in about a week which will be Windows 8 64 bit professional. It will be a specialist DAW build and the only peripherals I have to worry about are my A800 and Quad Capture which have win 8 drivers so I am not expecting technical issues. I do expect some blue language for a few days as stumble around the new interface.

A few questions to those running win 8

• Do you use a third party application to restore the start menu? If so which one.
• How easy is it to get rid of the news feeds, social media, e-commerce and other junk tiles on the start screen?
• Any legacy VSTs that worked in Vista 64 bit, or Windows 7 64 bit I may have to finally retire?

You can also pin Folders to the File Explorer in the taskbar. Right click for quick folder shortcuts.

I've got two SSDs on the way and when they arrive I'll be installing Win8 and seeing how it goes. I'll be keeping my current SSDs to one side just in case I need to go back for any reason.

I'm interesting in doing a dual boot, with Win 8 and Ubuntu. I got in the habit of using Ubuntu for my general browsing and e-mail and I'm a little tied into the e-mail client I use until I can find something similar on windows.

My current Win 7 laptop is dual boot with Ubuntu. My son set it up for me and it uses a GRUB menu, which I think is a Linux thing... not sure on that... so I may have to enlist his help once again. The way he set it up allows both Windows and Ubuntu reference the same "documents" folder and it took some setting up.

Computers themselves, I find, have become simpler, but software is getting tougher for my ageing brain LOL.

Windows 8 was fine for me as well. I did a straight upgrade yesterday from 7 and went v smoothly. Only problems were...
1) Wifi card did not work, had to uninstall and re install drivers. It kept defaulting to old drivers.
2) USB3.0 intel driver was reported as not compatible. 8 Instructed me to uninstall during upgrade. Win 8 has built in drivers. That worked fine.
3) alan wilsons win 7 xv5050 driver did not work. So had to disable driver signing in settings menu. Actually quite easy to do once you know how and potentiall very useful.
4) A500 pro did not work , so just downloaded win 8 drivers from roland and all working fine.
5) repeated - choose your browser message on startup which has now gone after i installed firefox.
 
If on win 7 there is no reason to upgrade on a desktop, but at £25 until 31/1/2013 no reason not to really if all your drivers are available. Mine came free so i thought i would try it out. I dont really care for the start screen much and how it manages closing windows, full screen apps, file management etc etc.
 
 I do like the live feeds and the dashboard approach to the smart screen when not using x2 and taking a break etc. I have set the smartscreen up with shortcuts to folders, programs etc. But the quality of free apps available is not great and many of them dont work properly.
 
This vid pretty much sums up my feelings on it, including the marginal gains in performance for some DAW tasks. It is windows 7 to all intents and purposes with an iphone interface which you can turn off easily and work like you would in windows 7. All my VSTs/maschine/tetra/minubrute etc all work fine which is a relief.
 
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kPix1QK9Hb4

• Do you use a third party application to restore the start menu? If so which one.

Google StartIsback. I've tried just about all of them and this is by far the best.

I'm running Windows 8 Pro, Sonar X2, Motu 896 via USB, Korg USB drivers. No problems here, everything works great. 
 
I'm getting used to not having the start menu. I'm just grouping shortcuts and folders on the desktop and taskbar. Plus I have a shortcut to the Programs folder pinned to the taskbar which is handy when looking for the seldom used apps that I don't keep shortcuts to.
 
I have turned off almost every tile on the start screen but the weather app is nice if I'm to lazy to look out the window.