I just doubled the memory in my DAW to 24 gigs. Only then I found out that I have Win 7 Home...and to use all 24 gigs I need Win 7 pro. And to top it off the MS "easy upgrade" thingy is no longer available. So my questions are; does any one here have 7 Pro laying around they'd like to sell cheapo (if that is even doable) and/or is doing a complete new install of 7 Pro a major PITA that could do more harm than good? I should say also that I loathed Win 8 and still don't trust Win 10.

you probably don't want to hear it, but I'd go win10 pro instead of doing some manual update to some 2nd hand win7 license.
 
win10 works fine. if you are worried about being spied on, just pull the plug ...

Ol pal, I'd give a shout to Jim and see what's doable. I don't think an " in place" upgrade is ever a "good" idea. I assume 7 "recognizes" 16 gigs? Might be enough to "get by" until 10 "shakes" out.
Just my .02 old friend.
T

OlPal,
 
Much as I hate to eat crow, win 10, even after the dreaded major update works fine.
 
It was however days of pure hell getting the upgrade freebie path from win 7. To do over, I'd go with a clean install, but that's just me and the local system. I had major problems with win 8, but 10 is solid and improving.
 
The only function I've lost is with Adobe Audition. Can't record anything in it. Tried on 3 systems. It does open files and works otherwise. Then the ilock curse failing to automatically start. Otherwise, all software and drivers I use, new and old that worked in 7 are solid in win 10, and actually more stable.
 
John

DeeringAmps
Ol pal, I'd give a shout to Jim and see what's doable. I don't think an " in place" upgrade is ever a "good" idea. I assume 7 "recognizes" 16 gigs? Might be enough to "get by" until 10 "shakes" out.
Just my .02 old friend.
T

The "Any Time" upgrade to Win7 Pro would have been super quick/easy.
In that case, it just unlocks additional features.
 
If our Ol Pal doesn't want to deal with an OS reinstall (which I'd be happy to help), 16GB would likely be fine.
 
FWIW, There's no reason to fear Win10.
I've been running it exclusively for a long time.
With Pro version, you can insert a registry tweak to prevent automatic download of updates.
If you have Win10 Home, you can disconnect or disable the LAN/WiFi while working on audio.
In that case, ET can't phone home.  

^^^ what he said

If you're interested in using Win 10, you can still upgrade for free at Microsoft: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/accessibility/windows10upgrade

What if my Win 7 isnt totally up to date...will the Win 10 update take care of all that?  Or do I need to do some prep work?
 

I'm not sure I qualify for that Win 10 thingy...although I am pretty challenged.
 

I'm still on Win 8.1.  It is rock-solid -- way more than Win 7 was.  The sheer hate people have for Win 8.1 is always about its Metro look, and I just don't get it because the free utility Classic Shell solves that problem. 
 
I've had version 8.1 for a couple years now, and only had to look at Metro for about 2 minutes.  That's how long it took me to download and install Classic Shell.  I accepted the default Windows 7 look, and haven't had to touch it since.
 
The "front end" looks and acts like Win 7.  There isn't a trace of Metro; I don't even remember what Metro looks like.  Like I said... I don't get the hate.