vintagevibe

markyzno
Stay away from Win 7....theres many more issues with it and more than Win 8 (such as the dreaded Black Screen of Death)

Your problems are not the norm.  I've been on Win7/64 for years and it has been rock solid.  My laptop is on Win8 and it runs my music app no different than Win7.  Everyone I know that uses Win7 for music has a very solid system.

I used to work in IT and am MS qualified and my Sister works for MS (blah blah blah) and believe me Win 7 can be a real buzz bear when it wants to be, so far with Win 8 I havent had one BSOD or a Black SOD or Driver issues etc etc, its by far the most stable OS MS have released yet (once configured and checked that all drivers are available)

Such things are subjective tho, I never had any issues with Vista believe it or not and then had a heap of crap from Win 7, there are so many variables its hard to really nail it on the head BUT having said that, my fellow Win 8 users that I know have had zero problems asides from a premature install without having checked that all their hardware and software runs on Win 8, but again - there are workarounds.

I would say i have seen far more problems with win 8 than 7 but that typically happens with newer OS for a couple of years.  With that said, it usually makes more sense to upgrade to latest OS because most drivers and evices going forward are typically optimized for the newer version of OS.

markyzno
 

I used to work in IT and am MS qualified and my Sister works for MS (blah blah blah) and believe me Win 7 can be a real buzz bear when it wants to be, so far with Win 8 I havent had one BSOD or a Black SOD or Driver issues etc etc, its by far the most stable OS MS have released yet (once configured and checked that all drivers are available)

Such things are subjective tho, I never had any issues with Vista believe it or not and then had a heap of crap from Win 7, there are so many variables its hard to really nail it on the head BUT having said that, my fellow Win 8 users that I know have had zero problems asides from a premature install without having checked that all their hardware and software runs on Win 8, but again - there are workarounds.

I worked in IT also for many years yada yada yada...   I just don't think it's good advice to stay way from Win7.  

I haven't had a single OS problem with Win 7 since the day it was installed on my machines.
 
IMHO it is absolutely rock solid

vintagevibe

markyzno
 

I used to work in IT and am MS qualified and my Sister works for MS (blah blah blah) and believe me Win 7 can be a real buzz bear when it wants to be, so far with Win 8 I havent had one BSOD or a Black SOD or Driver issues etc etc, its by far the most stable OS MS have released yet (once configured and checked that all drivers are available)

Such things are subjective tho, I never had any issues with Vista believe it or not and then had a heap of crap from Win 7, there are so many variables its hard to really nail it on the head BUT having said that, my fellow Win 8 users that I know have had zero problems asides from a premature install without having checked that all their hardware and software runs on Win 8, but again - there are workarounds.

I worked in IT also for many years yada yada yada...   I just don't think it's good advice to stay way from Win7.  

Yada yada then! 

Its all subjective.

Win7 has been very stable for me, but I skipped Vista completely and had hardware that was not supported any longer. Be sure to also research what hardware your chosen new version of Windows supports (it is not just drivers).

My Win 7 issues (Black Screen of Death) were Graphics card related and believe they were way worse than a Blue Screen Of Death.
 
Google them, theres alot of Black Screen of Death issues out there.

But yes, Win 7 is great for alot of people, as is Win 8....

Its sensible in reference to the OP the upgrade path should be to Win 7, especially if no hardware will be upgraded....

However Win 8 has been out for a while now and its tried and tested and pretty darned good, and lets not forget that under the hood its just another Vista service pack (as was Win 7)..and a good one it is too.

Win 8 Metro sucks tho if youre not using TScreen, but you get used to it, and 8.1 helps.

i have win 8.1 like many others. I would say that its now pretty much as stable as win 7 with some advantages. You wouldn't go wrong with either but as dub said, the 'latest wouldn't be a bad idea' because IMHO its nearly the greatest, just needs a tad more time.
Bibs

I like Windows 8 and 8.1. Windows 7 is also a viable OS. This is in regards Sonar.  My old Vista and XP are no longer supported for Sonar. The only reason to stay away from Windows 7 is because its not the latest OS. Otherwise its very good. 

On different machines I have 7 and 8.1. They are both very stable and I like them both. My primary DAW is Win 7.
 
Assuming all my drivers were good to go and I was building a new machine in a fresh (as in totally clean) install I'd go with 8.1. There isn't much reason to stay at 7 if you are doing an install.
 
Regards,