Windows 7 is still used on a quarter of all PCs

[midian182]

Why it matters: It’s been almost five months since Windows 7 reached the end of its extended support period, meaning that the only users to receive extended security updates (ESUs) are businesses and education customers willing to pay for them. Despite this, the venerable OS is still the second most popular operating system behind Windows 10, taking a near 25 percent share of the market.

Hard as it is to believe, Windows 7 released way back in 2009. It exited mainstream support and entered its extended support phase in January 2015, allowing users to still receive free critical security patches, bug fixes, and technical support for the next five years.

On January 14 this year, the extended support period ended. ESUs are still available to all Windows 7 Professional and Windows 7 Enterprise customers, but Microsoft charges $25 (Enterprise) or $50 (Pro) per machine, and those prices go up every year.

With Windows 7 no longer receiving patches for newly discovered vulnerabilities, it’s increasingly at risk from cyber attacks—the UK’s National Cyber Security Center has warned people not to use Windows 7 for internet banking or even emails. But its number of users has barely changed since January, with the OS still found on almost a quarter of PCs (24.28 percent), according to NetMarketShare.

Twelve months ago, Windows 7 had a 35 percent share of the market, so a 10 percent drop for a decade-old OS that’s no longer supported isn’t bad at all. But why do so many want to avoid upgrading to Windows 10? A lot of it is due to privacy concerns surrounding the modern system, though Microsoft has done a lot to address this in recent times. There are also the numerous issues caused by Windows 10’s updates, the fact that some businesses simply haven’t got around to updating, and many people just prefer Windows 7.

Elsewhere, Windows 10 continued to cement its position at the top after increasing its share to 57.83 percent. In March, Microsoft finally reached its goal of one billion devices running its latest operating system, missing its original prediction by 20 months. And it’s good news for Linux, which reached an all-time high of 3.17 percent.

Permalink to story.

https://www.techspot.com/news/85480-windows-7-used-quarter-all-pcs.html

 

[BSim500]

"it’s increasingly at risk from cyber attacks—the UK’s National Cyber Security Center has warned people not to use Windows 7 for internet banking or even emails."

^ I'd love to see a serious in-depth report of over proportional "insecure-ness" of checking your ISP's POP3 server on W7 vs the new wave of Son of Sony Rootkit 2.0 Kernel drivers people are voluntarily installing en masse on W10 for the newest 'must have' MP games...

As mentioned previously, all MS had to do is back off the forced Telemetry & Feature "Upgrades", and offer consumers a debloated LTSC equivalent (call it Windows 10 Ultimate), and most "W7 holdouts" would have been the first to upgrade...

 

[Neatfeatguy]

I haven't moved my gaming computer to Windows 10 - I've had so many gawd awful issues from Win 10 forced updates on my plex server that I had to utilize ShutUp10 and disable all updating.

2 fully failed updates that caused Windows to break itself so bad that I had to do full re-installs and another issue that caused loss of data (thankfully I had all my stuff backed up)....screw you MS and your forced crappy updates on Windows 10.

 

[bexwhitt]

Somebody rang me up yesterday to fix a problem with their email, they are still on Vista.

 

[Vulcanproject]

What blows my mind is that it is now 11 years old officially. I remember still getting an actual disc in a box for the Pro version I had ordered, and it was a sigh of relief when it all installed and the spectre of Vista was banished for good.

I was still using MCE 2005 if I recall with Vista on my notebook. There is always resistance for new OS releases, always. Some people still hated 98 when they had 95, Win 7 when they had XP or Vista, people hated going to 10 from 7, and it'll always be this way.

Vista was pretty poor though for me, I never liked it. Win 7 just demonstrated how poor it was when you ran them on identical hardware.

 

[Puiu]

^ I'd love to see a serious in-depth report of over proportional "insecure-ness" of checking your ISP's POP3 server on W7 vs the new wave of Son of Sony Rootkit 2.0 Kernel drivers people are voluntarily installing en masse on W10 for the newest 'must have' MP games...

As mentioned previously, all MS had to do is back off the forced Telemetry & Feature "Upgrades", and offer consumers a debloated LTSC equivalent (call it Windows 10 Ultimate), and most "W7 holdouts" would have been the first to upgrade...

If they haven't upgrade is because the systems are old, not because they "dislike" win10. Lack of updated drivers is the main culprit. And you don't need studies to know that windows 10 has received more security patches.

I do agree though that Valorant's anti-cheat solution is stupid which is why I haven't installed it even though I spent many hours on streams to get my beta drop. I just never used it.

 

[totto2222]

Hello all
I just wanted to say that im still on windows 7 and my reasoning is thus.
I know 10 is considered more secure and with newer features and has better support for newer hardware,however,having said that,I would like to add, IF I have to turn off updates and rely on third party solutions to keep my machine safe running 10 because msft wont let me run a version I have control of,thus not my computer in their eyes,then what is the incentive to run newer safer10 over tried and true 7.
I prefer to rely on my experience and many years of computer use (way way back to 386/486) to keep my machines safe and working 24/7.
msft changes the os so often now that im too old to keep up anymore with them.
I have hardened my computer mostly against msft (forced updating to 10) and do weekly backups and have the os drive cloned and kept in a drawer for a quick fix in case of a catastrophic meltdown
I hope I can get at least 10 more years out of this machine before I have to make the tough call about which direction to go (msft/linux/chrome)
I guess I just like my machines to work when I want them too and do what I tell them to do not what a company thinks they should do
be safe all and have a great day

 

[richalone442]

I still have 2 windows computers in my home, though I am going threw the process of switching over to all Macs, slowly They are expensive, but worth it, never a problem, period!
I tried windows 10, I got tired of the reinstalling the OS every month, the crashes, the forced updates that literally destroy the computer and all the data on them, and MS accepts no responcibility for the damage done. Your just screwed when you use Windows 10.
Never Again.

