Windows 10 upgrade from 7

Microsoft is offering a free upgrade from Windows 7 to 10. I have Windows 7 Home, with a 16 GB RAM limit.
If I upgrade to 10, will that increase my RAM limit?
If I upgrade, how will that affect my Hauptwerk/M-Audio 410 Firewire multichannel system?
Will I have to recache the more than 100 virtual organs?
Is it advisable to upgrade now, or will we be advised later, if and when it is safe?
Thanks,
Stan

[mdyde]

Hello Stan,

(Topic moved here.)

Please see these other recent topics regarding Windows 10 compatibility:

viewtopic.php?f=16&t=14424
viewtopic.php?f=16&t=14432
viewtopic.php?f=16&t=14371
viewtopic.php?f=16&t=14249
viewtopic.php?f=16&t=13505

We're still testing, but it does appear to work fine so far. However, for a computer system used for public performance my advice would be not to risk using a new, and relatively unproven, operating system yet. Windows 8.1 is the safer bet at this time for a 'critical installation'.

If I upgrade, how will that affect my Hauptwerk/M-Audio 410 Firewire multichannel system?

I'd suggest checking with M-Audio whether they have a driver for the interface that's compatible/supported with Windows 10 yet.

Will I have to recache the more than 100 virtual organs?

There's no reason that upgrading the operating system should require caches to be regenerated, in itself (assuming that you don't also wipe your existing Windows or Hauptwerk installations, for example).

Not sure where to post this as there are gazillions of threats on Windows 10 already.

I am currently running Windows 7 Pro quite happily (other than erxperiencing a recent glitch which I have posted technical details of separately but I doubt it has anything to do with the operating system). My soundcard is M-audio 1010LT. This hasn't had a driver update since Win7 and the manufacturers have discontinued support for it; on their website they actually advise against upgrading to Win10 as they can't guarentee it will work.

I don't want to go through all the hassle of a software upgrade to Win 10 only to have to reverse it and reinstall everything again if I find my soundcard doesn't work. But if I stay on Win 7 indefinitely on the grounds that I don't want to have to buy a new soundcard just because the makers have decided they can't be bothered to update the driver, will this have implications for Hauptwerk support? Would there come a time where I will no longer be able to access technical support or install Hauptwerk upgrades? I bought my Hauptwerk computer with the intention of having a stable system that would be good for years to come, and don't really want to have to go buying new hardware to replace perfectly good existing hardware just because of a Windows update.

[mdyde]

Hello Organorak,

Any platform will become obsolete eventually. Technology always moves on, and inevitably we have to move with it. Also, we can't usually keep supporting a platform once its makers (Microsoft) have stopped supporting it (since the relevant development tools will no longer be compatible). However, I think it will be a fair number of years until Windows 7 is de-supported, by either Microsoft or us.

Thanks Martin - sounds like I should probably stick with Windows 7 in that case, though presumably if I make a backup image of my hard drive using something like Macrium before upgrading to Win 10 I could roll straight back again. Maybe it's not such a hassle, though I presume that if I upgrade to Win 10 via the free Microsoft offer to convert my Win 7, I will still have to backup and reinstall Hauptwerk, restore Hauptwerk settings and recache all my samples?

The Windows 10 update allows for you to revert to your previous operating system within one month of the changeover.
Keith

[mdyde]

though presumably if I make a backup image of my hard drive using something like Macrium before upgrading to Win 10 I could roll straight back again.

I have no experience with that particular software, but if you use any software that makes a complete image of the whole hard-drive (i.e. every byte of the raw data on the drive, when the operating system isn't running on the drive), then you should be able to restore that image to restore your hard-drive exactly to the point of the image. Norton Ghost is one such application that I've used in the past for such things.

An alternative might be just to remove the existing hard-drive and put in a new one for a clean Windows 10 installation. If, in the future, you want to go back, then you can simply swap the old drive back in physically.

Maybe it's not such a hassle, though I presume that if I upgrade to Win 10 via the free Microsoft offer to convert my Win 7, I will still have to backup and reinstall Hauptwerk, restore Hauptwerk settings and recache all my samples?

