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Windows 11 for audio?

I had all sorts of problems with Win 11. Recycle bin would disappear and shortly afterwards desktop would freeze, even Microsoft and several re-installs did not work. I upgraded to 12 and all is fine with no other changes.
 
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I'm quite satisfied with Windows 10.
With it, I'm using hardware designed for Windows XP. A compatibility I would never get on Mac.
True. Compatibility is a weak point of Apple.
At this point, I'm jealous of the aggregate devices option on macOS. Now I have only four channels left on my 24-channel mixer. With macOS, I could add another audio interface instead of buying a bigger and bigger mixer whenever my studio grows. I already have 8 channels free on the Focusrite interface, which I cannot use together with the mixer (which also works as a multi-channel audio interface).
Windows never was made with audio in mind. By looking at what they're doing with W11 (and what they were doing in the last decade), I lost hope that MS will ever care about audio. They have different priorities.

ps. yes, I'm getting old, and I need an OS for grandpas :laugh:
 
True. Compatibility is a weak point of Apple.
At this point, I'm jealous of the aggregate devices option on macOS. Now I have only four channels left on my 24-channel mixer. With macOS, I could add another audio interface instead of buying a bigger and bigger mixer whenever my studio grows. I already have 8 channels free on the Focusrite interface, which I cannot use together with the mixer (which also works as a multi-channel audio interface).
Windows never was made with audio in mind. By looking at what they're doing with W11 (and what they were doing in the last decade), I lost hope that MS will ever care about audio. They have different priorities.

ps. yes, I'm getting old, and I need an OS for grandpas :laugh:
I disagree.
The last few versions of windows brought significant improvements for audio such as the ease of use of multiple audio interfaces concurrently, per application mixer and more.
Support for a full stack midi 2 is actively being worked on. Hopefully it won't be a v11 exclusive.
 
I disagree.
The last few versions of windows brought significant improvements for audio such as the ease of use of multiple audio interfaces concurrently, per application mixer and more.
Support for a full stack midi 2 is actively being worked on. Hopefully it won't be a v11 exclusive.
But you can't use two of them in one app like DAW. I'm not gonna wait for W20 (with built-in adverts ;) and even more bloatware) to have it.

Btw, all major new features are already W11 exclusive, so forget about having it in W10. W10 is getting only minor updates and no new major features since the launch of W11.
 
I have a sample server built with Win 11 and found two things:

1 - Win 11 is more restrictive over user control. Microsoft has superseded Apple in the "tell the user what to do" category. Not a good trend at all.
2 - Security updates can not truly be disabled as they could in 8 and 10. This sample server shuts down VEPro and reboots about once a week, and every single user-configurable option regarding updates is turned off. Even editing Group Policy only works temporarily. You have to manually set it after every reboot, and even that doesn't seem to completely prevent auto-updates. You can only pause updates within the OS, and only restrict restarts for up to 18 hours a day. The only alternative is to keep Win11 systems completely offline, and deal with the constant reminders.

After being a PC user and building almost all of my own systems for decades (since DOS days), I am planning to move to a Mac for my host system, and perhaps for the next sample server as well. I'll keep older i7s for servers as long as I can, but between sample library updates, VEPro, iLok, etc, those systems remain compatible for long. Macs are far from perfect, as some have noted here, but Microsoft's trajectory with Windows 11 is concerning to say the least. At best I think they are headed towards a less flexible controlled ecosystem. It may work fine for self-contained audio production (all in one PC), but for larger networked systems I am not optimistic.
 
Quite extreme.
Did you try:

Running Power troubleshooter
Enabling battery power saver
Disabling fast start
Disabling Bluetooth & WiFi when not using them
Stop apps from refreshing in the background
Lower the refresh rate for your display
Use a dark background or theme
Decrease time for lock screen timeout
Video Playback : Optimize for battery
Lower screen brightness
Disable autostart apps
I wouldn't suggest lowering refresh rate. Visually fatiguing.
 
I have a sample server built with Win 11 and found two things:

1 - Win 11 is more restrictive over user control. Microsoft has superseded Apple in the "tell the user what to do" category. Not a good trend at all.
2 - Security updates can not truly be disabled as they could in 8 and 10. This sample server shuts down VEPro and reboots about once a week, and every single user-configurable option regarding updates is turned off. Even editing Group Policy only works temporarily. You have to manually set it after every reboot, and even that doesn't seem to completely prevent auto-updates. You can only pause updates within the OS, and only restrict restarts for up to 18 hours a day. The only alternative is to keep Win11 systems completely offline, and deal with the constant reminders.

After being a PC user and building almost all of my own systems for decades (since DOS days), I am planning to move to a Mac for my host system, and perhaps for the next sample server as well. I'll keep older i7s for servers as long as I can, but between sample library updates, VEPro, iLok, etc, those systems remain compatible for long. Macs are far from perfect, as some have noted here, but Microsoft's trajectory with Windows 11 is concerning to say the least. At best I think they are headed towards a less flexible controlled ecosystem. It may work fine for self-contained audio production (all in one PC), but for larger networked systems I am not optimistic.

I wouldn't go so far as to become another "Apple Scruff", however, there is no need whatsoever to upgrade to Win 11 yet. Besides, rumor has it they will release yet another version before Win 10 EOL October 14, 2025.
 
