Oh, yeah THAT is the real reason I hate upgrading too. I said last summer I was getting Win 8 but I lied...I really, really need to do it after tax season (I'm your friendly neighborhood tax guy) but I hear you, doing all that as fresh installs is a PITA but everything I've read tells me Win 8 is worth it, nobody has any problems with it (except of their own "head stuck in the mud" variety), it's faster, more stable and that's it.

Almost two years ago someone posted an article by a Cakewalk guru who tested Sonar on a brand new Win 8 machine and did bench testing on the same machine with a dual boot Win 7 install and Win 8 was considerably faster for high intensity audio multitracking stuff.

It's hard for older folks to realize that two years is a lifetime in the computer world.

Percy, don't worry about it, get your Win 8 laptop. I had a very brief experience with Win 8 a few months ago when my sister visited me for a weekend and she had a Win 8 laptop. It took me all of maybe two minutes to figure it out and yes it's works very similar to every other version of Windows you just have to learn a few basic things first. It's really no big deal. From what I've read Win 8.1 addresses some of those learning issues. It's supposed to act more like Win 7 right out of the box without you having to install some 3rd party app to get the Start button for example.

Bob

Biab/RB latest build, Win 11 Pro, Ryzen 5 5600 G, 512 Gig SSD, 16 Gigs Ram, Steinberg UR22 MkII, Roland Sonic Cell, Kurzweil PC3, Hammond SK1, Korg PA3XPro, Garritan JABB, Hypercanvas, Sampletank 3, more.