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Windows 7 and 8.1 Are Gaining More New Users Than Windows 10 (digitaltrends.com)

Posted by BeauHD on from the stunted-growth dept.

New submitter TroII writes: After Microsoft ended its year-long "free" Windows 10 offer, new installations have slowed predictably. But in an unexpected turn, October saw more new installs of both Windows 7 and Windows 8.1 than of Windows 10. Compared to September's numbers, market share increased only 0.06% for Windows 10, while new installations of Windows 7 and 8.1 were an order of magnitude higher at 0.68%. According to tracking firm NetMarketShare, Windows 7 is still by far the most popular version of the OS, installed on more than twice as many computers as Microsoft's latest offering.

8 of 333 comments (clear)

  1. Not Surprising by LeftCoastThinker · · Score: 5, Interesting

    It is not a big shock after the tactics that MS has used. They have burned a lot of bridges with win 10 and those of us stuck in the Windows ecosystem are snatching up the best, most stable version, Windows 7. Be prepared for lawsuits though, as it looks like MS is going to try and shove the crappiest parts of Windows 10 on us through bundled updates...

    --
    If you disagree, please post your argument. (-1, Overrated) isn't your personal censorship tool for views you don't like
    1. Re:Not Surprising by Opportunist · · Score: 5, Insightful

      You know what's funny? That there will almost certainly be someone who is willing and able to develop a tool to get rid of it. Maybe for a price, but people are willing and able to pay that price for their privacy.

      MS could have had that money. And far more easily than whoever will develop that anti-spy tool.

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      We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
    2. Re:Not Surprising by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

      Disable that crap? In Windows 10 Home (that about 80% to 90% of people have) I would love to see how you do that, and auto-update of course, because that "resets"anything to "Microsoft Standard".

      Disabling really all crap is only possible in the "enterprise" edition, that is not available for the normal user. Even Windows 10 Pro does not give you the same amount of control you had in Windows 7 or even Windows 8.1. So - no downgrade to Windows 10 for me!

    3. Re:Not Surprising by StormReaver · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Yes, the telemetry features are not a great move, but just disable all of that crap and you're all set.

      Just because you think you've disabled it does not mean you've actually disabled it. Microsoft has the sole discretion to completely ignore you, sneak its spyware in through other vectors, or automatically re-enable its spyware at any time it damn well pleases.

  2. Comment removed by account_deleted · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Comment removed based on user account deletion

  3. Re:surprised by EnsilZah · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I'm quite fond of the feature where the OS doesn't decide to reboot at arbitrary times without asking permission after installing an update I didn't approve.

  4. Re:surprised by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    The most important "feature" is the UI. And the UI of Windows 8 and 10 is a horrendous clusterfuck of bad design. There are a couple of third party programs that fix some of the problems, but why bother? Why not just use the version that is good right out the box and isn't constantly trying to fuck you.

  5. Re:surprised by butzwonker · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Well, I strongly prefer an UI like in Windows 7 and want to be in full control of updates. The last point is the most important, because various Windows 7 updates in the past would have destroyed my installation if I hadn't checked before (not) installing them. I'm especially worried about "accidental" problems with dual boot systems, which happened two times in the past.

    Apart from that, yes, of course, an OS is good if you don't need to know or care what it is actually doing. It should mainly provide a link to the library programmer and the application programmer, not to the end user. If Windows 10 didn't force updates and had the ordinary look and feel you'd expect from a desktop OS, or allow me to configure it in that way, then I'd be happy using it. A good OS should give you the same desktop experience all the time, with only minimal changes where they make sense, not force you to learn new ways of performing the same tasks every 3-4 years.