Ok, now that you've had some time with it what do you think?  What are the pros and cons of upgrading from Windows 7 (besides the ability to run virtual machines which is why I'm considering it).
 
Also, how do you prevent it from snooping around all your data?
 
TIA!

I guess it is getting around to that time for you to make a decision if you still want to get Win 10 for free ?
FWIW, I'm probably the wrong person too answer you too much in depth ...
I made the jump to Win 10 around November of last year . I picked up a Black Friday beater lappy w Win 10 on it .
Once I got used to it I did an in place upgrade from Win 8 to Win 10 on my computer ..all went smooth ...
I liked Win 10 much better than Win 8 ...for Music it seemed to perform better ...
Once I got on board with SPlat I was surprised at how well SPlat ran on my computer in Win 10
At the time of the upgrade to Win 10 a couple of my other music programs seemed to be having problems ..
Thankfully a few of those other music company's seemed to have caught up a lot regarding optimizing their  programs for Win 10 ...
Cakewalk definitely beat them all to the punch as far as optimizing SONAR for Win 10  and it's all good now ....
 
Since I'm on Win 10 home edition I seem to be getting a little fed up with Windows forcing a bunch of $hit on me I don't want ...Shhhesh , when it want's to do it's thing , it don't seem to care that I happen to want to do my thing instead ....That's only the tip of the iceberg .....
In all honesty , Yeah if your gonna use Windows , Win 10 is very good if your OK w Windows ...
I hope somebody else will be of more help to you since I have broken up with Windows for the time being
 
all the best,
 
Kenny
 
 
 
 

Thanks Kenny.  
 
If I go to Windows 10, I definitely want to turn off the intrusive snooping (there is a way, I just don't remember what it was yet), avoid having to log into Microsoft (I've found a way around that, though some of the preinstalled apps won't work then, which is dumb), AND stop Windows 10 from doing automatic updates whenever it wants (this is no longer easy, you need to turn off the Windows Update service itself then manually turn it back on to get updates when YOU want to get them).

I like now that I played around with it. There are really good tutorials on youtube. I have much to learn but already I can see it's more efficient for what I do. As far as intrusions I can see how that's possible because of the info needed to operate it. I'm happy with it  

Apart from a short time with laptop with W7, I've never used 7 or 8. I went from my old DAW on XP to a new build with W10 installed. It took some getting used to, but I like it well enough now. The updates and 'suggestions' for apps are irritating, but that's nothing new. I don't know if it's snooping around my info or not, or how to stop it if it is. Tbh I haven't had a moment yet where I've thought, 'Wow, this beats XP!', it's just another operating system.

The free upgrade time period ends on July 30th and I'm about to install 8.1 on an SSD so I can create a couple of virtual machines (VM's).  One to do work with (running Windows 7 or 10) and the other to access the internet (so I can nuke and restore my golden copy if I get a virus or malware).  Only Windows 8.1 or 10 have native VM's (7 can handle them but requires third-party software to create and manage them).  
 
I'm trying to decide if I can just ignore 8.1 and go straight to 10.

Craig ,
When I upgraded to Win 10 , I went from Win 8 straight to Win 10 with out having to install 8.1 ....
At the time all I did was I bypassed all the chit chat and went straight to Microsoft for my upgrade ....
I guess I took a chance since my computer only had the OEM Win 8 OS that came pre installed on it .
anyway when I did it ..things went smooth and it was somewhat painless ...
 
 
Kenny

Works OK on the three machines I have it installed on.  You need professional to have greater update control.  As for the snooping unless you are running enterprise you need one of the third party anti-snoop programs.

With regards to the snooping many packages are now investing in similar technology, SONAR has it though you turn it off as you can with Arturia's software.

I put off upgrading to windows 10 for ages, having worked as computer tech in the past, well, I have seen enough of software compatabitly issues with new windows releases.  Ended upgrading because I needed the new directx version for an application, have had no problems, and I am power user of windows, its nothing for me to have 30 browser windows open in a combination Chrome, Firefox, and Internet Explorer researching something or on surfing utube, a game, adobe reader with some large technical book, whilst swapping back to play with a synth in a DAW.  My machine has recovered for power blackouts several times without corrupting any files, i have had it slow to a crawl by doing too much stuff at once, backed off and it recovers.  Have not tried to deliberately break/crash it, as I don't do tech work anymore and have gotten lazyh!
 
Only problems I have with are cosmetic issues like menu and dialogue structures, but I have gotten used to them, oh and the microsoft reporting thing
 
No regrets for me about upgrading, I am happy with it, works better than version 7 for me, had 8.1 on a laptop and were relieved to get it updated.  Windows 10 Home has performed flawlessly for me!

Win 10 has been the best version for me (since XP) and the upgrade was the most easiest. All I had to do was click on upgrade, deny access to some privacy questions, and everything was updated (especially all my drivers for my hardware). I've had it for about a year now and very happy with it.......hasn't obstructed/caused a problem in anything I do......I can't say the same on the earlier versions.
 
I have a second machine with Win 8 that the family uses (my old DAW machine) that I'm also going to upgrade to Win 10. It only has 4GB of RAM and a 9 year old CPU, but still runs well......only thing I that ever had to change in that machine was 1 stick of RAM that went bad and the video card. I'm actually surprised it's still going strong.
 
As long as all your hardware has good Win 10 support for drivers, it should be a good and positive experience.