Microsoft: 240 million licenses of Windows 7 sold in first year

Emil

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Microsoft has announced that Windows 7 has sold more than 240 million copies so far, meaning it is still the fastest-selling operating system. Windows 7 turns one year old tomorrow.

"As of September, Windows 7 was running on 93% of new consumer PCs and has over 17% global OS market share (according to Net Applications as of October 1st)," Brandon LeBlanc, Windows Communications Manager, wrote in a blog post. "There is an amazing array of great PCs out on the market today. Six months after launch, 100% (over 18,000) of our OEM partners were selling Windows 7 PCs versus 70% for Windows Vista PCs at a comparable time period."

Three months after release, Microsoft said more than 60 million Windows 7 licenses were sold. Doing some simple math, it appears that sales aren't slowing down much.

Although Apple's Mac OS X and Linux-based operating systems have won some market share in the past few years, Microsoft still controls well over 90 percent of the world's 1.4 billion or so personal computers. That said, the software giant is lagging behind in the smartphone and tablet markets, though it has plans on pushing Windows out to both.

If you're already on Windows 7, you should check out our guides for Microsoft's latest operating system. If you're not on it yet, tell us why in the comments below.

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Wow. It's been a year? Amazing. I haven't had to reinstall it once and it still works just as fast as it did a year ago.

It's been stable and rock solid. I'm impressed.
 
This was the first OS I've bought since DOS 6.22. Having the free beta was probably the best marketing move MS made ever. Why convince people to buy a product when they can just use it and find out how fantastic it is? Yeah, Vista was a speed bump, but when you look at how good XP was (eventually) and how great Seven is, I can give them a pass.
 
Other OSes have had this for a long time. Except that there it's something that goes without saying and not anything "revolutionary".
 
Microsoft detractors aside, 240 million "of the world's 1.4 billion or so personal computers" in a single year is quite impressive to say the very least, considering Vista did less than half of that in almost the same amount of time (around 100 million in 13 months).
 
I admit I actually *do like* Windoze 7 Pro x64. It's quick, stable and usable (once you kick UAC to the curb). I still use Win XP Pro on my 8-yr old PC (and on several older PCs too), plus multi-boot 3 PCs with PCLinuxOS 2010.07. I got my Win7 for $100 when Micro$oft had their brief pre-order sale back in July 2009, but I'm not willing to shell out $200/PC to upgrade my Win7-capable 8yr. old PC to Win7.
Sure am glad I skipped Vista aka Windows ME2.
 
bmaytum said:
but I'm not willing to shell out $200/PC to upgrade my Win7-capable 8yr. old PC to Win7.
That's why you buy the Home Premium Family 3 pack for $150, if you don't mind Home Premium that is. Though I suppose there's a REASON why you have Professional and not Home Premium (lol), though whether you need it for all your computers is up to you. =o
 
Guest said:
Other OSes have had this for a long time. Except that there it's something that goes without saying and not anything "revolutionary".

What does this even mean? And how is it related to the article? Other OSes have sold 240 million in a year?
 
I admit I actually *do like* Windoze 7 Pro x64. It's quick, stable and usable (once you kick UAC to the curb).

What was your problem with UAC? I've never had an issue with it personally, using the same version as you.
 
Microsoft stock still sucks! How come?? Why is Apple stock climbing over $300 and is already twice as valuable as Microsoft????? Oh I own Microsoft and everybody hates me .. boo hoo!!
 
And for those who wear kilts of this clan......
Microsoft stock still sucks! How come?? Why is Apple stock climbing over $300 and is already twice as valuable as Microsoft????? Oh I own Microsoft and everybody hates me .. boo hoo!!
Top of the "MacDay" to ya, Mr, "MacTroll". Off with you now, go count your "MacMoney". That was your "MacStock" you were talkimg about wasn't it?

What was your problem with UAC? I've never had an issue with it personally, using the same version as you.
Moving right along, Windows UAC can be annoying, especially when you're the sole operator of the machine. When you punch up a program you, and only you, use every day, the screen darkens, and the interrogation begins. I only keep it operable; 1, because I'm too lazy to shut it off, and 2, so that no matter which possibly heinous website I visit, I'll get the warning when I need it.
 
Moving right along, Windows UAC can be annoying, especially when you're the sole operator of the machine. When you punch up a program you, and only you, use every day, the screen darkens, and the interrogation begins. I only keep it operable; 1, because I'm too lazy to shut it off, and 2, so that no matter which possibly heinous website I visit, I'll get the warning when I need it.

I can't say mine does that - It plays a sound at me and immediately shows me the UAC box. I don't think my screen has ever darkened?!?

