Don't ask who the bell is ringing for, as it rings for Windows 7. Microsoft's venerable operating system has officially run out of time, and with support now ended, there will no doubt be quite a few people. it's sad to be forced to abandon Windows 7, presumably to make tracks for Windows 10. Or maybe another operating system entirely, for the true anti-Windows 10 types. Windows 7 is certainly one of the incarnations of the desktop operating system that Microsoft has chosen well, but what has really led to its success and what clicked with its user base, which makes it so difficult to quit for many? We thought we'd think about the reasons and go back to a Windows 7 story to pinpoint exactly why the operating system was so popular, and may even remain so for the foreseeable future. Because if Windows XP is anything to go by, Windows 7 will keep a good chunk of users going long after Microsoft officially closed the curtains on ending support on January 14. These folks stay loyal to the operating system at their own risk, as we discuss in our comprehensive guide to preparing for Windows 7 EOL.
Birth of Windows 7
Windows 7 was born in 2009, and it followed the infamously unpopular Windows Vista. And at the other end of the operating system time scale, it's been superseded by the hated Windows 8. So it's pretty easy to see that part of Windows 7's popularity stems from the simple fact that it's sandwiched between two incarnations of Microsoft's desktop operating system that are universally considered just as awful (these are probably the worst versions ever produced). , along with Windows Me, of course). It's true that Windows 7 seemed to be a big step up from Vista in terms of the overall interface, which looked much more modern and was easier to use and streamlined (with less harassment and annoyance). interruption to your overall workflow: Vista had a nasty habit of bombarding you with user account control security hints). This was clearly an immediate improvement in this regard, and more importantly, under the hood. Windows Vista was known to be a relative resource hog, and Windows 7 ran a lot faster, not to mention a lot less clutter. OS performance was generally much better, and was obviously a big draw early on with Windows 7. Stability was also impressive early on, and again this didn't. interfered with initial reception of system operation. Of course, not everything went smoothly with the release of Windows 7; There will always be problems with any software, especially something as complex and complex as an operating system. As we noted in our review at the time, there were jagged edges and legacy dialogs lining up here and there, as well as a few gremlins regarding battery life and performance issues. But Windows 7 reviewers, like ours, were quite impressed, and the OS got off to a good start overall, with positive critical reception.
The best-selling operating system of all time.
Six months after its release, Windows 7 had crossed the 90 million mark in terms of sales, and Microsoft was bragging about having the best-selling operating system ever (not to mention happily reaping the benefits). As of August 2010, just 10 months after the release of Windows 7, the operating system had surpassed its predecessor Windows Vista, even though most people were still using Windows XP. Then, in October 2011, two years after its release, Windows 7 surpassed XP in terms of global PC market share. So while initial sales were very impressive, it took a while for Windows 7 to overtake the defending champion of Windows. That said, it accomplished this feat faster than Windows 10 couldn't stage its subsequent takeover to become the mainstream operating system. While it took Windows 7 two years to become the top dog and knock this title out of Windows XP, it took Windows 10 two and a half years to rip the crown off Windows 7's gloves (according to the 'adoption' set of statistics). most optimistic available that way). Either way, we're getting a little ahead of ourselves here - the key point is that Windows 39 has done very well in terms of early critical reception and early growth, successfully becoming the go-to system for Windows 7. Dominant exploitation at a respectable rate. .
Maintenance switch
After its initial release, Windows 7 naturally received a service pack, back in the days when it was still the way Microsoft had updated its desktop operating systems. Windows 7 SP1 arrived in February 2011, but unlike previous service packs like Vista, it hasn't added any major new features. In fact, SP1 was actually a bunch of minor updates and fixes, and not very exciting for the average user (even if it included more significant changes for professional users). And while Windows 7 SP2, the second service pack, was due to land before the end of 2012, it never saw the light of day. Although Microsoft released some sort of service pack version, which replaced an official SP2, but it was much later (we'll get back to that soon).
