Windows 8 - WARNING

Did you upgrade from 32 bit to 64 bit? What version of Windows were you running before?

Don't forget Sonar will be supplying a patch but I'm not sure exactly what that will achieve.

To be honest this is all generally to be expected, but there's nothing wrong posting a reminder for people I guess. If you ran the upgrade advisor it should tell you about most of the applications that won't work. It won't tell you about the plugins though. As with all operating system upgrades YOU MUST CHECK to see if you're software works with Windows 8 before you upgrade otherwise you are just jumping blindly into the deep end (although some of us like swimming ;). 

I also recommend creating a new bootable partition for Windows 8 and installing it clean next to your previous installation, that way you can use your old OS and slowly build up a workable Windows 8 environment side by side.

And always backup before any upgrade so you can revert back!

Dr. Mac


64 - bit both Win 7 and Win 8.  Full backup before and after... however, Acronis does not allow to restore Win 7.  Usually, I would create a partition and do the parallel testing, etc., but I assumed Acronis (which has always worked in the past for me) would allow me to revert back.  I have a support ticket open with Acronis on this, but I wanted to warn anyone else here that may be planning the same thing I was.

Sonar X2 works Perfectly on Win 8!  So do most of the plugins I have (Waves, Sonnox, etc.).

*If* you want to revert back to Windows 7, boot from the Acronis Disk and do the restore.

Anyone else having plugins that worked in Windows 7 64-bit, but not in Windows 8 64-bit?  Any good jBridge replacement recommended for Windows 8?

Dr. Mac


Anyone else having plugins that worked in Windows 7 64-bit, but not in Windows 8 64-bit?  Any good jBridge replacement recommended for Windows 8?

JBridge seems to be working in Win 8 here. Did an update from Win 7 so no reinstall involved. FWIW.

nx is the no execute bit in bios. get into the bios setup and turn it on. the secure boot is for hardware locked and encrypted hard drive partitions nothing to worry about.

The only machine I didn't upgrade to Windows 8 is my music machine - and thank goodness for that.

I upgraded a 1 month old Asus Zenbook Prime ultrabook (Win7 Pro 64bit) to Windows 8 Pro. I opted to keep all settings and applications. After the upgrade, I installed a few apps from the Microsoft store. Next thing you know I was caught in an endless loop of Explorer crashes and restores which started as soon as I went to the desktop. Even when flipping back to the "Metro" tile interface - it cycled too. Installed all current Win 8 updates. No go. After reinstalling Windows 8 using the "keep nothing" option, everything, so far, seems fine.

I also upgraded my HP Corei7 laptop (Win7 Home Premium 64bit) to Windows 8 Pro. I opted to keep all settings and applications there too. Afterward, installed a few applications from the Microsoft store and ... same thing. An endless loop of Explorer crashes and recycles. You can't get out of it to use the computer unless you reboot. Also had Kaspersky Internet Security 2013 installed in Win7. The Windows 8 installer didn't complain about it, but after the upgrade, and when going to the desktop, there was a panel waiting for me that stated Kaspersky was not compatible with Windows 8. I went to Kaspersky's site and - no update. So I tried to uninstall it. No go - Windows 8 complained that the "application was not compatible". Tried to get rid of it through Control Panel. No go. Erradicated the registry entries and tried again. Nope. Made sure all Win 8 updates were applied too.

So I reinstalled Windows 8 again using the "keep nothing" option. So far, so good. A Google search for "win 8 explorer crash loop" finds lots and lots of forum hits. Seems this cycling problem has been an issue since the Developer preview.

I also had the Acronis problem, but they offer a 30 day full working demo, so you can at least get at the proprietary Acronis backup files even if you don't initially pay for an upgrade to Acronis 2013.

I'm working now with trepidation on my 2 non-critical machines, but this Windows upgrade has been hell like no other before it.

KEv

On my laptop UAC is disabled. And so I did a upgrade to W8. Now alot of tiles do not work. And I cannot find the place to enable UAC... Ha... But for the rest it is adjusting... But I do like win7...

burkek


The only machine I didn't upgrade to Windows 8 is my music machine - and thank goodness for that.

Asus Zenbook Prime ultrabook     After the upgrade, I installed a few apps from the Microsoft store.
I also upgraded my HP Corei7 laptop   Afterward, installed a few applications from the Microsoft store and ... same thing.
 
KEv

I think I have spotted a clue.

