Moving from Windows 7 Pro to Windows 10 Pro - questions

[musicalweather]

I've been putting off thinking about this, but now I'm getting constant messages (together with a countdown clock) from Microsoft to upgrade to Windows 10.

I currently have a slave PC with Windows 7 Pro. I use it mainly for Vienna Ensemble Pro (5.4.1) , PLAY (version 4.2.35), Kontakt (5.5.2…) along with quite a number of sample libraries. (I also have NI Komplete on there but don't use it that much.) This PC is connected to the internet.

So, some questions:

Should I upgrade to Windows 10? Are there real benefits in doing so? Conversely, are there drawbacks to staying with Windows 7 Pro?

It appears that the upgrade from Windows 7 Pro to Windows 10 Pro will be free until the 29th of this month. It seems that it would make sense to upgrade now. But I'm still feeling wary of it.

I have been reading other threads about upgrading to Windows 10 and have gleaned some useful information from them. But it would help to get my questions answered directly.

Click to read more...

 

[JohnG]

I have upgraded all four of my PCs now. So far it's not that bad, but

1. My PCs are disconnected from the internet 99% of the time, and

2. It's been good for me to do some basic tweaking (and some not so basic). Even the basics have saved over 30% on CPU for my older PCs -- turning off "background" apps, for example.

There's a link here that collects many members' comments on what and how to tweak things, but be very careful about messing with BIOS. If you don't know what you're doing you can really wreck your computer with those:

http://vi-control.net/community/threads/windows-10-settings-stuff-you-can-turn-off-for-music.49446/

 

[tack]

Even the basics have saved over 30% on CPU for my older PCs -- turning off "background" apps, for example.

Are you sure you weren't comparing CPU load before and after having disabled CPU frequency scaling? A fair comparison would minimally ensure measurements are taken at the same clock speed.

 

[JohnG]

Fair question, tack, but the answer is no. I hadn't done anything to the BIOS, just Windows 10 tweaks.

 

[JohnG]

disabled CPU frequency scaling

and also, to be specific, I didn't do too many BIOS changes to this computer even after the Windows Settings changes because the computer itself is so old. Its BIOS doesn't have that much tweaking available.

 

[tack]

Fair question, tack, but the answer is no. I hadn't done anything to the BIOS, just Windows 10 tweaks.

But frequency scaling can be disabled in Windows only. You don't have to disable P-states in the BIOS. It's sufficient just to set the minumum CPU speed in the power plan settings in Windows' Power Options control panel to 100%.

 

[JohnG]

I don't even know what it is (as is probably apparent from my dumb post!). lols

 

[tack]

This link has some info on disabling CPU scaling via Windows' power profile settings (applies to W10 too):

http://isboxer.com/wiki/HOWTO:Disable_CPU_Throttling_in_Windows

I like to create icons on my desktop to toggle between high performance and balanced profiles. When I'm not doing anything latency sensitive, I drop back to the balanced profile:

http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/windows-vista/create-a-shortcut-or-hotkey-to-switch-power-plans/

 

[JohnG]

actually, I am wondering if the BIOS changes already disabled this scaling, as it was already set to 100% on all states.

Either way, I did it without knowing the correct nomenclature.