 

[seeprime]

I've used 0patch for security patches in Windows 7 Pro since January. They often patch holes before Microsoft does, using their unique micro-patch system.

 

[QuantumPhysics]

A large number of schools and businesses purchased Windows 7 equipment and their poor budgets aren't anxious to rebuy new equipment just yet.

 

[Achaios]

Ι just can't be bothered with the trouble of installing and configuring a brand new OS as well as transferring over my RAID 1 and going through the risk of it gettin' corrupted.

 

[richalone442]

I've used 0patch for security patches in Windows 7 Pro since January. They often patch holes before Microsoft does, using their unique micro-patch system.

I went to opatch (Oracle) to see about the security patches, I couldn't find any thing there that looked like a security patch for windows 7 pro, I might need guidence.

 

[brucek]

Re: 0patch, I don't see how an outside party can fix bugs in source code they don't have (I.e., the windows kernel) faster than the party that actually has the source code.

Possibly they are providing patches that 3rd parties published, and just getting those out to you faster than Microsoft does. In that you case you could probably provide a similar function yourself just by checking those primary sources yourself.

 

[Jwchenard]

In my house, the fraction of PC's running W7 is 100%. It will remain that way until W10 provides an option to suspend all updates and changes indefinitely. Which is to say, when I decide to change my PC, and not when MS decides.

 

[Lionvibez]

I haven't moved my gaming computer to Windows 10 - I've had so many gawd awful issues from Win 10 forced updates on my plex server that I had to utilize ShutUp10 and disable all updating.

2 fully failed updates that caused Windows to break itself so bad that I had to do full re-installs and another issue that caused loss of data (thankfully I had all my stuff backed up)....screw you MS and your forced crappy updates on Windows 10.

Make random restores points so you can restore when this happens. I've seen it a couple times for other people. And store some of those restores point on external media.

 

[ShagnWagn]

I have about a half dozen computers in my house - all Win7. If it weren't for the atrocious privacy issues, I would have already downgraded. I'm glad I haven't given all of the other problems microsoft just keeps repeating over and over. Win10 has so many more services and files running in memory that there are going to be a lot more security holes than the fewer mature ones on Win7. So much for Win10 misleading people to be more "secure". Secure as in... deleting your personal files? Rebooting your computer while you are trying to fix an outage for the company? I am forced to use Win10 all day at work. Given the uncountable hours they have lost in productivity for this operating sytem, there is only one benefit that has helped me... If you remote into your primary computer with multiple monitors, it saves window positions. That's it. I can't LOL loud enough.

 

[texasrattler]

I haven't moved my gaming computer to Windows 10 - I've had so many gawd awful issues from Win 10 forced updates on my plex server that I had to utilize ShutUp10 and disable all updating.

2 fully failed updates that caused Windows to break itself so bad that I had to do full re-installs and another issue that caused loss of data (thankfully I had all my stuff backed up)....screw you MS and your forced crappy updates on Windows 10.

Or dont blame MS cause you have your server n gaming content on the same machine. We all know MS updates may cause issues from time to time (hardly none in my case) but you still choose to game on your server machine. Thats on you.

 

[Nobina]

I've been using Windows 10 for the past few years but I wouldn't say Windows 7 is vintage yet. Still looks fairly modern and gets the job done. I upgraded to 10 "just because" but I totally understand people who want to stay on 7. Microsoft dropping support is an upside for people who are tired of Microsoft and their shittiness.

 

[CL250]

I really wish that Microsoft would bring out a Windows 7 SE (Second Edition). Windows 7 has a lot of issues that need fixing and improving. Windows 10 has been a "can of worms" from the very start. Windows 7 is reliable and works like an operating system should work.

 

[bexwhitt]

I know 10 has all the extra gubbins nobody asked for but in my opinion it's far more stable and secure. If you install a start menu replacement (classic start, startisback) you can mostly ignore all the weirdness. The half yearly lets break it then sort it again needs to stop though.

 

[Mugsy]

Okay. Let's clear this up once and for all: WINDOWS 10 IS GOD-AWFUL!

It's a flaky bandwidth hogging spam delivery device. It's NOT user-friendly for those of us who like to tweak our desktops/menus/interface. Every time there's a new update, two days later we learn it's a buggy mess that's either damaging/deleting/corrupting files or introducing new security flaws.

And finally, the "flat" GUI is just plain ugly.

25% still using Win7 is a big deal because IT REQUIRED A LOT OF EFFORT to stop MS from pushing that free update on users (even going so far as to use trick wording to make people think saying "No" would NOT "upgrade" them, only to be "upgraded" anyway.)

If 25% are still using Win7, it's NOT simply b/c their hardware is too old. Win10 will run on a potato. It works on my 20 year old AMD Athlon. No. Millions of people haven't upgraded b/c millions of people HATE Windows 10.

 

[Misagt]

I upgrade last month... to linux.

 

[redgarl]

My work laptop is prone to TOTAL Meltdown since I am using a W7 machine with an Intel CPU.

 

[redgarl]

I upgrade last month... to linux.

If I was not playing games, I would have moved away from Windows years before. I am using a 2160p resolution... everything I am using is f***ked up with W10. How hard is it to do a proper upscaling of the windows in explorer alone?

 

[p51d007]

Had some software updates, for some printers recently, that only support SMB 3x. Since that won't work on Win 7 as I've been told, now some are having to update their computers to win 10