I'm up to build 1709.
My Windows update service is disabled. - Microsoft can't change a nibble.
I image the state to a USB backup drive with Acronis True Image periodically so if the hard drive goes or I manage to break something myself, I can be back in a matter of minutes.
So it's a toaster. Same as it was yesterday, day after day, running Splat 10-2017.
 

BRuys
It breaks my heart to say this, but I will never start a new project in Sonar.  What if I'm half way through and something breaks?  I will keep Sonar installed to open old projects, but anything new will be started in Studio One.

I'm taking the same approach, although I've had Reaper installed for a while from when I was debating a move away from Sonar. Now that decision has been made for me (yeah, thanks for that Gibson ), I'll be using Reaper going forward.

Not all audio programs runs well or at all under xp compatibility on win7 so only time will tell ... have you tried to run Sonar in compatibility mode?
 
I agree, nor Reaper or Studio One Artist can serve as a replacement for Sonar power users. 
I think Sonar is a bit different DAW than the rest and hard to replace especially for the old longtime Cakewalk/Sonar  users ...
 
I will keep my Sonar machine running for many years (my first DAW from 1995 is still alive and well: Win 95, Cubase Audio XT with Digidesign Session 8 hardware) but I also already run other DAW's, Samplitude, Reaper, Harrison Mixbus ... 
 
Reaper is very efficient if you only use 3d party VST's & VSTi's as i doesn't comes bundled with anything, but their few own plugins are excellent but as said no replacement without adding 3d party stuff ...
 
I think the top versions of Cubase or Samplitude is the best replacement for Sonar Platinum feature wise.
Depending on your needs, Cubase coming with their midi heritage to meet up your Sonar midi standard. Samplitude coming first as audio only, midi added later which are great now have great mastering tools, Cd burning ...
 
I got Sonar and Samplitude at the same time coming from Cubase, I now mostly use Samplitude as my main DAW as it sounds excellent and suits my workflow best, but I really like Sonar, sound just as excellent, great tools, really wanted to get into the Sonar mindset ... Sonar coexist with Samplitude on my DAW and i use several Sonar VST/VSTi's in Samplitude, like the vocal Strip, Percussion Strip, the SI-instruments (Samplitude got very similar ones, just as good but not sounding exactly the same, great to stack together with the Samplitude one's to get a fat more organic sound) 
 
/Thomas

Sonar does what I need to do.  But at some point its going to "die" (I also use my PC for other things so its not a dedicated off net PC) because of a Windows upgrade.  I sprung for Studio One 3 Pro and as long as Sonar works I'll use it and that gives me (leisurely) time to learn Studio One 3.  I have been on the fence for a long time about learning a new DAW as it just didn't seem like things were good at Sonar and the current events with Sonar have given me the reason to do it.
 
 

If I made a living user Sonar, yes, I'd probably consider changing. 
 
But what guarantee do you have that any other program you switch to will be around for the long haul either?
 
The audience for Sonar-like DAWs (aimed at composer and songwriters, rather than generic knob-twiddlers and loop importers) is shrinking. ProTools owns the market; everyone else is a essentially Betamax. I can't see Steinberg and Presonus remaining profitable with DAWs over the long haul (Studio 1 is huge mainly because Presonus bundles it with just about everything they sell). 
 
I think the whole blather about Windows 10 compatability is Chicken Little thinking. I still use Microsoft Office 2007, and never have a problem with it being compatible with newer version (okay, I admit that Outlook 2007 doesn't sync well with IMAP servers). I still use a really old version of WordPerfect Windows for certain things and no problems. My 6-year old versions of Adobe Creative Suite have no problems working with Windows. I can still run certain games I bought in the pre-Y2K era with no problems. I never have to use Windows compatability mode. 
 
I'm using Windows 10 with a 15-year old HP laser printer. Works fine. I've used Sonar with a very old USB interface with drivers last updated in 2009. Works fine. 
 
In fact, the only program I have that has ever become incompatible with hardware is an Apple product--Itunes, which I had to update to be able to work with my older iPods. 

I keep seeing people on this forum talking about "switching or not". There are people that will keep using Sonar until it dies, and people that just "jumped ship".
 
I myself have "jumped ship" a while ago, but Sonar is still on my system. I have kept both Sonar and Cubase side by side for more than a year here. Not because I use Sonar that much nowadays, but simply to migrate my older projects to Cubase. Sure - I won't start a new big project on Sonar, but for small things it's still usable. However, after the news Sonar will not longer be maintained or improved, it is on my "to avoid" list for critical projects for certain.
 
