Update a 1st gen Surface Pro to Win 10?

[AnotherScott]

I have a 1st gen Surface Pro which I've hardly used, and I now want to do more with it. It will be used for nothing except as a glorified MIDI sound module (GigPerformer and some VSTs). It came with Win 8. Is there any reason I should not update it to Win 10? This article gives good reason for a VST user to update to Win 10, but considering the age of the computer and that it has just 4 GB RAM, I'm wondering whether sticking with Win 8 may leave more free RAM available for my apps, since newer OS versions tend to use more resources.

[MikeT156]

I don't know that Windows 10 would run on 4GB. If it does, it would be slow. Too bad you didn't score Windows 7. I still use it, and its the most reliable version of Windows I ever owned. We had Windows 10 at the last job I worked, and I found it annoying. Microsoft tries to add "features" to their new version in order to justify charging you for it. I don't need any more features in the OS than what I have in Windows 7.

 

Microsoft says they are discontinuing support for Windows 7, however, I have anti virus and malware software to protect my system from garbage on the internet. If you don't access the internet on a regular basis using Surface Pro, and its well behaved the way it is, I'd leave it alone. There's no advantage of Windows 10, certainly not for musicians. Equipment can become obsolete if you upgrade and drivers are not available for the OS you upgrade too.

 

Edit:

 

The article is definitely selling you on upgrading to Windows 10. He mentions driver support, which can be an issue if you have other equipment connected to your computer that is "dated". For example, if I wanted to "upgrade' to Windows 10, I would have to buy a new printer. No thank you. The author references an improvement in speed of audio, he says 15 percent. Hmm. If you are satisfied with your system the way it works now, why upgrade? Leave a sleeping dog sleep.

 

 

Mike T.

[AnotherScott]

I'm not satisfied or dissatisfied with the Surface Pro as it is now, because I haven't yet configured it to do what I want. ;-)

 

I will not be printing from it, or doing anything other than run the VSTs. So upgrading hardware or drivers is not a concern for me.

 

The most relevant part of the linked article is probably this:

 

a number of improvements in the native WASAPI (Windows Audio Session Application Program Interface) and MIDI drivers that may hold appeal for the average music maker.

 

The new MIDI API allows multi-client access to a single piece of MIDI hardware, along with jitter-free operation and other smaller bug fixes.

 

Also touted by Microsoft are the improvements to the audio stack and WASAPI itself the native equivalent of ASIO drivers for handling internal audio routing. Having had a chance to run some tests, Ive found that the claimed 15 percent improvement over the older WASAPIs seems to be holding true; if anything, it may be a conservative claim.

 

At this point. I have no external interface, and I am hoping that for my minimal use, I can use the built-in MIDI/audio functionality.

 

The setup will be a single MIDI IN-->VSTs-->Audio Out in real time. No DAW work.

 

[Melving]

Re surface pro - I have a win 10 surface pro 1st gen. Upgrade process was OK. I vaguely recall having to delete some noncompatible programs. Runs basic VSTs just fine. There's always the infinite pagefile if you run out of RAM... I always felt like the lack of SSD space was more limiting than the RAM. Also not a fan of mini ports...

[MoodyBluesKeys]

Been my experience professionally (like with clients) that W10 runs about the same as W8 or 8.1. 4G RAM is a bit limiting on either, but I don't think it can be user expanded. The INTERFACE on W10 is considerably better and easier to use.

 

In my own collection, I have 6 W10P computers (plus 3 VM W10P under Parallels on the MacBook Pro), most have 8GB of RAM, all have SSD and higher end processors i7 or Xeon. Also have two machines that are running 8.1 Media Center Edition. Both have HDTV tuners installed, 8G RAM, and regular hard drives. They are exclusively used for recording TV shows and playing back at my convenience. One is connected to cable, the other connected to an outdoor antenna. Either is capable of running W10, but Media Center no longer exists in W10, and I like it much better than Kodi.

 

If you use software like Acronis TrueImage to make an image backup (also make the needed USB Boot), you could easily return to W8 if the W10 doesn't work out for you. I did that with the W8.1 computers just long enough during the "free" upgrade to 10 period to get the electronic license key so I could change the machines later if desired.

 

My general experience has been that any software I have that was bought earlier, like for W7 or 8 runs fine on W10; although I'm sure that there ARE programs that won't (Adobe products are an example, they would have a later version that would work). Versions of Acronis before 2016 are not certified for W10.

 

[Markay]

I dislike Win 8 and upgraded to 10 as soon as it was possible. The biggest issue I have found updating has been the availability of current drivers for older video cards. By all means try the upgrade but there are ex lease Surface Pro 3's available here now for around $300 with 8GB RAM, i5 and 256gig SSD's with Win 10 Pro installed. I bought one of these a little while ago. Its fast and an impressive laptop tablet substitute. I use it for work when travelling. I think you will quickly exhaust the resources on the Pro 1 so spending not a lot to get a more powerful Pro 3 may be better option. The 1 may well run modelled VI's like VB3 OK, but streaming many of the current sampled VI's may be a challenge, particularly when using them concurrently in layers or splits.

[Jazzmammal]

Some years ago Cakewalk did extensive testing comparing Win10 to 7 and 8 specifically for DAW work using Sonar. The speed increase handling all the audio processing was considerably faster. In addition if you will be using the machine on the internet Win 10 is overall much more secure than even a fully up to day 8 system and just adding 3rd party AV software while ok doesn't match Win 10 as far as that's concerned. If security doesn't matter that much then fine, that's not an issue. Before someone jumps in and says this isn't true all I'll say is check it out for yourself. Win 10 has a revamped Windows Defender integrated into the OS making it more robust that tacking on a 3rd party AV software. I'm not an IT pro but I know people who are and that's what they tell me and it's what I've read too.

 

Microsoft has a utility to check if your system will work with Win10, if it passes go for it for a whole bunch of reasons.

 

Bob