I used to own the full version of Sound Forge: that is...back when Sony owned it.

Am continuing to use Sound Forge Audio Studio v10: which is at least 10 years old, and was also a Sony product. But although it can load .FLAC files? Saving the result as .FLAC causes all tags to be lost. In most instances, the files it creates are only slightly compatible with the format; most music-playback software either refuses to play the files—or reluctantly does so, but a variety of glitches (incorrect or no duration displayed; only a brief portion of the track plays, in a loop; many many other problems).

But I have no other options. So I save as .WAV, then load the file in Audacity and export as .FLAC: not only because it creates a well-formed .FLAC file, but also it gives me an opportunity to recreate the tags manually. (Audacity causes my PC to crash about 10% of the time...but usually it works.)

When I saw the Black Friday price for Sound Forge Pro, I was interested. (BTW, what kind of software development company is 100% oblivious to the existence of Cyber Monday?? Makes you wonder whether anyone at Magix has a brain...or, if so, could ever be persuaded to make use of it.)

But no. Clearly my once-well-performing but now somewhat fiddly PC (at least six years-old) is unlikely to be able to run a product with specifications leading off with "Windows 8; Windows 10," and what I am running? Windows 7. And I intend to upgrade from that OS only after you pry Windows 7 from my...awww..."you know the words," as our newest insect overlord once said.

So I look at the upgrade price for Sound Forge Audio Studio 14. Good deal.

Specs. Once again: Windows 8 or Windows 10.

Looks as if I'll have to continue limping along.

I'm not much good at audio editing, and don't plan to learn. I'm too old. (I would love to be able to install my CD-ROM of Photoshop CS1, but Adobe won't let me. Even though I bought the damned thing, and even though I'm terminally ill. Corporate bastards doing their S.O.P. corporate thing. What else can they do? Not much...]

Sure, I could back up my entire PC to my Samsung 1TB SSD, then install Magix software...while anxiously crossing my fingers.

But the PC-hardware geniuses who built my machine? They closed their doors due to the pandemic. As has almost every small business in my medium-sized (1 million metro population) city.

I'm paying rental on a painfully-slow router which was discontinued almost five years ago, and can be bought used for less than $50. Can't even get my ISP to answer their phone. My area has only two sources for residential broadband, and both are among the usual monopolistic suspects. "We've got you by the balls, so we don't try hard[ly]...ever." (Those among you who are also older than fifty, probably you'll recognize the reference.

Thanks to COVID-19, customer and tech support have become almost a thing of the past. If you don't have [at least one!] friend with serious hardware and/or software guru chops? You're on your own.

[ Look at *this* site. No phone numbers or email addresses.

Nope.

Merely a forum, and links to social media.

F൮↻✫ that...I mean, is "social" more than a synonym for incels, white supremacists, your grandparents etc.? ]

All I can do is hope my barely-working devices don't break. Many of which are essential—for everything from paying my bills, listening to music, communicating with the world, or downloading pics related to [insert-eccentric-but-harmless-topic here] from increasingly-difficult-to-use Google Image Search.

[I stuck with Windows 3.1 and Windows XP for extraordinary, extravagant, questionably-sane lengths of time. As far as I'm concerned, those were the only halfway-livable versions MS ever released. Windows 7 is only just barely tolerable. Windows 8 barely exists. Everything from Windows 10 onward is a corporate lawyer and a sub-directorate NSA functionary's wet dream.]

Anyone who's had good (or bad) experiences running Magix audio software on Windows 7, please respond.

If someone who actually works for Magix can recommend an older version less likely to kill my PC, while actually being capable of creating usable .FLAC files? And a means for obtaining it? Please...I could use a little help.

(Yesterday, amazon.com refused to answer their phone for at least six hours. Not sure whether their massive army of customer service reps are still twiddling their thumbs. Perhaps we're beginning to experience the inevitable outcome of growth without limit: during a period when, for multiple reasons, many of our interdependent systems are failing.)