What I want to say is this. I do not want to "lay my eggs in one basket". In other words, I use several DAW's. At this moment I have Ableton Live, FL-Studio, Cubase Pro, Wavelab Elements and Sonar installed. For me a DAW is a tool. Some things just work better in Live, others in FL-Studio, while for mixing, and especially MIDI editing, Cubase is great. And nothing beats Wavelab for making the final master. All of those DAW's have their strength in certain fields. If you are able to combine that strenght, then "the sky is the limit".
 
So - You do not have to abandon Sonar. It still will have it's strength for time to come. But there is a increased chance that Sonar will be less reliable in the future. So - Keep in mind that you have to create projects on Sonar with portability in mind. The best way to do that is to work with audio only. If you use soft synths, bounce them to audio at the end of your session. The same goes for audio that is processed. If Sonar for some reason should break, you have those audio files - Ready to import in any DAW.
 
Just my 2 cents.

danbottomburp
 
Anyway I've been trying Reaper and studio one artist, neither is a patch on sonar platinum in my opinion. 

because the artist is like a higher price sonar product.. not comparable, sorry.
 
Noel will even tell you that time goes on , code gets broken by other stuff. thats the biggest cost of software dev. supporting it.
 
 
if you want a machine that won't have issues.. get a c64 , apple 2 or other 8 bit machine ;-)
 

If you consider all the people still running Sonar 8.5 which stopped being supported years ago but still working just fine, even on never Windows versions, there is just no reason to panic and "never open a new sonar project".   That's just a knee jerk overreaction.   What are the chances of SOnar breaking?   Very minimal.  Also, why necessarily continue to update windows and if you do, create a restore point and go back should something break.  Chances are, whatever causes it to break will not be of any functional importance to running applications and will more likely be related to security.  Most "music experts" agree that for the most part, you should keep you DAW host machine off the web anyway.   Software breaking is not limited to Sonar anyway so most applications out there always run that risk and actually, I can't think of anything in recent memory except maybe the large jump to Windows 10 that actually caused anything to not work and in that case, the ONLY issue I had that I decided to not pursue were hardware related having to do with an old Tascam FW1884 and my Frontier Alpha Track .   ALL my software and ALL my plugins still work.   I have lost NOTHING in software functionality Since XP - Windows 10 so why think all oif a sudden, some small security fix by MS will now break Sonar beyond usefulness??  Fact is, there are NO DAWs out there that have all the fnctionality SONAR has.   Cubase is nice but no ARA.  Studio is nice but just has less features.  Pro-tools is, well... Pro-tools...  Harrison Mixbus 32C is actaully great but still, far cry from Sonar.   Just over reactions.   Sonar will likely continue to function fine for many years to come but be smart!   Make backups, create restore points and maybe even buy and clone a backup C drive.   If you do these things, you will be in good shape likely for at least 5 yrs is not much longer.   There aren't any bugs in Sonar that are show stoppers that I know of so I wouldn;t even worry about that.    Cakewalk left us with a damn great product in the end and is a stable and robust as anything out there and in many cases, more so.   Still not a bad idea to get another DAW and start learning it in your "spare time" which I did but I really am in no rush or panic to dig into it.   I couldn't resist the 255$ Cubase crossgrade price which was just too good to pass up

I've recently learned that you can "roll back" the Sonar version using the Command Center by right-clicking on "Sonar Platinum" selecting Rollback and choosing a version to roll back to.
 
What action would replicate this once the Command Center has gone and you have to operate via the files contained in the Downloads folder?
 
Do you need to uninstall Sonar Platinum through "Add / Remove Programs" and then reinstall an older version (e.g. SONAR_Platinum_Setup_22.10.0.19.exe), or can you simply run an older installer (e.g. SONAR_Platinum_Setup_22.10.0.19.exe) and it will replace the currently installed version automatically?
 
Can you install any version over any other version and it will sort itself out?
 
Thanks,
Steve

I mentioned this over an over: I helped putting together a professional studio's PC and the migration from ADAT to DAW.
They've got, on my advice, Sonar 6 32bit. I installed that on a 2005 PC running Windows 98SE
 
A couple of weeks ago I went there for session: still running the same Sonar 6 !
 
They updated the PC to a new one with XP and later to a third one with 7x64
But never ever thought about updating/changing the DAW. It ot's not broken..
 
Still rolling....
 
So I expect to really think about this issue by 2025.
 
Till then, I do have a much better DAW that these guys...