Cement dominance
While we didn't see SP2 for Windows 7 come out in mid-2012 as expected, we did see Windows 8 launch in October 2012 with much fanfare, but no real fans. The failure of Windows 8 has been well documented, of course, so it's not something we're going to mention here, but it's enough to say that Microsoft's insistence on forcing a system into operation that users didn't want, and move so fast when blurring a touch screen interface there, it didn't work well. Where this has had a big impact on Windows 7 is that people didn't want to abandon the existing dominant version of Microsoft's desktop operating system. As we've seen after the first month of Windows 8's release, adoption of the new operating system was five times slower than Windows 7 when it launched. As of late 2013, Windows 7 was still growing and sometimes even faster than Windows 8 (with both operating systems gaining at the expense of Windows XP at the time). There was memorable horror and panic from business users when Microsoft announced that it wanted to end all sales of Windows 7 PCs in October 2014, meaning all new hardware would come with Windows 8. This was the reaction that the The company then turned it down for professional users who wanted Windows 7 Pro, and ultimately sales of machines with that flavor of the system. operations did not wind down until October 2016 (two clear years after non-Pro PC sales ceased on consumer PCs). Of course, at this point in late 2016, Windows 10 had been missing for quite some time, and Microsoft no doubt finally felt it could arm businesses, as well as consumers, to upgrade to its latest system. operating when buying a new PC.
Hell of the patch
Do you remember that we have already discussed the fact that there has never been a second official service pack for Windows 7? The lack of SP2 has led to the situation that in early 2016 someone installing Windows 7 with SP1, which came out in 2011, remember, would have to apply five years worth of fixes to the system. #39; s of operation. And that was more of an inconvenience than just waiting for a large number of downloads, as the updates were delivered in separate batches, which require multiple staggered reboots, meaning the entire installation process was quite a painful and lengthy ordeal. Undoubtedly, some memories of Windows 7 are clouded by such installation (or reinstallation) problems, but Microsoft finally fixed it in May 2016, when it produced a ``cumulative convenience'' # 39; & # 39; SP1 which basically packed all these years of security fixes and other updates into one package. As we noted at the time, it wasn't Windows 7 SP2, but it was the best that was yet to come (and even SP1 was almost a set of fixes and tweaks). However, this rollup was a long time coming...
Scare tactics
Getting back to the topic of Windows 7's enduring popularity, which Windows 8 clearly couldn't slow down, when Windows 10 launched in July 2015, it also struggled to gain ground against the better system. 39; farm of dogs at the moment. Even though it was a free upgrade for Windows 7 users, Windows 10 found that poaching these people was a painfully slow task. It's a safe bet that part of this slowdown was due to the dogged tactics, some of which were controversial to say the least, that Microsoft used to try to get users to switch from Windows 7 (or 8) to Windows 10. In fact , Microsoft has even used scare tactics to kick users out of Windows 7, prompting repeated concerns that the old operating system poses a security risk, even if it isn't. 39, it was nothing like that. Back then, the old operating system might not be as secure as Windows 10, but that hardly made it a security nightmare. And really, some of the flaws that have come up with Windows 7 in recent years stemmed more from the fact that Microsoft seemed to be pulling away from the operating system because it was too busy focusing on Windows 10 momentum. Again, part of the success of Windows 7 in being so favored and keeping users for so long was due to general suspicion of how Microsoft was trying to push people into Windows 10 in all sorts of different (sometimes seemingly dubious) ways. However, Windows 10 ultimately succeeded, succeeding where Windows 8 failed, and ultimately removing Windows 7 from its throne. Believe it or not, Windows 7 persisted until the end of 2018, at least according to one big analytics company (the other commonly used set of statistics declared Windows 10 victorious in early 2018). So really, Windows 10 didn't surpass Windows 7 before its 2019 release. An impressive achievement for the old OS and a tribute to its resilience.
Final curtain
So it's clear that we can hail Windows 7, while it's booming at the end of its life, as a winner by all sorts of criteria, even if some of its fame, fortune, and favor were due to it is sandwiched between the Windows operating systems before and after that were significantly below average for many different reasons. However, this is by no means primarily a story about the serendipitous moment of being a tasty filler in the middle of two pieces of stale bone-in bread. Even now, in 2020, and almost five years after the release of Windows 10, Windows 7 is still very popular. According to the latest operating system market share figures for December 2019, Windows 7 is still installed on 27% of PCs worldwide (although a good chunk of it are undoubtedly corporate users). Thus, more than a quarter of users are using the operating system, and there is certainly a temptation to make comparisons with Windows XP, which lingered like a stink far too long after its use date. expiration time. But does that mean Windows 7 will become another Windows XP in this respect? Microsoft certainly seems to anticipate certain heels: the software giant has indicated that some professional users can take advantage of an extra year of support with certain versions of Windows 7 (and of a system that allows companies to pay for support) additional on top of that was revealed a year ago). Microsoft also plans to use a cattle production in the form of full-screen popups to alert users that they need to update (although we know how much this has declined in the past).
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