I haven't tried letting Windows 10 upgrade a Windows 7 installation myself, but my understanding is that (in theory) it should be possible to do that without losing existing data/applications. Hence (in theory) it shouldn't be necessary to re-install Hauptwerk afterwards. However, as always, do make sure you make a backup in Hauptwerk first, and store it somewhere safe, just in case.

I updated my laptop from Windows 7 Professional to Windows 10 Professional (64 bit) allowing the update to be applied to the Windows 7 system rather than starting from a freshly formatted drive. The update went smoothly and all my applications, including HW 4.2.1 seem to continue to work correctly.

I've not tried the facility in Windows 10 to revert to Windows 7 (available for a month after installation) but don't seem to need to try it either.

I'm not sure what advantages Windows 10 has brought to the laptop, but things are continuing to work; the Windows 10 navigation is a little different from Windows 7 but much nicer than Windows 8.1. I use the laptop to run a little "portable" HW system sometimes and this seems to work as usual.

I'm leaving my main HW machine for a little while. The Focusrite drivers I need are confirmed to work with and are supported under Windows 10 (Saffire Pro 40); I've not tested the USB controlled power distribution board under Windows 10, but the supplier has said they expect to provide a supported version by the end of the month.

Iain

Thanks for the comments.
The upgrade from 7 Home Premium to 10 today went great!
Hope yours does, too.

I have upgraded four computers to 10. Three via the normal Windows Update, all successful, and one from using the Media Creation Tool because I wanted it straight away. This latter one started to show some problems, wouldn't run newly downloaded software and gave Error 22 (Fortunately it is not the Hauptwerk one).
Foolishly I bought a registry cleaner tool, RegServo, and wow did I have problems. It trashed my Windows 10 setup because I hadn't checked that it was built for Windows 7 only. So it wiped out all the bits that are peculiar to Windows 10. Found that the Start Menu, Search, Mail and Edge wouldn't work, though all other software was OK.
Solution was to download a Windows DVD ISO setup, reinstall and, many hours later I am back to a successful install.
Up to now I would consider myself computer knowledgeable, but no longer!
Keith

I must say that this upgrade from Windows 7 to Windows 10 was the smoothest operation of any that I've either performed or witnessed in 35 years of dealing with such matters - all the way back to the beginning of commercial personal computers.

I'm running Hauptwerk 4.2.1 on a computer custom-built for running Hauptwerk and a large midi workbench. The ONLY problem that I encountered was during the early phases of Windows 10 installation when the file copy operation phase failed at 85% completion (26% overall of the process). This resulted in an automatic restoration of Windows 7, which was faultless and left the system in perfect Windows 7 condition.

Ultimately, the solution to this problem was to temporarily unplug the SATA cable from the DVD ROM optical drive. That done, the upgrade was restarted and ran to completion without incident. Taking all of the defaults during the question/answer phase of setup, Windows 10 popped right up without further incident.

Before using Hauptwerk, I ran some basic checks. First, executing MidiMedic, I verified visually that midi signals from all divisions and pistons were being received correctly. I don't drive piston lights or physical stops, so that aspect of operations remains untested from my perspective. Second, I verified that Windows 10 was agreeable to running the Echo Audiofire 12 Windows 7/8.1 device driver and that all 12 channels had been recognized and accounted for. The latest/last driver level for the Audiofire is 5.8.0.0 .

Those tests completed, I executed Hauptwerk and was greeted by only a single interrogatory panel requesting verification of the hardware interface. I okayed that configuration and immediately loaded Hereford and played for a reasonable period. No issues at all.

The big concern was the claim by so many that Windows 7/8.1 drivers would carry through into Windows 10. In my case, this was certainly true and I am relieved that I won't need to purchase a new box to replace the Echo Audiofire 12, at least for now. For those of you who may not know, Echo has put all of its fine products into legacy status and dropped software support for them with no effort to provide one last driver update and verification for Windows 10 launch. I verified this weeks ago in correspondence with them.

