Leftenant Dano

I expressed my frustration earlier about how the normally powerful gaming laptop I inherited was handicapped with a halfway-between Windows 8 and 8.1, so I couldn’t do any productive projects. Everything I tried - including downloading and installing Cakewalk - produced nothing but front-and-center messageboxes about some process having failed, ended suddenly, or unable to go any further. Many computers occasionally get cross-eyed, but mine was tied up in “cannots”. Since all I got out of that machine was increased blood pressure, I put it back into its carry bag, took it down to a dark corner of my basement, and nearly forgot about it. Meanwhile, I was working in my main studio (which has a c. 2010 tower PC on Windows 7), and recently upgraded the audio interface from a little 2-in/4-out FireWire desktop box to a new Focusrite Scarlett rack-mount. Its install didn’t lack hitches and glitches, either. I put in a request to tech support and left it alone. By this time, I was very tired of error messages and failure-to-completes, and spied the laptop bag in the basement corner. I had been researching how to upgrade older versions of Windows, and thought it might be worthwhile to attempt a modernization on the portable so it might be released from the purgatory of Windows “Hate”. At first, I had my doubts as I began the procedure, but I let it run for several hours. I left the room and spoke in a whisper lest I jinx it. Finally, the process completed, and the PC displayed a brand-new fully functional Windows 10 desktop. I nearly fell over when I saw that this had actually worked! Tomorrow I’m going to download and install Cakewalk on my newly invigorated Win 10 machine, and start discovering how to produce music on a new DAW that I haven’t used before. Hopefully, it will load up and work just fine, now that I’ve gotten past the former roadblocks. My father may have been right when he said I was stubborn. Stay tuned!

I expressed my frustration yesterday at not being able to get Cakewalk up and running, but after some reflection, I realize that the computer I want to use CW on has some issues, and I have been working on getting them resolved. That PC, which I received second-hand as a gift, has Windows 8 on it (it’s a 2012-vintage machine), and that may be the reason CW won’t start on it. One thing I saw said something about “VS2013” bring required. I did some checking, and this apparently refers to Microsoft Visual C++ Studio. Now, I’m not a programmer, and don’t want to have to bu some big development package. I wasn’t sure if the VS2013 requirement meant getting this whole big package, or just one file (driver?). I was able to download a package that said “Community Support”, but it’s the 2019 version and won’t run under Win 8. Am I on the right track, or way off here? Any suggestions are welcome. Thanks!

I got this PC (second hand) earlier this week, and have been trying without success for most of a day to get Cakewalk installed on it and running properly. It might not help that this system is running what I call "Windows Hate"because it's from about 2012 (other users know it as Windows 8). I am going to attach the error messages so that between me and the community on this forum, we can figure out how to get things up and running. Thanks for any assistance in getting going with this!