If you're looking for compatibility with 64-bit versions of Vegas, 7, 8 or 8.1 should run efficiently and reliably.

Microsoft's 'ambitious' changes to the UI in 8 caused far more hate and hysteria than was warranted, IMO. I don't like the tile-based apps screen, and I don't use the apps. I'm in desktop mode 99+% of the time. There were a couple of other bonehead moves in 8 -- like the convoluted path for simple "Shutdown". But nothing that couldn't be easily overcome with a freeware program that simulates the classic Windows Start button. Some things were harder to find or hidden from view. (to "protect" you...)

But, put me in the thumbs up for 8/8.1 column. In my experience, it's fast, stable and reliable.

Thank you again everyone for your feedback. Can one create a bootable restore disk for an OEM version of Windows?

cbrillow, do you refer to the program "classic shell"? If so, does that thing cause instability with software programs or consume additional resources?

""Newer" is not necessarily "better."
---------------------
More often than not, newer is better.
----------------------
How about Vegas 12?

John

I use Classic Shell with Windows 7, I wouldn't be without it.. I find the standard Windows 7 file replace dialogues wordy and unusable. I haven't tried Classic Shell with Windows 8 but would if I were using Windows 8 on a daily basis.

Thank you Kit for your response.

>> does that thing cause instability with software programs or
>> consume additional resources

I do not use classic shell to get my Win8 to look and behave like a desktop Windows should (with a start menu etc) but I use Start8 from Stardock. Start8 does not interfere with other programs and causes no problems, but uses a little bit of resources. 700K to be presise. In other words, no, no resources, not really.

Okay, thanks Terje, for that info.

"How about Vegas 12?"

Sorry, John, but I'm one of those guys who never had a problem with any version of Vegas. Vegas 12 on my Windows 8.1 machines runs just fine. I wish I could jump on the Vegas 12 bashing bandwagon so I wouldn't feel left out, but I can't.

8.1 is great. Do not let all the naysayers and evil doers distract you. Look at my systems specs, pretty tame specs really, and Vegas 12 runs solid. I will often time have 2 instances rendering in the background with a 3rd or 4th editing in the foreground, very low crash rates.

Also Win8 is not a resource hog, the 1st time I loaded Win8 preview was on a P4 with 2GB ram, and it was smoother and faster than win7 with the same resources. Win8 is designed to run on small devices like atom processors and still be fluid. If you load up a new OS with junkware like Norton, or a ton of background process any OS will become a hog and slow. Unless you have enough RAM and CPU to run it all. Think smart and "EDIT" on your edit machine and keep it clean and free of garbage.

I fully agree with Astar. I run a DAW and also Vegas pro 12 on Windows 8.1 and its so far the very best OS I have used.

I see very little advantage for a non-tablet user to upgrade to Windows 8.

I also see very little reason to upgrade from XP to Windows 7, but of course if you are buying a new computer you can't get XP.

The fact that most computer manufacturers are still offering Windows 7 should tell you something.

I have Windows 7 64-bit Pro on a separate disk drive on my main computer and almost never use it. When I do use it, I find the display refreshes a little faster and a few apps come up a little quicker, but not by much. I think most of that is due to having a newer/better display driver than I have on XP (I still have not upgrade one single thing -- including Windows updates -- since I bought this computer four years ago). When using Windows 7 on this computer I did everything I could to make Window 7 look and act like Windows XP.

Last summer I bought a high-end Lenovo laptop and had Windows 7 64-bit Pro installed. This time I figured I should finally force myself to use Windows 7 without trying to change everything back to XP. My conclusion after six months: I can find absolutely nothing whatsoever -- nothing -- that I like better about Windows 7 compared to XP, and I'm still looking for something I can do better or faster with Windows 7. (I can list a long list of things that are done more easily in XP). I have never seen so many pointless changes to a product in my life. (See-through title bars -- whopee!).

So for me the answer is: get Windows 7 64-bit Pro, and if you don't want to spend lots of time adapting to all the pointless changes, then install all the XP shortcuts and you'll be very happy.

To those who prefer Windows 8.1, the GPU performance on my Windows 8.1 boot is ALWAYS slower no matter what driver I have tried!