I am not going to perform a disk cleanup operation over the next few weeks while I let the system settle in. Ultimately, at day 30 after upgrade, Windows 10 will delete all of the saved Windows 7 components and perform a single disk cleanup, thus finishing the upgrade. While I see no reason why I would choose to have Windows 10 revert to Windows 7 based upon several hours of play and practice time since upgrade, it won't hurt to wait.

I have, of course, customized the Windows 10 settings regarding security and communications. Since I am running the Windows 10 Pro variant, I have set things up to avoid having Windows 10 reboot automatically after any automatic Windows Update that would require a reboot.

I hope that this short narrative may help someone who might be on the fence and having a difficult time with making the upgrade decision.

Greg Palmer

Just a quick note that I am right now this second in the process of also upgrading my Hauptwerk computer from Windows 7/64 to Windows 10/64. I did the upgrade two weeks ago to my home computer and Win10 is working astonishingly beautiful. So I'm taking a leap of faith and performing this upgrade to my organs computer. When I did the home computer, I did have to update all the computers drivers to work with Win10 and had absolutely no problems getting everything up to speed.

In addition to upgrading my organ computer to Win10/64, I am also doing away with my soundcard I've been using to pipe audio to my external Rodgers cabinets. Thanks to several suggestions I've seen posted, I am installing a Firewire 800 PCIe card to my organ computer to power the brand new just arrived Focusrite Saffire PRO 40 external audio interface. This will be my first experience using anything powered by Firewire but I've got great confidence that this install will go well. It says in the Focusrite's description that it has a software based Saffire MixControl to run 20 separate audio channels which also includes various audio processors and reverbs as well. So cross my fingers and hope all my upgrades come together to take me to the next level in my Hauptwerk Evolution.

***Addendum to post***

Guys, it's been nearly three hours since I upgraded my Hauptwerk organ computer from Windows 7/64 to Windows 10/64 and let me say that this was a lovely experience. I did not have to update a single driver. Right from go everything works absolutely beautifully just as it did with Win7. I did not loose a single thing. So if you are on the fence about upgrading your Hauptwerk organ computers to Windows 10, don't be. This has got to be the best operating system upgrade I have ever performed since 1999 and certainly one of the smoothest. I've now confirmed everything with my Hauptwerk computer and Artisan Instruments uMIDI system is good, everything plays, all my combination action and memories are still as they were before. So now I will be installing my new Focusrite Saffire PRO 40 external audio interface unit to the computer and like before, I expect nothing but flowers of the experience.

HI Stan,

I know I am late with my answer, but I used to have Win 7 home premium that limited my 'visible' RAM to only 16 GB. I upgraded to WIN 10 and voila! The computer and what is more important, Hauptwerk can see 32 GB of RAM.

I hope it helps.

Kind regards,
Vladimir

I updated my laptop from Windows 7 Professional to Windows 10 Professional (64 bit) allowing the update to be applied to the Windows 7 system rather than starting from a freshly formatted drive. The update went smoothly and all my applications, including HW 4.2.1 seem to continue to work correctly.



I'm not sure what advantages Windows 10 has brought to the laptop, but things are continuing to work;



Iain

I'm not trying to be the troll under the bridge so don't anybody take any of this the wrong way. I use portions of Iain's post here just as an example and have been reading through the other posts here on the subject of upgrading to Win 10. I keep seeing things like "it went smooth," "no problems," continues to work as beautifully as it did before" and so on, but I don't see anything like "wow, it sounds way better now!" So the million dollar question is: If it's working as well (but not necessarily better in terms of any kind of audible improvement), why bother upgrading? I can see at some point Win 7 no longer being supported but I'd guess before that happens there's going to be something beyond even Win 10. The only reason I could see to upgrade from Win 7 would be if a person were using Win 7 home addition as an example which only allows the use of up to 16GB of memory, and if by going to Win 10 your computer can now use more than 16 GB, then it's worth upgrading. If that's not the case, there's no real improvement other than it keeps working as good as it did before, then why bother? I sometimes feel some people just can't resist messing with things because they can.

I guess I'm of the school of 'if it ain't broke, don't fix it!'

Marc

There is an economic reason. Now you can get Windows 10 for free. Later (in 1 year?) you will have to pay for it.
Keith