I guess I'm used to it with using OSX and Linux, as it doesn't bother me in the slightest.
 
The screen does darken behind the UAC box! I have Aero operating in full feature mode. This is with UAC at default, (2 out of 3 notches up).

How long it takes UAC to darken the screen, has sort of a been a minor benchmark as to a machine's hardware ability to run Win7.

Perhaps I did overstate, "interrogation" a twitch, meh, or a smidge...:rolleyes:
 
Well Leeky, then you either have a very special PC, or a different UAC / Aero setting. That would be an interesting addition to Win 7, SP-1, a setting to, "bypass UAC for commonly used programs". Maybe that's in there already, I just haven't found it yet. :confused:
 
Is this a sold number being used Win7 systems, or does this number include machines in warehouses, on retailer shelves and on assembly line?

Tis odd they will not let winXP be installed in any new computers, another attempt to boost the Win7 numbers?

In my opinion all US stores should sell computer systems without an operating system, and if someone wants Microsoft operating system pull out your credit card and purcase before your Microsoft operating system starts, or the consumer could instead install a free operating system.

There are many dual boot systems that seldom use Win7 or many that are forced to remove Win7 after paying a Microsoft Tax to secure a computer at any of the Big Box retailers... Maybe there are many methods used to included non Microsoft systems in the sales number flaunted by this article...
 
"Well Leeky, then you either have a very special PC, or a different UAC / Aero setting. That would be an interesting addition to Win 7, SP-1, a setting to, "bypass UAC for commonly used programs". Maybe that's in there already, I just haven't found it yet."

The best way is to just turn off UAC and create a true normal (limited) account in Windows. Use the "run as" command in your normal account to run programs that need it as administrator. This can be done in most of the NT versions, including Seven, Vista, and XP. UAC was at best a half baked idea that is only a partial stop gap measure for the uninformed to continue to infect their computers with malware. Of course the very best way to not get malware is not to use Windows to surf the internet at all, as Linux works very well for that and is free as well.

Linux (and probably Mac OS X) have mostly used limited accounts by default and have great security compared to windows products for a long time now. Even if you secure windows properly, which very few people do, it will not be as secure as Linux/BSD/Mac (unix type systems or clones). But that is not to say that windows cannot be secured better than they come off the selve than there are. The problem is since almost everyone runs as administrator (UAC is not a true normal user account!) so many types of malware software has been written for windows, modified, that the malware exsists in the wild and is very common, unlike unix type systems. Its so easy to install a trojan on windows, because it exists almost everywhere. The other part of the problem in securing windows better, is some of the terrible middleware that Microsoft has embedded into the operation system, like Internet Exploder (activeX), Outlook, WMP, and Messinger, these are major malware targets for the writers. Best to remove them and use open source alternatives that provide a smaller attack surface, like Firefox/Chrome and SMPlayer/VLC.

The 240 million sold figure is basically a bogus figure. Consider that you really have little choice when you go to the stores like Best Buy, its Windows is all they sell. Could be because of the strong arming of OEM's, and that MS owns a small percentage of Best Buy? Also, 13% of the world's computer's get replaced every year, its hardware, and it goes bad. A few more percent is first time buyers in countries like China and India. Those two figures added together maybe as high as 18%, which is a lot higher than Seven is selling. Admittedly Many computers sell with linux, no OS, or pirated windows in some of these countries. Oddly enough, its still XP that the folks in the Orient want, rather than Seven when they do pirate Windows.
 
Well Leeky, then you either have a very special PC, or a different UAC / Aero setting. That would be an interesting addition to Win 7, SP-1, a setting to, "bypass UAC for commonly used programs". Maybe that's in there already, I just haven't found it yet. :confused:

I've not changed anything other than keeping the default Aero setup it decided on when Windows 7 was installed? Literally the only change from the installation is to choose the United Kingdom theme pack - God only knows why, I can't stand the country. :haha:

I do know what you mean though, because my MSI laptop, and other Windows7 computers all darken the screen and have a delay before the dialogue box appears - My Windows 7 Pro (only this is Pro, rest are ultimate editions) installation on my PC doesn't though, it just immediately throws up the dialogue box without changing the backround, or darkening it or otherwise, whatsoever.

I've never really thought about it but I guess maybe its my SSD speeding it all up. I wouldn't consider my PC special either, well not in the "amazing or expensive" meaning of that, plenty of people on here have much better systems than I do. Yours probably is. lol.

Who knows, I don't, all I can do is say what I see with my own eyes. I don't know why it doesn't, but it doesn't for some reason.
 
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