I am using 8.0 on my DAW. I unistalled all the apps and use classic shell. At some stage I guess I need to upgrade to 8.1 but I am happy for now.
 
 
 
 

I use Win7 on my DAW and Win8 on my internet PC.
Win8 sucks. Microsoft thinks it sucks by user feedback and is working
on trying to turn that around with Win9...or so I've read, FWTW.
 
If can keep Win7, X3 and the computer working I'll stick with that combo as long as I can.
Internet PC...only a few things it's even worth using for and now little 400 dollar tablets can
handle that so internet PC is a dying market in my house.
My wife has a Kindle HDX and hasn't touch the PC since.

Hi,
 
I have not updated to 8.1 yet and I am not sure I will ... can't tell you why, but there are many doubts and stuff like that makes me not want to do it. But so far, the only issues I have had were to do with the 32-bit, NOT the 64-bit, so 8.1 on the 64-bit might be ok.

With Classic Shell, Win 8 works seamlessly for me.....(not 8.1). I tried that 8.1 update and that just was a nightmare. All my hardware have Win8 driver support, so no complaints/no complatibility issues, and I'm hoping to get a couple of touch screens soon (when they're more affordable).   

I stumbled on this. May be of interest to you. I guess the designer thinks it's a mess too.

webbs hill, no, I'm not struggling anymore with Win 8 - I've used it for my DAW until I upgraded to Win 8.1 and both of them have worked well. Like mudgel, I find the Win 8.1 is very smooth, even more so than Win 7.
 
I originally did a fresh install of Win 8 and really tried to make Metro work for me... that's the only point where I struggled. Metro is a different design environment but I wanted to be open minded enough to see if it was the way of the future - after all, one would assume that Microsoft must have spent big money testing the interface. So I gave it a try for a couple of weeks, but I don't use a touch screen and Metro was just too inconvenient - it got in the way too much. So I installed Classic Shell and Win 8 worked as well for me as Win 7.
 
When Win 8.1 became available and I decided to upgrade, I again did a fresh install of Win 8 then immediately upgraded to Win 8.1. I'm running Sonar 8.5, X1 and X2 as well as Samplitude Pro X and everything works very well.
 
If you give Classic Shell a try, that may take care of a lot of your struggles - Metro is a pain but the operating system works quite well. Good luck.  

I've had W8 on my laptop since W8 came out, and it works perfectly. Have not been a problem at all. I dont use Metro though, but after the 8.1 release it did get some "missed" features. 
 
3 weeks ago I upgraded my DAW to W8.1 and its been stable as a rock. Actually far better than I hoped for. 

The convoluted procedure to power off and the "charms" bar were my only two initial gripes with W8. I solved the first by making myself an "off" tile for the metro screen, the charms bar remains an irritation. I believe you can (sort of) disable that it win 8.1 but I am reluctant to do the upgrade because of reports of it somehow being very slow compared to W8 and that aside everything runs super smoothly, so I'm reluctant to mess with it. I really don't get why people find pressing the windows key to bring up the start menu instead of clicking on an icon on the screen so difficult and I also don't understand how people find it difficult to "find" their programs ? I'm not sure how it could be much easier really.

"pressing the windows key to bring up the start menu instead of clicking on an icon on the screen"
 
thanks Paulo-good tip

webbs hill studio
"pressing the windows key to bring up the start menu instead of clicking on an icon on the screen"
 
thanks Paulo-good tip

No worries. This was also true of previous windows versions btw.
 
Here's something that may help if you are struggling to get to grips with W8..