I have a fear of upgrading from Windows 7 to Windows 10.  I just received an offer to do that for free from Microsoft.  Price is right, but peril is what scares me, especially with a very complicated music machine.

Yeah....

I know how you feel. I have a win7 setup for my DAW and win8 on my laptop...

I wonder why I haven't received the Microsoft offer?

I have my main PC with dual boot, Win 7 64 bit and Win 8.1 64 bit.  Sonar (X3 and now Platinum) runs equally well on both.  All my hardware also works in both OS'.  
 
January of 2014 the motherboard went out in my main system (luckily under warranty) and I had to use my backup system while waiting for the replacement motherboard.  My backup system has Win 8.1 64 bit on it.  I never missed a beat recording.
 
One difference, I have "Start8" installed on my Windows 8.1 systems and that allows booting directly to the desktop and it makes 8.1 look like Windows 7 (same start menu).
 
I have Win 10 pre-release (10074) installed on a separate hard drive on my backup system.  I have the Sonar Command Center and Platinum installed on that for testing.  What I can determine it works without problems.  The Start menu in Win 10 is sort of a hybrid Win7/Win 8.1 and I would call it more 8.1.  However as this is still pre-release who knows what the final version will contain or look like.  From the info that has been released, it looks like Win 10 will boot to the desktop if no touch screen is detected. 
 
 
Lots of information on Windows 10 on the Windows 10 forum
http://www.tenforums.com/

Just upgrade..

fireberd
One difference, I have "Start8" installed on my Windows 8.1 systems and that allows booting directly to the desktop and it makes 8.1 look like Windows 7 (same start menu).
 
From the info that has been released, it looks like Win 10 will boot to the desktop if no touch screen is detected. 
 
Lots of information on Windows 10 on the Windows 10 forum
http://www.tenforums.com/

That's really helpful.  Thanks for mentioning all that.

To upgade to 10 when it comes out is free for all 7, 8 and 8.1 users. What's out now is just a Beta testing preview. To get free upgrade you have to have a valid license for the previews ones, but you don't have to have that installed. A clean install works perfectly. Be a little patient and this will bee fine in its time.

Windows 8/8.1 has been awesome. Already loving Windows 10 from the articles (won't be doing the preview this time) and looks like it will be another home run for MS.
 
As for upgrading to 8.1, totally worth the update. The interface changes and boot to desktop are well worth it.

8.1 get's little love from many but it has my seal of approval.

Looking forward to getting the Win 10 preview soon.

8.0 wasn't that great. Win 8.1.1 is great, made the OS work pretty much perfect. UI is wonderful and quicker to use than Win 7. The people who said Win 7 is better never spent the time learning how to use it efficiently.

I'm running 8.1 with no trouble at all. I didn't upgrade to it though but I wouldn't worry about it. I have Windows updates turned off. I'm not changing anything in the OS or anything else other than Cake or plugin software unless I get an OK from Jim... (if it ain't broke, don't fix it... right?). I would recommend 8.1 though.
 
J