Windows 10, the latest version of the flagship Microsoft operating system, has started to become available as a free upgrade to eligible users already running Windows 7, 8, or 8.1. Microsoft is rolling out the update in stages to help manage the demand. A Windows 10 app will appear in your taskbar and you’ll get a notification when the upgrade is ready; CNET, among many other tech sites, has more details on how to upgrade.
Here’s what we know about Windows 10 and compatibility with popular music notation software.
Sibelius
As of August 11, 2015, Avid said that “Windows 10 is fully supported at this time.” You can subscribe to the Avid Knowledge Base article as well as the general status article to receive updates regarding the status of other Avid products and Windows 10.
Finale
Finale 2014, Finale 2012, PrintMusic 2014, SongWriter 2012, and NotePad 2012 are all “fully compatible with Windows 10” according to this MakeMusic article updated on July 28, 2015. MakeMusic recommends that you have the most recent maintenance update available for your program. Earlier versions of MakeMusic’s notation software are “considered legacy programs and are no longer eligible for support,” although it is not clear if Finale 2011 and earlier will successfully run on Windows 10 despite being unsupported.
MuseScore
MuseScore lists its latest stable version, MuseScore 2.0.2, as compatible with Windows 10, 8, and 7.
StaffPad
StaffPad “will work in its current form on Windows 10. However, there are a few interactions that have changed, mostly around the charms and app bar,” according to a July 28 blog post by co-founder David William Hearn on the app’s web site. As the notation product most deeply integrated with the Windows touch-and-pen experience, David further describes the details of how the StaffPad experience changes on Windows 10. He also says that StaffPad’s UI and codebase will be extensively updated in the coming weeks “to fully embrace the Windows 10 design ethos, features and experience.”
Please share your experience using any of these products in the comments section, and we’ll update this post as warranted.
Updated on August 11, 2015 to reflect that Sibelius is fully supported on Windows 10.
Gregory Winters
Thanks for this note, Phillip. Microsoft states that “virtually all applications” that run in v7 and v8.1 should not experience problems, but I appreciate this heads up as I was about to follow their advice!
Philip Rothman
Hi Gregory, if you do decide to take the plunge, let us know how you get on!
Bob Ross
AVID once again asleep at the wheel?
Why rush the new release and the subscription model before Windows 10, if it isn’t compatible with it?
charles gaskell
Will Avid fix only version 8, or previous versions as well? If the latter, how many versions will they go back?
If the former, then people wanting to stay current with Windows will be forced down the subscription route…
Fabian
like always: the latest version of any OS is not supported in Sibelius. AVID wants extra money for a non-upgrade called SIB 8 and yet is not on the running… wondering what happens with Mac OS 10.11?… no I know what will happen: “el Capitan is not yet supported”
Bill
No one’s asleep at the wheel… There’s always a chance that some small change made at the last minute before release will case problems. That’s why “qualification” doesn’t happen until after release.
I’ve be running Sibelius, Finale, Notion, Overture and MuseScore on the Windows 10 preview without any issues. Ditto Play, Kontakt, UVI and VSL VI.
Dev Kom
I am not able to share files from Sibelius 8 after upgrading to Windows 10. Can anyone help with this please?
Laurence Payne
I suggest you take this to:
http://www.sibelius.com/cgi-bin/helpcenter/chat/chat.pl?groupid=3
giving fuller details of exactly what the problem is.
MJ
Bill,
I just upgraded to Windows 10 and my copy of Overture 4.1 can’t seem to find any midi drivers. Do you know a solution?
Mike Evans
Thanks for the update regarding Windows 10. Was just about to upgrade the PC but will now wait until Qualification of Avid Products is completed.
Gregory Winters
I took the plunge after doing some more research. Windows 10 can be completely rolled back, if necessary. Everything that I use in Sibelius worked just fine in 10. All I noticed was that when I close the application, my score blows up to a huge proportion for just a second before the window closes. Weird, but not a problem for me.
