Windows 7 nears EOL anniversary - still has over 100 million users

by Mark Tyson on 31 December 2020, 11:11

Tags: Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT), Windows 7

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As Windows 7 approaches its end-of-support first year anniversary the aging OS still has over 100 million users worldwide. However, on a positive note, the latest figures mean that more than 100 million Windows 7 PCs have been retired, recycled, or upgraded in the last 12 months, according to various data sets pored over by ZDNet's Ed Bott.

HEXUS reported upon the official end-of-support for Windows 7 in January 2020. No more free updates would be coming, signalled Microsoft, but businesses that wanted to keep using the OS (Pro or Enterprise versions) could sign up and pay up for important updates for another three years. At the time Windows 7 went EOL the aging OS still accounted for approx a quarter of the desktop Windows market. In June we noted the market share dip below that significant portion of users, and as we approach a year of no updates provided to regular users, the market share appears to be approx a fifth (see StatCounter and NetMarketShare, Ed Bott also puts his weight behind the United States Government Digital Analytics Program stats which reports a similar proportion of Windows 7 users).

Windows 7 market share among Windows users:

  • StatCounter: 17.68 per cent
  • NetMarketShare: 21.67 per cent
  • USGDAP: 18.9 per cent

Of course the lion's share of the rest of the Windows user base is now on one of the versions of Windows 10 available. The third placed OS in the three surveys was Windows 8.X with as much as 5 per cent of the user base, depending upon source. All sources seem to agree - Windows XP usage is below 1 per cent now.

At this stage of a review of the reporting sources it is always useful to remember they are all online counting methods. Thus if an organisation is running a number of Windows XP PCs, for example, that don't access sites monitored by the likes of StatCounter, for example, they won't be counted.

Putting a number to the percentages isn't easy, as it is hard to be sure how many Windows PCs are out there and actively used. An educated guess at the number, with the latest stats suggesting Windows 7 accounts for approx a fifth of active Windows installs, probably means there are still over 100 million Windows 7 PCs in active online use as 2020 ends.

Last but not least, those taking part in Microsoft's paid for extended support program will see the cost of support double from January.



HEXUS Forums :: 43 Comments

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These stats can't be fully trusted because they're mostly based on guesswork, but clearly, one piece of guesswork here is way more off than the other.

We know Windows 10 passed 1 Billion users in March 2020 and if the Netmarketshare/Statcounter stats are to be believed, Windows 7 has about a quarter of Windows 10's users, which would mean over 250 Million installs. If Ed Bott is to be believed, those percentages are off by double digits and the Windows 7 share should be more like 7%.

I can fully see why so many still use Windows 7, it was a stable OS that worked and didn't try to be a jack of all trades, like Windows 10 does.
I have Win10 on my main PC and 7 on my other and 2 lappies on 7. I still think Win10 is a pigs ear but thanks to Open Shell and O&O shut up plus a bit of tinkering I can just about stomach Win10. I take these sort of calculations with a pinch of salt , most people were and are forced onto Win 10 when buying a new PC and a great percentage of those would have prefered to have Win7 had it not been for driver issues etc. I've had several clients that have reqested me to wipe and install Win 7 on new machines over update issues , intrusive behaviour and other crap that comes with 10. I'm lucky to have years of experience ( since 286 days ) and spare decent PC's to afford me the choice of control , not leave it in the hands of Microsoft. Win 7 remains to my mind the best version M/S ever produced of Windows.
mers
I have Win10 on my main PC and 7 on my other and 2 lappies on 7. I still think Win10 is a pigs ear but thanks to Open Shell and O&O shut up plus a bit of tinkering I can just about stomach Win10. I take these sort of calculations with a pinch of salt , most people were and are forced onto Win 10 when buying a new PC and a great percentage of those would have prefered to have Win7 had it not been for driver issues etc. I've had several clients that have reqested me to wipe and install Win 7 on new machines over update issues , intrusive behaviour and other crap that comes with 10. I'm lucky to have years of experience ( since 286 days ) and spare decent PC's to afford me the choice of control , not leave it in the hands of Microsoft. Win 7 remains to my mind the best version M/S ever produced of Windows.

But is not as secure and lacks many refinements of Win 10. If you have the right hardware Win 10 is much much faster than Win 7, was dual booting for a while but there is no point as 10 is better. I really cannot see why people hold onto 7 - it's 2 versions old now
3dcandy
But is not as secure and lacks many refinements of Win 10. If you have the right hardware Win 10 is much much faster than Win 7, was dual booting for a while but there is no point as 10 is better. I really cannot see why people hold onto 7 - it's 2 versions old now

I'm with you. Windows 7 was great in its time, as was XP. But the world moves on. Sure, Windows 10 has plenty to dislike - visually it's not as appealing as 7, and I hate the whole Settings / Control Panel thing in 10. Control Panel and its applets work fine, why do we need its uglier, less user-friendly brother (Settings) too? But 10 is far more secure (obviously) and as a gamer it's a no-brainer really. Most games aren't even going to run on 7, not to their full potential anyway.
giving opportunity of using same skins would be nice though, I do miss windows 7 to be honest, but Windows 10 works nicely, though still on the pro variant, I wonder why should be shielded behind so much ‘userfriendly’ garbage, which in previous versions of windows, you had more direct access to the Control Panel and other weird things much easier, without being forced to go by certain apps they have.

I miss DOS 6.0