Windows 10 - An Upgrade Story

January 14, 2020 is the official date Microsoft has committed to for the end of life of our beloved Windows 7 operating system. For many of us, Windows 7 (released July 2009) has been very stable if not the most stable operating system. After the lackluster public response to 8 and 8.1 (October 2012, October 2013), Windows 10 (July 2015) was still ‘too new’ for many of us to try; potential stability issues and waiting for updated drivers held us back from making the upgrade.

This makes now an excellent time to consider upgrading to Windows 10, especially if you connect your DAW computer to the Internet—the end of security updates is approaching. A solid four years on the market has given hardware and
software vendors plenty of time to catch up and provide drivers and updates.

I do take my DAW computer online, but I’d been holding off on upgrading. My DAW was very stable and working fine, but with time running out, I knew I’d have to eventually do that upgrade. I decided to share my journey with you, and include my thought process, re-search, and discoveries. While this is not a step-by-step upgrade guide, you should glean plenty of things to think about and plan for before you make the big jump.