I always thought of Vista like Windows ME. Small fan base, short lived. I found it nagged at me a lot , every time you tried to even move a file it would ask of my reason for doing so and if I was truly the god in charge of this machine... W7 seems to have calmed down and leaves me alone to get my work done. I like it.
I still have XP on an office machine but I'm finding it is way slower on the net than the W7 computers. My new printer was not happy with it either.
When was the last time you used Windows 98? uh huh , I thought so.

Never bothered with Vista - went straight from XP32 to Win7 64

The problem i'm having is updating drivers (my RME fire face 400 gave me the greatest pain) re authorizing all the software I have accumilated over the years.  Just as the I had all the hardware issues ironed out lightning struck (literally) and knock out my internet, so getting software updated to the latest versions got delayed  etc.....

I was trying to load Windows 7 over VIsta and should have not had to reload all the programs,  but things did not go the way i planned and i ended up doing a clean install.  Which at 1st i did not mind.

i have about 15 libraries in Kontakt and a lot  have there own quirky authorization  sceme...PITA.  Just getting Sonar back together was a lot of work.  Which order to load?   Don't load the quick fix,  findall the serial #s reg #s.  That's all back now.   It's going to take a couple of days to sort thru the Kontakt stuff.

I have to give Sweetwater's Tech dept a big "Thank You", cause they saved me from myself.   

But again,  the performance difference with Windows 7 more than just noticeable...I'll need a new machine in a year and that's when i'll go Windows 8

As I've said before in this forum, updating the Operating System is not something to rush into. You need to prepare for it. Part of that preparation is to run the Windows 8 Upgrade Advisor from Microsoft. That will point out which hardware and software may have problems with the upgrade. Microsoft says you can upgrade in place from Vista to Windows 7, but that if it fails you have to do a clean install. Given Vista's track record, I wouldn't have expected the upgrade to work. I went from Windows XP to Windows 7 (skipped Vista) and so I knew I had to do a clean install. I purchased a new disk drive and built Windows 7 on it, that way I always had my old XP drive to fall back on if there were problems. Windows 8 worked fine and I've since reused that drive elsewhere.

Like you, I had a LOT of applications that I had to reinstall and re-authorize. Fortunately I keep a list of all my serial #s, keys and passwords and so I only had a few that I had to go back to the manufacturer for help. It did take me at least a month to get all of the applications installed and working though. 

I like Windows 7 and I have another computer with the preview of Windows 8 and so far I don't like it as much as Windows 7 so I may wait before switching. 

Bristol_Jonesey


Never bothered with Vista - went straight from XP32 to Win7 64

Ditto. 


I know a few friends and family that bought Vista PC's and I was always called to clean and fix those damn machines.
Between that and what I read on recording forums there was no way I was going to even try Vista.


Mike

To be honest I never had trouble with Vista, except of course that it was lower in performance and something of a resource hog compared to 7. 

I always do a complete wipe of the drive (full pass of zero's) when I upgrade the OS. It just puts my mind at rest. I remember doing a "factory restore" on a laptop years ago, which appeared to reinstall the OS in full, yet when it finished I notice there was a lot of crap left over from my last install. So now I always do it 100% fresh. It takes a lot of preparation work and obviously much longer to get all of your programs and settings and presets reinstalled etc, but I always feel better at the end of it. 

I have a feeling Windows 8 is going to be one of MS's alternate turkeys, so I'm going to skip it for now.