Windows 10 phobia

so, this may get moved but I hope not because the sonar forum is where all cool knowledgeable folks go -   :-) 
I have resisted win 10 because of the lack of privacy. So it's been a while now since 10 has been out.
 
Opinions: Can it be tamed? No calling home whatsoever. 
 
Sonar runs fine for me on win8.1x64 but I want to get back into desktop support again but without win 10 on one of my computers it is impossible. Yes I have been out of the game for many years, but network administration and desktop support were my things. M$ certs up the wazoo, which means nothing except I passed the tests, I know  :-) . But I am proficient with everything but Win 10, having never used it.
I can think of no better place to ask this question.
Thanks very much for indulging me
Stratman68

https://www.techsupportal...indows-10-safe-secure/

Hold on, you may still be able to get it for free. Check this out:
 
https://www.howtogeek.com...t-windows-10-for-free/

I think they just ended that free update for anybody using accessibility features. I was going to use it again for a friends laptop but it ended sometime in February.  And it was only the Home version. 
 
Be warned, with Laptops that came with W7 ( or 8.1?)  you most likely won't have drivers for a bunch of the accessories like the card reader or web camera. Also often Function keys do not work. W 10 won't have the drivers and if you try and use the originals W10 will tell you it already has the correct drivers so your hooped. This has happened for me on 3 W7 laptops. Seems fine on desktops which don't have those things anyhow. 
 
 

Cactus Music
I think they just ended that free update for anybody using accessibility features. I was going to use it again for a friends laptop but it ended sometime in February.  And it was only the Home version. 
 
Be warned, with Laptops that came with W7 ( or 8.1?)  you most likely won't have drivers for a bunch of the accessories like the card reader or web camera. Also often Function keys do not work. W 10 won't have the drivers and if you try and use the originals W10 will tell you it already has the correct drivers so your hooped. This has happened for me on 3 W7 laptops. Seems fine on desktops which don't have those things anyhow. 

OK thanks for that. The laptop is an Asus hi end from around 2012 or 2013? Came with Win 7 installed. I upgraded to win8.1x64. So I guess I will skip the laptop. It's fast as hell with nvidea card, 16gb ram and 2 hard drives. I removed the optical and put in a second drive. was easy.
 
So I will attack my desktop. It's the one that really needs a fresh install of something. I had bought a win 8.1x64 full version dvd about a month ago. I'll keep that for the laptop. 
 
*******So anyone know of a cheaper way for win 10 pro? I mean legal.
 
Thanks to all you guys for the great info.much appreciated!
Stratman68
 
 
 

*******So anyone know of a cheaper way for win 10 pro? I mean legal.

Check eBay for a reseller, I got genuine W10 Pro key for about 10GBP. It registered fine and has been getting updates now for well over a year.

Pete

 I have an older desktop and laptop (one purchased second hand and one home built, both in 2011). The desktop was upgraded from Windows XP to Win7, then to Win10, Both upgraded to Win10 with no issues at all (no fresh install for me). If you're worried about the silent background hoodoo that happens with this OS then most can be turned off inside Windows itself, and just the critical updates will get through. Which you should let happen anyway. You can also set the updates to do their magic when you want. Win10 Pro will let you have full control over all updates and let you install them or not if you want the greatest control.
Worst case scenario, there are those that disconnect from the net while using Cakewalk. I am one of these if I'm doing mission critical recording work, but with most mixing tasks I just leave the net connected.
As others have mentioned, just make sure drivers are available, although most information I've come across suggests drivers that work with Win8 will also work with Win10 so keep that in mind.
I think Win10 is a great update, and is almost as good as the WinXP to Win7 jump. I do like working with it and there is a lot more good stuff happening both right in front of you and behind the scenes. My only issue I have with Win10 (and you may find this being a bit of a techie yourself}, there is a lot of jumping between different parts of the OS when dealing with settings. It used to be you would open Control Panel and almost everything you needed was close to hand. Now, there are at least two major parts to changing settings. It's like Windows have tried to make tablet, laptop and desktop users happy with one version of Windows. I guess this is the way of the future so we'll have to suck this up for a while until/if they can get this right.
Good Luck!

One other thing to consider is any hardware interface you may be using. I used Win 10 for a while and couldn't use my main interface (M-Audio MobilePre). Tried all different ways to get it to work with no luck. Went back to Windows 8.1 and keep it off line (doing Windows 10 offline updates was a pain too - my Internet is not very good at all. Download updates from the library wifi onto the Linux laptop and bring it home). Since then have had no issues.