Which Windows to upgrade to: 7, 8.1, 10

[dstrege08]

I have enjoyed my Win Vista and have been able to use all of my Magix and Xara products. Sadly I'm seeing all of my product upgrades passing me by bc they no longer run on Vista.
As long as no matter which version I end up with it will have to be a complete new install, I'm trying to make the best selection for my programs.
Does anyone have any insight into which version best with Xara?
I'm using Xara Designer Pro X (365). I also would like to consider Photostory, but newest version requires my Windows upgrade to 7, 8.1, or 10. I hav a quad core desktop with 6GB RAM.
Also want to return to my missing Magic Video Pro X (sorry, another forum).
So which version of windows might b my best option? Any insight would b deeply appreciated.
David

[Acorn]

10

[PhilM]

10

[Peter Prewett]

7 if you want to be able to control you computer 10 if you want to allow Microsoft to do so and install rubbish that you never will use and cannot delete.
I have gone back from 10 to 7 on all of our computers.

[ss-kalm]

10

[gwpriester]

10 What I like about 10 vs 8 is that Windows configures your screen to as close as possible to how it was before you upgraded. Not sure how close this will be going from Vista, but 10 has been very good and stable for me.

[dstrege08]

Thanks everyone for the recommendations.
Peter's comments about losing control is the biggest reason I haven't left my Vista. I come from an IT background and I always hated the idea of Big Brother Microsoft trying to manipulate how my pc functions. Now that I'm feeling pushed into an upgrade I've dreaded that loss of control. Windows 10 seems popular for Xara, but as I mentioned above I'm also trying to look at my Magix video programs. Sounds like they don't play as well with Win10 as Xara seems to.
I guess I'll wait and see if I receive anymore opinions before jumping in.
Again, thanks everyone for the insight. For most it isn't a big decision. If they could get my XDPX back working on my Vista i wouldn't feel so left out. They say they are working on a fix. I guess we'll see.

[PhilM]

Microsoft are a reasonable organisation. They do not set out to annoy or abuse their customers - but like anyone they might sometimes make mistakes.

if you install Windows 10 you will still be in control of your computer and you can configure it however you like. MS will deliver updates and security fixes automatically by default, which is a good thing IMHO, but that too can be configured.

Phil

[xtom]

Well they annoyed the heck out of me, aside from constantly nagging with the taskbar notificaton for months with no way dismiss it without delving into registry they got so desperate to force people to adopt they even got sneaky with the close X button. I'm using Win10 now after a laptop upgrade and it's fine (data mining aside) but I don't like their recent methods used to push win10.

http://www.extremetech.com/extreme/2...pgrade-process

It has adopted malware-like obfuscation tactics designed to trick people into choosing an upgrade they didn’t want

[DanFelix]

10, but the summer Update (1607) can cause some things to falter, all repairable.