It has been a while and I forget how long but will the latest NVidia driver finally work up to par or is it another waste of time?

By the way, Windows Media Player in Win 8.1 will not play DVDA compatible mpg files. The Windows 7 version will. So a quick view of them after render cannot be done. If the mpg file has audio and is not DVDA compatible then it will play.

>>>To those who prefer Windows 8.1, the GPU performance on my Windows 8.1 boot is ALWAYS slower no matter what driver I have tried!

I have just recently tested my dual boot system and have found to my surprise that the latest Nvidia drivers with Windows 8.1 x64 perform exactly like my Windows 7 x64 boot with the 296.10 driver. Oldsmoke has reported a 13% increase on his system when using W7 and the old driver, but on my older and less powerful system, the benchmarks are uncannily identical. And that wasn't always the case. I am quite pleased with the GPU performance under w8 and I am quite a big fan of Windows 8.1. Unlike many here who have chimed in, I actually use several of the "modern" apps and find them to be best in class for what they do.

Thanks much!

I will download the latest NVidia driver and give Windows 8.1 another chance.

Out of curiosity, which apps? I haven't found a single one I prefer to a traditional program.

@ddm

Which "modern" apps do you use and like?

Thank you again, everyone, for sharing your thoughts!

"I can find absolutely nothing whatsoever -- nothing -- that I like better about Windows 7 compared to XP"

I found *ONE* thing! I like the fact that i can rearrange the buttons on the Win7 task bar. Now i get annoyed that i can't do that with XP. On the other hand, i had to install "7 Taskbar Tweaker" to get the task bar back to looking and acting like XP/Classic98 in order to make it useful at all. Aside from being able to rearrange the buttons, the default 7 task bar is garbage.

One of the huge things that turned me off about the Win8 GUI is when i read the announcement that Microsoft had added the ability to open up two apps, side by side, each using half the screen. I thought it was odd that that was such a momentous thing until on further reading i discovered that the original plan was to only allow single full-screen windows for all apps. So now there's the option for two, side-by-side.

Ummmmmmmmm ... i often have 20 programs open, with small windows scattered all over the screen, so i can see important information from all of them at once. I'd find it extremely difficult to lose that ability. True, the Win8 restriction is only for Win8 style apps while older Windows software can still have resizable windows. But, Microsoft is pushing everyone to port to the new GUI style. That's going to have a huge backlash from a large number of users, especially businesses. It would be a deal-killer for me.

It just seems that Microsoft is convinced that no one uses mice or screens bigger than 10" anymore. Heck, i plug a mouse into my laptop, and it has a bigger screen than ALL my desktops ever had prior to my current one.

>>>>Which "modern" apps do you use and like?

The ones from Microsoft like the NEWS and SPORTS apps are news aggregators that lay out a customized view from your choice of sources. The Wikipedia app is the best looking iteration of Wikipedia, period. The NETFLIX app is excellent if you watch TV or Films on your computer. Flipboard, which is a great app as well, but that's also available on other mobile devices. There's a Twitter app called Tweatro that is excellent as well, but not free. All of these are leasure type apps, not business or productivity, but apps I use daily and thoroughly enjoy.

I like it when users say Win 8 is the best OS and then use a 3rd party software to make it look like Win 7. Win 7 definitely wins over XP because it is 64bit with full driver support. While you could get XP in 64bit, drivers for it where a nightmare. I don't see a difference between XP and Win7 taskbar... maybe I forgot already how XP looks like?

The thing is i don't like the XP default task bar much either, which is why i set it to Classic 98SE style. However, while in XP you had the choice between individual vs. stacked buttons, Win7 only allowed stacked. Win7 also did away with the quick launch area and customizing such things as the notification area and locking the task bar. True, the default XP task bar hides these features but they are available. Win7's task bar simply doesn't have them at all.

Here's a snapshot of the taskbar on my Win7 laptop:
http://www.chienworks.com/media/win7_taskbar_classic_tweaked.jpg

In my opinion, ALL of the newer style taskbars from Microsoft have been far less useful than the 98SE style, except for the fact that now in Win7 i can rearrange the buttons!