My best advice is do a clean install of a new OS.

Yep, a clean install will give you the best results.

Scott

--
Scott R. Garrigus - http://garrigus.com
* Author of the Cakewalk Sonar and Sony Sound Forge Power book series: http://garrigus.com/?PowerBooks
* Author of the Cakewalk Sonar ProAudioTutor video tutorial series: http://garrigus.com/?ProAudioTutor
* Publisher of the DigiFreq free music technology newsletter: http://digifreq.com/?DigiFreq
* Publisher of the NewTechReview free consumer technology newsletter: http://newtechreview.com/?NewTechReview

From Charlie;
if you understand a little behind the engine of windows xp,vista and 7 and 8 you would realize this,xp and vista are almost the same os besides a new skin and improvmenets to graphics.

To Charlie actually Vista and Windows 7 have a lot in common. It is a fact that it is XP that is not compatible with Vista. Vista and XP have very little in common.

But in the end the merits of any OS is not important in this thread. What is important is whether a Vista user can run Sonar X2.

john,what fact are we talking about here?
the fact that most drivers and software worked for widows xp and vista but not win 7?
if what your saying was true then id guess sonar X2 would still be supporting vista(if it was more like win 7 and not xp,then why the end of support?)
you and i could throw stones back and forth all day long here but id rather wait for a professional to answer this question.
 
a quick question to you though...why havent you upgraded to win 7?
your answer may in fact provide proof of what im saying...lol.
 
 
 

Thanks to all for the responses. I just downloaded X2 and will install on both laptop running Win7 and desktop running Vista 64. My approach is simply this - if there comes a time when X2 updates/patches require an upgrade of my desktop OS to Win 7/Win 8 - I will. Thanks again!

@ Scott and John

I know you guys are right. But do you know of anyone that installed over Vista with success?? 

The thought of digging up all the software, installing plugs, worries me that I may not have some of things I will need and use now. I would really like to try and maybe I will. I'll do a backup image first just in case. But I think I may go for it... 

chuckebaby

From Charlie;
if you understand a little behind the engine of windows xp,vista and 7 and 8 you would realize this,xp and vista are almost the same os besides a new skin and improvmenets to graphics.

To Charlie actually Vista and Windows 7 have a lot in common. It is a fact that it is XP that is not compatible with Vista. Vista and XP have very little in common.

But in the end the merits of any OS is not important in this thread. What is important is whether a Vista user can run Sonar X2.

john,what fact are we talking about here?
the fact that most drivers and software worked for widows xp and vista but not win 7?
if what your saying was true then id guess sonar X2 would still be supporting vista(if it was more like win 7 and not xp,then why the end of support?)
you and i could throw stones back and forth all day long here but id rather wait for a professional to answer this question.
 
a quick question to you though...why havent you upgraded to win 7?
your answer may in fact provide proof of what im saying...lol.
 
 
 

Did you read the quote from Noel?

I haven't moved to Windows 7 because I have no reason to. It would not be for an upgrade to me just a change.   Perhaps you didn't know this but Vista has everything Windows 7 has. They are very much the same OS. 

All the drivers I use with Vista are Vista and Windows 7 compatible. They are not XP compatible.

Win 7 is just Vista SPx2 re-branded.

I am running X2 on a Vista machine and it performs in identical fashion to my main Win 7 machine.

markyzno


Win 7 is just Vista SPx2 re-branded.

I am running X2 on a Vista machine and it performs in identical fashion to my main Win 7 machine.

I like this post. Mark is running both. Most on this thread including me are offering their opinions based on their OS.

musicroom

@ Scott and John

I know you guys are right. But do you know of anyone that installed over Vista with success?? 

The thought of digging up all the software, installing plugs, worries me that I may not have some of things I will need and use now. I would really like to try and maybe I will. I'll do a backup image first just in case. But I think I may go for it... 

Hey David,


As long as you have an image backup, then you've got nothing to lose. You might as well try it, see how it does, and then decide from there. But no, I've never upgraded over an existing OS. I'm kind of a fanatic about documenting things , so I have all the stuff I need for reinstallations, etc.


Scott

--
Scott R. Garrigus - http://garrigus.com
* Author of the Cakewalk Sonar and Sony Sound Forge Power book series: http://garrigus.com/?PowerBooks
* Author of the Cakewalk Sonar ProAudioTutor video tutorial series: http://garrigus.com/?ProAudioTutor
* Publisher of the DigiFreq free music technology newsletter: http://digifreq.com/?DigiFreq
* Publisher of the NewTechReview free consumer technology newsletter: http://newtechreview.com/?NewTechReview

musicroom


@ Scott and John

I know you guys are right. But do you know of anyone that installed over Vista with success?? 

The thought of digging up all the software, installing plugs, worries me that I may not have some of things I will need and use now. I would really like to try and maybe I will. I'll do a backup image first just in case. But I think I may go for it... 

Forgive me for not responding quicker. I don't remember much about that. I can't recall anyone posting that they installed a new OS over an older one without issue in recent years. I do recall posts from the past reporting problems when they did overwrite the old with the new. This may have been in the era of Win 2000 or ME to XP though.

I think Scott offers some excellent advice. I have a setup that is meant to be upgraded easily. I use removable drives in driver drawers for replacing the system drive. I also have all of my data on other drives. Very little is on the system drive.  Its not hard to copy important data to another HD even if it is only temporary. Use a USB drive if you need to to do this.

I will still recommend whenever its feasible to install your new OS on a clean, formatted HD.  

I hope this is helpful.