I purchased X2 Producer as an upgrade from X1.
 
I've got a 64bit Windows 7 desktop dedicated to making music.  It is not connected to the internet.
 
Currently it has Sonar X1d Producer installed and little else.
 
I have nothing which I really need to keep, so I am in a position to scrub the machine, re-install Windows 7, update display drivers, interface drivers etc. and then install X2 and patch up to X2a.
 
Should I apply any Windows 7 updates - or are there certain Windows 7 updates I should steer clear of prior to installing X2 and patching up to X2a?

I don't know of any Windows 7 updates to avoid, specifically. I have them all updated. The only issue I run into is really just the slight performance hit I took moving from X2 to X2a and Waves plug-ins crashing the DAW, which was always an issue, even in X1d. That's all for me. 

brconflict


I don't know of any Windows 7 updates to avoid, specifically. I have them all updated. The only issue I run into is really just the slight performance hit I took moving from X2 to X2a and Waves plug-ins crashing the DAW, which was always an issue, even in X1d. That's all for me. 

My concern is that I don't want to screw something up by having a less than optimal  Microsoft Visual C++ Redistributable library installed which could affect the behavior of X2a.

Cakewalk's recommendation is merely to have the latest. That came from them when I was troubleshooting my Waves issue.

 
I have nothing which I really need to keep, so I am in a position to scrub the machine, re-install Windows 7, update display drivers, interface drivers etc. and then install X2 and patch up to X2a.
 

I don't know why you would want to reinstall Win7 before installing X2. I would suggest that you first try installing X2 on your current system (should be able to coexist with X1) and see how it runs. Otherwise, you may be investing a lot of time for no real return.

bentleyousley

I have nothing which I really need to keep, so I am in a position to scrub the machine, re-install Windows 7, update display drivers, interface drivers etc. and then install X2 and patch up to X2a.

I don't know why you would want to reinstall Win7 before installing X2. I would suggest that you first try installing X2 on your current system (should be able to coexist with X1) and see how it runs. Otherwise, you may be investing a lot of time for no real return.

I have nothing invested in X1.  I would like to install X2 / X2a with a virgin registry and directory structure.

There is nothing quite like running the software of your choice on a freshly formatted/installed OS

And of course you have the benefit of being able to burn system images at any point during/after the install meaning you can always get back to a stable system at various points

I don't blame you for wanting a clean reg. I do I from time to time.

do all the updates. I have before I upped to win 8.
ran great.

congrats on the upgrade, youll see, it runs great (x2)
then you can eat crow :)
 
but serious, congrats on the upgrade mr bognar.