I have a sample server built with Win 11 and found two things:

1 - Win 11 is more restrictive over user control. Microsoft has superseded Apple in the "tell the user what to do" category. Not a good trend at all.
2 - Security updates can not truly be disabled as they could in 8 and 10. This sample server shuts down VEPro and reboots about once a week, and every single user-configurable option regarding updates is turned off. Even editing Group Policy only works temporarily. You have to manually set it after every reboot, and even that doesn't seem to completely prevent auto-updates. You can only pause updates within the OS, and only restrict restarts for up to 18 hours a day. The only alternative is to keep Win11 systems completely offline, and deal with the constant reminders.

After being a PC user and building almost all of my own systems for decades (since DOS days), I am planning to move to a Mac for my host system, and perhaps for the next sample server as well. I'll keep older i7s for servers as long as I can, but between sample library updates, VEPro, iLok, etc, those systems remain compatible for long. Macs are far from perfect, as some have noted here, but Microsoft's trajectory with Windows 11 is concerning to say the least. At best I think they are headed towards a less flexible controlled ecosystem. It may work fine for self-contained audio production (all in one PC), but for larger networked systems I am not optimistic.
I didn’t find a difference between Win10 and Win11 for your number one. Maybe I just configured it differently?

There’s probably a solution for number two, but it should be built in. Chances are that an actual server version would be fine rather than one intended for home use. I’d search for the solution on the Internet.
 
I've been kicking the tires with Windows 11, and overall, it appears to perform a little bit better than Windows 10 from a "perceived UX" perspective. (It just *feels* a bit faster for regular operations). Nothing faster or noticeable inside the DAW, though. It also feels a little bit faster than my semi-equivalent mac (Mac is i9-9900k w/64G) and the PC is Ryzen 9 5950x w/64G. I don't think you'll run in to any compatibility problems with Win11 unless your computer lacks a TPM module (required for Win11). I did a clean install of Win11, fwiw.

As another aside, the overt advertising in the start menu that I saw in Windows 10, has largely gone away in Windows 11 from what I can tell. There's still some subtle applications in the start menu that I didn't install on my computer, but it feels less intrusive than Win10 did.
 
Btw, all major new features are already W11 exclusive, so forget about having it in W10. W10 is getting only minor updates and no new major features since the launch of W11.
Partially true at best.
Example : compatibility with Linux gui apps was limited to windows 11's subsystem for Linux.
It's now also available on windows 10.
 
I didn’t find a difference between Win10 and Win11 for your number one. Maybe I just configured it differently?

There’s probably a solution for number two, but it should be built in. Chances are that an actual server version would be fine rather than one intended for home use. I’d search for the solution on the Internet.
Already searched extensively. Group Policy is the only option, and this is Windows 11 pro. The only difference vs Home is added security options with Bitlocker and WIP.

My number 1 was one of the first things I noticed compared to my Win10 i7 system because turning off security is one of the first things I do when setting up a new PC.
 
Already searched extensively. Group Policy is the only option, and this is Windows 11 pro. The only difference vs Home is added security options with Bitlocker and WIP.

My number 1 was one of the first things I noticed compared to my Win10 i7 system because turning off security is one of the first things I do when setting up a new PC.
Im guessing they want people running servers to pay for a server license. Annoying.

Sorta like Apple’s forced plugin updates and other things. There’s no winning - it’s just picking what we the user lose on.
 
I've been extremely reluctant to upgrade from Windows 10 to Windows 11.

However, according to this video, audio performances as tested by Dawbench* have increased 15-20 % at low buffer sizes on dsp tests, while similar with a loss at most of 5 % on AMD and 2 % on Intel on the virtual instruments tests.

For those who took the plunge, how do you like Windows 11 for composing, producing, mixing, mastering?

* AMD 5950X, Intel 11900K, RME Babyface.


Switched to W11 on all machines and never looked back.
 
True. Compatibility is a weak point of Apple.
At this point, I'm jealous of the aggregate devices option on macOS. Now I have only four channels left on my 24-channel mixer. With macOS, I could add another audio interface instead of buying a bigger and bigger mixer whenever my studio grows. I already have 8 channels free on the Focusrite interface, which I cannot use together with the mixer (which also works as a multi-channel audio interface).
Windows never was made with audio in mind. By looking at what they're doing with W11 (and what they were doing in the last decade), I lost hope that MS will ever care about audio. They have different priorities.

ps. yes, I'm getting old, and I need an OS for grandpas :laugh:
Not to be that guy, but why not just get an audio interface with a driver that supports multiple interfaces simultaneously? E.g. RME or UA. Use your existing mixer as a mixer if you feel benefit/value from it in your workflow, and use the interfaces as-intended. I've ditched the mixing desks over here. Control surfaces only in terms of mixing operations.
 
Not to be that guy, but why not just get an audio interface with a driver that supports multiple interfaces simultaneously? E.g. RME or UA. Use your existing mixer as a mixer if you feel benefit/value from it in your workflow, and use the interfaces as-intended. I've ditched the mixing desks over here. Control surfaces only in terms of mixing operations.
I already decided to move to Mac, so I don't see a need to buy interfaces like RME or UA.
 
Btw. it looks like I'm not insane after all and Windows indeed has a problem with battery draining.
I can't believe that MS (and Intel) are seeing this as a 'feature'.
 
Watch out for drivers my opinion is if it ain’t broke don’t fix it. In my opinion windows 11 it’s just a money grab. You have to turn off a hell of a lot of things if you don’t want to get spied on. That and it’s harder and harder to make an account that isn’t tied into the cloud.
 
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