Shortest test so far.
Most of my desktop icons were gone.
Sonar wouldn't start at all (runtime error of some kind).
It was a mess. After 5 minutes I'm back to Paragon and restoring Win 7 again.
Good news is...I'll revert back to the better Presonus driver.
Think I'll call it good for now. I may call ADK at some point and see what they say, but it seems like a complete clean install is what it will take, and I'm not sure it's worth it.
 
 

 With Windows 10 and older hardware I would probably do an upgrade install instead of a clean disk.  With firewire devices I would imagine it borrows what it needs from Windows 7.

I'm just not convinced that Win 10 is worth spending a lot of money on a new interface, when it works fine in 7.
I'm not convinced that whatever Windows will become, will be something I stick with either. I fully expect a subscription based Windows in the near future.
Sitting back, and waiting to see which direction everyone goes in may be the smart move.

 
I find it hard to remain on win 7 what with the world moving forward and win 10 being free and all.
But win 7 does everything I need it to and it looks a lot nicer that win 10.  It also doesn't bug me about anything (now that I killed the win10 upgrade pleading) and will probably not turn into a subscripted pay as you go app store that devours my every move.

clintmartin
I'm just not convinced that Win 10 is worth spending a lot of money on a new interface, when it works fine in 7.
...

 
I've found Win10 to be a mostly worthwhile upgrade. Legacy drivers will be the biggest issue, as you've found out. You're in a good position; you have a functional Win7 DAW. At some point, and IMO the sooner the better, upgrading to Win10 will be necessary.
 
I spent 6+ months fighting video card driver issues (BSODs and recoverable faults), running each new beta of the Win10 driver and getting the same faults. So? I spent $135 on a new video card. Problems totally gone!
 
The point being that you have the time to wait for a Stupid Deal of the Day for a new audio i/f.
 
For example, I struggled to get my AudioBox 44VSL working, and lived with it until MF dropped a $200 SDotD for a Tascam US-16x08 (street $299)! I had been waiting on a better price for the US-4x4 (street $249). When I saw the SDotD, I jumped on it. The Win10 driver (v1.04) is so solid, I disabled my internal sound card and use it for all audio (the downside being that I can't run a standalone VSTi using ASIO while I'm viewing a YouTube tutorial, for example).
 

clintmartin
...
I'm not convinced that whatever Windows will become, will be something I stick with either. I fully expect a subscription based Windows in the near future.
...

 
Interesting thought. I do have an Office 365 subscription (at $69/yr, that's actually a pretty good deal). However, I doubt that for an OS. For one thing, the OS is not a app. It virtualizes your hardware, so apps will run across all compatible hardware. It's robustness is essential, both in execution and security. Updates are essential. If they go subscription, and you don't subscribe, what then? Does the OS brick? Or do you just stop getting stability and security updates?
 
I just don't see it.
 
But then I'm not some bean counter with an Excel spreadsheet that "proves" to the Powers That Be that a subscription program for Windows will make them a gazillion bucks.
 

clintmartin
...
Sitting back, and waiting to see which direction everyone goes in may be the smart move.

 
There's bleeding edge, which I always let others dull first.
 
Then there's leading edge, which I can't afford.
 
Then there's the leading edge wannabes, where I am. Each time I upgrade or add something to my kit, I try to get leading edge, because I know I'm going to have to live with it for a long time! But at any given time, most of my kit is a generation or two behind.
 
Then there's comfortably numb, still on XP, and can't see the problem with that.
 
Then there are lemmings. I wait for the ones whose work I respect to move. I don't wait for the herd. The view from the rear isn't pretty.
 

Well...I've certainly tried to upgrade. So yes I do like to have the latest thing, but in this case I think the smart move is to hold on to what works for as long as it works, and then upgrade everything at once.
My PC is 4 years old now, but it has an i7 and seems to be in pretty good shape. So far Sonar Platinum works well in Win 7. When they stop support...A decision will need to be made, but there are so many guys here who make great recordings with older versions of Sonar that I don't really worry about that much. (Audio quality hasn't improved in years IMHO).
This will probably be the last year I'm able to keep everything up to date...I may be able to get some recording done finally.
 

I think a strategy of staying on Windows 7 will be viable for quite a long time to come. Another 10 years at least.
 
This isn't the same as the troublesome migration from 32-bit O/Ss to 64 bits, or the previous switch from 16 to 32 bits. Back then, there were many insurmountable incompatibilities that dictated wholesale dumping and replacing of software. Such incompatibilities are far less likely between W7 and W10. Sure, Microsoft will do everything it can to force Win 7/8 into obsolescence, but there are too many large and influential institutions that won't go along.

For now I'm still holding off on my studio PC (and fighting the automatic updates to Windows 10 at every turn haha),  just in case there's any compatibility issues, but explain to me, why would you want to disable Cortana? Can't you just not use it?
 
I have Windows 10 on my laptop and it runs great. Better than Windows 7. And I never bother with Cortana (I don't know if it's Cortana or my laptop itself, but it can never hear me unless i put my face right in front of it so I just don't bother). I don't mind it being there though... Unless there's some reason, like Cortana being there actively hurts music production...

I'm one the fortunate ones who upgraded 5 Win 7 machines to WIN 10. Of course only one is an actual DAW and it has not suffered.
 
I'm not of the ilk who cares what a Windows OS "looks like". On the DAW about all I see is either SONAR, Mixbus 3.2, Reaper, Studio One 3.2 and BIAB as well as Nero for burning CDs and Wavelab.
 
Once Windows is booted to the "desktop", I think about the OS less than 0.00000001% of my time on that computer.

bapu
 
Once Windows is booted to the "desktop", I think about the OS less than 0.00000001% of my time on that computer.

 
Exactly.