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Windows 7 gained in popularity last month while XP, Vista and 8.1 all dropped

After a good stint of gaining growth, it seems that adoption for Microsoft's latest OS, Windows 10, is starting to slow down. Over the last year or so, Windows 10 marketshare has been gaining, while Windows 7 and 8.1 have been falling. However, in the last month, it seems that Windows 7 has started climbing back up again.

With Windows 10, Microsoft's goal was to get users off of older versions of Windows for good but for one reason or another, many have objected to the upgrade and now, it seems that some people are reverting to Windows 7, rather than making the jump to 10. According to statistics from NetMarketShare, Windows 7 grew in popularity in the last month, jumping by 1 percent, with a market share of 49.42 percent.

Meanwhile, Windows 10 is still gaining, but only managed to go up a measly 0.17 percent this month, jumping to a 25.36 percent share of the OS market. Interestingly, both Windows 8.1, Vista and XP all took hits this month, so it seems those on older operating systems are actively choosing Windows 7 over Windows 10.

This could be a case of fewer people wanting to pay full price for Windows 10 when upgrading from an older OS, even if there are still ways to activate Windows 10 for free. Either way, perhaps we will see Windows 10 get a boost from the Creators Update, which starts rolling out this month.

KitGuru Says: Windows 7 was a great operating system but it does seem like time to move on, especially with older operating systems not getting updates for new-generation CPU support. Are any of you still on Windows 7? What is holding you back from upgrading?

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19 comments

  1. I always reluctantly upgrade to newer versions of Windows. With each new version of Windows MS give you fewer options on how to configure things, eventually it’ll get to the point where there’s no preference settings at all. I believe this makes supporting folks a lot easier but is really bad if you don’t like how MS have decided to do things.

    Here’s an example: Going from Vista to Windows 7 MS introduced the show desktop button at the bottom right of the screen, to the right of the time. There’s no way of moving this at all and it’s stuck there whether you like it or not.

    At the moment I still use Vista for Windows gaming – it runs all the DirectX 11 games I have no problem at all, I believe extended support ends at the end of this month so will move to Windows 7 pretty soon. I will only consider Windows 10 once extended support for Windows 7 ends, games supporting Vulcan as opposed to DirectX 12 would really help me along this road.

  2. why would i chose an intrusive crap over my win7? they might own the software but i own my pc and it will do what i want not what bill loser gates decide,,,

  3. Bill Gates retired from Microsoft years ago

  4. I had upgraded to windows 10 but after the last major update my system would not boot into win 10 so i reverted back to win 7.

  5. I only use Windows 7 for Steam. I can’t be bothered to upgrade in case it breaks anything. Updates are switched off anyway and if i get malwared, I’ll just reinstall. I use Linux for everything else anyway.

  6. Bill Gates has not been directly involved in MSFT since release of Win7, HE fixed the issues with Vista and lowered pricing, so 7 became what 7 is..it is that Satya Nadella guy. either way, many many things they should not have done with 10, like claiming “start is back” yeh, it sure is, and takes up ~20% of screen area, control panel is hidden away, spying on its customers to upsell things or make money off of them even if they paid for the OS in question, telling them how when and where it will be used.

    Had MSFT been smart, they could have easily back and enhanced win7 to be more efficient, DX12 capable etc..They are douches simple as that, do they care, nope, they make billions upon billions per year and have to resort to BS tactics to “force” installs of Win10 often enough caused problems, in some cases burned out peoples systems with no way of “reverting”

    They had the opportunity to make Win10 so so much better then it is, instead is just crap piled upon crap, with just enough mehh to make some think its “so much better” most of it is just “icing” on top of crap, and those that do not seem to be able to use brain as well as they think they can think it is “superior” to Win 8 and far superior to Win 7, when facts and proof go against this, sheer performance wise it is a wash, usability wise, Win 7 is superior, user friendly, Win 7 is FAR superior, and if we dont want to be spied upon or told when to update, we do not have to.

    Hell with Win 10, soon enough, updates will still be forced even on metered connection, you cannot prevent the spying no matter the firewall you have, then there is the Cortana BS to top it all off LOL, douches! there is a reason why most folks do not use internet explorer anymore, got to be a reason huh, if we had another valid option for “gaming” am quite certain vast majority of the industry would be done with MSF BS full stop.

  7. I personally cannot see what is wrong with Windows 10 at all. I see a lot of people make claims that it is spying on you and has a terrible start button and etc, but all these are not true.

    First the Start button can be customised to remove all those ridiculous tiles that no one likes. I for one did remove them and very easily may I add.

    Second, the control panel is easy to find by right clicking the start button and selecting “Control Panel”. Various other options are on there which make’s it 10x easier as well to find what you need.

    Third, you can still disable services that you do not wish to have running the same way you did in Windows 7 through Windows Services. A lot of people complain about the many additions MS added to Win 10 yet, they can be turned off. Registry Editing or Disabling Windows Services, it is all still the same. I personally think people are just lazy. Do some google searching, it helps!

    Forth, Win 10 is well optimised for those with ordinary HDDs, booting up much quicker than Win 7 and Win 8.1 and for those on SSD’s it’s even better.

    I like Win 10 and it is only going to keep getting better. If people perhaps reported these issues to MS instead of crying about them on some random website, then it might give MS what they need to improve Win 10 to their standards. MS cannot do crap if they do not know what the issue is.

  8. Creators update will lose control panel from win key + x. But yeah, I also prefer Windows 10.

  9. Ignorance is bliss. I bet you haven’t read Windows 7 terms and condition. Microsoft is still getting some of your data. Also apple does it, Google does it…

  10. I would upgrade to 10, better support for ssd and other hardware, also older hardware runs better, just google how to turn off telemetry and stuff you don’t like.

  11. My custom-forged, pre-tuned Win7 x64 beats any OS in terms of
    reliability, compatibility, control grip and performance hands down.

    The only issue I am still having is integrating AM4 chipset drivers into the image,
    Win7 setup is still having the need for drivers, despite the fact that ALL drivers
    inside the chipset package are already embedded into the WIM.

    And for the Win8 and Win10 users: EVERYTHING is wrong with that casual, non-intuitive design you’d get on a smartphone, this however you get on a PC
    which is outrageous. All that plus the loss of privacy = F$§% M$

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  13. The window 10 was never forced irs just your avarage user was to thick to clik the button to not install it

  14. sure loser. sad the dont install it button didnt do anything but postponed the install. on my laptop i had to find a win update, remove it, delete all the pre-downloaded stuff, disable win updates and i still have stuff i cant remove as only system can access it… it seems you are an average user with too big mouth…

  15. yes your ignorance is. really. maybe read again or learn some english before you answer next time

  16. Maybe you should learn some manners. You don’t know even who runs Microsoft and you hate Bill Gates without reason.

  17. On the bright side, despite that Cortana can’t be disabled, it DOES have the wake up command disabled by default and she still asks for permissions to your data (she can’t do reminders without the needed data, but no else one I know uses that feature)

  18. There appears to be shortcuts to stuff in the control panel on Settings (and even searchable)

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