When will Win10 be a minimal system requirement?

Check out the ezine for 2016.09 for info on the OS used by SONAR users based on analytics data collected in SONAR.
Win10 64bit the most used OS was used almost 3:1 over Win7 64bit the second most used OS. I would image the adoption of Wn10 has increased some since then,
 
I have been running Win10 since Oct 2015.

Theres nothing wrong with using Windows 8.1.
I was using Windows 10 for almost 5 months and got sick of it. I re installed Windows 8.1
It does everything I need it to and like you I found it to be more stable and snappier on my set up (with my devices).
Im not Windows 10 fan personally but I don't discredit it. its a good OS.
 
I think it will be a while before Cakewalk chooses to let Windows 7 + Windows 8 user go.
Windows XP hung around for almost a decade before cake dropped its requirement hammer.
Windows 7 is one of the best OS ever made.
I think the analytics are skewed.
Not everyone turns them, leaving a smaller % of users to make data from.
There are stats and then there is real life facts.

Since I started doing video a year ago - I watched Adobe forum regularly.
There have been various reports how Premiere could not start after a Windows 10 update. They had to back graphics driver version to an older.
The same with reports on suddenly no audio after a Windows 10 update.
 
This is scary stuff, that updates makes things stop working - unheard of until Windows 10 - for me anyway.
And you are forced to have a constantly changing machine, with all these updates.
 
The daw, drivers and plugins - all different software - and any may stop working with an update.
 
Windows 10 - all good - I don't think so.
 
I looked the last year if to buy another computer as well, and looking at least at i7 machines - all come with Windows 7 preinstalled, and an upgrade to Windows 10 included. And those that have Windows 10 preinstalled, have downgrades to Windows 7 included. This was on a couple of the major computer store chains in sweden.
 
This tells a story about Windows 10. Seems that customers still want Windows 7 as option.
 
Steinberg released Halion 6 this year and dropped Windows 7 support. It was a riot and they backed off and reinstated windows 7 as supported OS.
 
When will Microsoft make an OS that is safe to start with, one wonders?
They should have the knowhow by now - doing MSDOS since 80's.
And you can't even turn off updates of Windows 10 - what is that?
Is it your computer or Microsofts?
 
I think it would be decent of any software vendor to at least support Windows 7 until Microsoft drops support. I think first level of support is dropped on Vista a year ago, and still a way to go until last level as XP was completely dropped.
 
So estimate Microsoft will drop Windows 7 not until 5 years from now. Like stopping all updates and stuff.

Win 10 may not run well on some older hardware and even some Windows 8.1 hardware.  My desktop runs outstandingly on Win 10 both on an older desktop system and now with the current 6 month old system.  I also have the Windows 10 "Insider" (Beta version which is close to the upcoming fall creators upgrade) running on a separate hard drive/dual boot and no problems with Sonar or any of my applications on the advanced Insider version.  
 
However, I have a Toshiba touch screen laptop with a Laptop version i7 that originally came with Windows 8.1.  It has been upgraded to Win 10.  It works but is very sluggish (and soon will be replaced).  I use this PC for "on site" recordings and it works OK with Sonar but I don't do anything other than the recordings and transfer the projects to my desktop for processing.   

After using W10 for months on a temporary PC it has been great to start using my new laptop with W8.1.
It came with W10 but it was an easy decision to go with W8.1 as I had a spare license (freebie) and was putting a larger M.2 drive in there from day 1.
W8.1 will be supported by MS for a long time on the right hardware so no worries with security updates.
But there is the possibility that software and hardware manufactures will drop support at the same time as for W7 due to it being a bit of an orphan lost between its two more high profile siblings.
If that happens I can use the W10 license that came with the laptop and 'upgrade' if desperate.
I almost hope that they do change their mind and release a W11 as that way W10 will become a fixed and known quantity.
I avoided W8 but I like 8.1 and am not having the minor irritants that W10 so am happier.

Cakewalks pattern has always been to support the OS's that Microsoft supports.