Philip Rothman
Thanks for the report!
Brad Fuller
Avid could have at least made sure that Sib8 ran on Windows 10 before they released it. That’s the least that they could have done with such a limited feature upgrade
Scot
Made the mistake of upgrading to Win 10 and can report that Sibelius, Windows 10, and the Surface Pro 3 have issues, at least using the trial version of Sibelius 8.
The main problem for me is in dealing with selections. If I right click using the mouse, long press with the pen, or use the equivalent right click pen button, the entire selection de-selects before the option menu comes up.
The pen eraser button also does not act as the escape key.
Henk-Jan
I installed Windows 10 and got the message in Sibelius that audio device was not found. It could not be installed via mixer. I returned back to windows 8.1 and wait till a better solution is presented. Anybody experiencing the same problem?
Gregory Winters
I had two issues – one which is ongoing since I installed an additional sound device on my system. I’ve received the “…can’t find driver” message from Sibelius ever since I installed the sound card, but I simply click out of it and everything worked. Interestingly, even though I select the “Don’t ask again” checkbox, Sibelius ignores that and continues to ask me. On the Win10 upgrade, I had to go to the Realtek website and download an updated driver which hadn’t been released to Microsoft by the time Win10 was available. After a quick and painless install, however, now everything is working fine.
Philip Rothman
I’ve updated the post to reflect that Sibelius is now “fully supported” on Windows 10, according to Avid.
Scot
Still, right click acts as escape and deselects an entire selection on surface pro 3 with windows 10, and long press pen does the same thing while the pen “eraser” button does nothing.
Laurence Payne
Under Windows 10, Sibelius couldn’t see the onboard audio of my laptop computer. A solution was to replace portaudio_x64 in the program folder with the alternative version mentioned here. Unfortunately, the link Daniel gave has stopped working.
http://www.sibelius.com/cgi-bin/helpcenter/chat/chat.pl?com=thread&start=551643&groupid=3&words=portaudio_x64.dll&name=
Laurence Payne
UPDATE to my post above:
The link’s back.
http://avid.force.com/pkb/articles/en_US/Troubleshooting/en417515
JEAN COURTIOUX
SIBELIUS 7 fonctionne parfaitement sous Windows 10
Patrick Alexander
Yesterday, I upgraded my lap-top from Windows 7 to Windows 10, and somehow I lost all sound when using the play-back function (even though the Sibelius opening music plays at start-up. . I’m not sure how to repair this. The audio engine drop-down boxes are empty and greyed out. I would be grateful for any assistance.
Laurence Payne
I solved this initially, for the onboard audio of an Acer laptop computer, with this:
http://avid.force.com/pkb/articles/en_US/Troubleshooting/en417515
Later, I went to Device Manager, removed the audio device and allowed it to reinstall. This allowed me to restore the original portaudio.dll file. I suggest you try this first.
Laurence Payne
We seem to be getting a rash of support enquiries here recently. Maybe better to use:
http://www.sibelius.com/cgi-bin/helpcenter/chat/chat.pl?groupid=3
Patrick Alexander
Sorry Laurence. I tried the not-very-user-friendly helpcenter, but it failed to recognize my password and/or my e-mail address. I tried this blog out of sheer frustration.
Patrick Alexander
Laurence, your suggestion – troubleshooting/en417515 worked! Thank you very much indeed!
Mark Burnip
Can somebody help me please………
I have just bought a Windows Edge ( Fusion) tablet/ laptop and it runs on Windows 10.
No matter how hard I try I cannot get Sibelius 8 to run on it.
I can download the software fro Avid but I can’t open the software file on my tablet.
Does Windows 10 work with my Fusion tablet?
Many thanks
Mr. Esa Manninen
Why doesn´t Finale 2012 work in Windows 10?
Michael
Windows 10 can be a 32Bit os, or 64Bi os… 23Bit programs do not like 64Bit os environments… Start there… OS=Operating Systems. FYI