But then I opted for a clean install (i.e. freshing formatted partition)/dual boot so Win8 and Win7 on same machines just different partitions to boot to. You can use the upgrade license to do this.

You may be able to do the install and activate using the upgrade media, but if you read your license that came with the upgrade media, you are not working under the license, unless you already had two fully licensed versions of Windows installed on that computer to begin with, and you removed one when you installed Windows 8. Upgrade licensing specifically requires that you must not retain the previous version copy from which you are upgrading in any form (dual boot, on another machine, in a virtual machine installation etc.).


http://www.zdnet.com/how-the-new-windows-8-license-terms-affect-you-7000003028/


On a related note, has anyone purchased the OEM=full versions windows 8, and if so does the license that came with that carry the language of the "personal use license" mentioned in the link above? There was initially talk that Microsoft would release a Windows 8 version for "system builders" that would be different from the OEM release in that it would have more generous licensing terms, and I am not clear that the OEM version being offered at Newegg etc. is that version.


I may have found the answer to my own question here:
http://www.microsoft.com/oem/en/licensing/sblicensing/Pages/personal-use-license.aspx#fbid=RZVorzwvspJ


It looks like the personal use license is available online, so if it is not in the OEM package you buy, you would need to go to MS website and agree to that license in order to be covered by it. This is the first time in a while that MS has even permitted a valid license to an individual for installing an OEM version in their own machine. Not that that ever stopped anyone. 

Newegg is still carrying the following on their Windows 8 OEM versions:
" Disclaimer: Use of this OEM System Builder Channel software is subject to the terms of the Microsoft OEM System Builder License. This software is intended for pre-installation on a new personal computer for resale." But it looks like that no longer applies, if you follow up with a personal use license.

What exactly is the benefit of windows 8 over windows 7.
Having been buggered with a transition from xp to windows 7, with a Yamaha 01x and mlan becoming redundant , once bitten ...
But win 7 offered more than 4gb rAm and 64 bit so kinda worth it.
I don't see windows 8 offering anything like that milestone.
Kinda wondering whether it is real daft to upgrade to win 8. I mean why are people bothering??

Windows 8 runs noticeably faster on my PC than Windows 7. I also like how you can add hard drives in a transparent way. I also like the file history feature.

I like the new modern UI. I really like how apps scroll right to left instead of bottom to top. I find it is much easier and more pleasant to read that way.

In my opinion Windows 8 is not needed if you have Windows 7 but I do prefer Windows 8.

Just an update... I was able to get SSL Duende Native plugins working.  First, SSL updated their online licensing system that commuicates with Codekey (they use the WIBU Codekey software for anti-piracy).   Second... decided to run the utility in Firefox (NOT IE) and updated to the latest and greatest Java version :)  All is good. 

The only issue now is that jBridge chokes out for every plugin it is attached to.  I am receiving errors with respect to permission rights to the .jbridge files created for each 32-bit plugin.  Checked the permissions and forced off the read only... still... same error... oh well.  any ideas?

Other than that, my reason for upgrading to Windows 8 was 2-fold.  First, I'm beta testing some software that needs testing on Win 8.  Second, Noel's technical report on Windows 8 / Sonar X2 performance sold me.  My system boots in half the time, and everything seems to respond faster.  I've had absolutely no crashes (knock on wood). 

Anyone have to do anything special to get jbridge to work with Windows 8?

Fireface 800 and babyface work fine with win 8 here!  Vs700 set does not.

Dr. Mac


Anyone have to do anything special to get jbridge to work with Windows 8?

I let the Sonar plugin manager decide which plugs are set up in JBridge and which by Bitbridge. I don't do the wrapper BS. That said I haven't tried to set up a plug in Win8 under JBridge - anything that is running in JBridge was set up previously in Win 7. I'll give that a try.

@soundtweaker

I attempted to install Win8 on a Bootable USB Flashdrive. I was not successful to install it on a removable drive and then boot to that drive. Can you give links or information about how to do this?

I boot my work laptop to Linux this way, but I have not been successful at doing this with Windows.
 
I have found the 'Improved Power Settings' kinda a pain personally. It's strange to not know how to force a full shutdown. Either doing it using the shutdown command or calling restart do the trick, but it's a bit odd.
BTW, the ability to make an iso on a bootable flash drive I don't care about at all. You can just mount the iso. I don't care about that a jot. If I could install windows and x2 on a portable drive and plug it in to any computer I want and boot to it, that would be a whole different story.