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Operating Systems Windows Math Microsoft Software Hardware

One Year Later: Windows 10 Now Runs On Over 21% of All Desktops (winbeta.org) 272

An anonymous reader writes: On June 29, Microsoft announced that Windows 10 was running on 350 million devices -- 50 million more devices than the previous milestone announced by Microsoft on May 5. While the company is expected to update the number of devices running the latest OS when it releases the Windows 10 Anniversary Update on August 2nd, NetMarketShare has decided to conduct some research on its own. According to its report, Windows 10 currently runs on a 21.13% desktop OS share. Meanwhile, Windows 7 continues to dominate the market with a 47.01% share, with Windows 8 and Windows 8.1 representing less than 10% of the PC market, and Windows XP representing 10.34%. While the market share of Windows 10 is all but certain to rise, it likely won't rise as fast as it did between May and June or June and July for example, as Windows 10 is no longer offered as a free upgrade for PCs running Windows 7 or Windows 8. Microsoft has even backtracked on its original statement that Windows 10 will hit one billion devices by mid-2018, saying last month that Windows 10 likely won't in fact make that deadline.
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One Year Later: Windows 10 Now Runs On Over 21% of All Desktops

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  • 99% of those (Score:4, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday August 02, 2016 @02:01AM (#52626533)

    run it unwillingly.

    • by Memnos ( 937795 )
      I do. For a lot of money.
    • Re:99% of those (Score:5, Interesting)

      by geekmux ( 1040042 ) on Tuesday August 02, 2016 @04:37AM (#52626869)

      run it unwillingly.

      Makes sense. 99% of people don't have a damn clue that OS alternatives exist outside of the not-so-affordable Apple ecosystem.

    • by arglebargle_xiv ( 2212710 ) on Tuesday August 02, 2016 @05:48AM (#52627023)
      In the meantime, the Russian Business Network has announced that CryptoLocker now runs on 29% of all desktops, eclipsing Windows 10's market share by several percentage points. Ivan Granatomyot, RBN spokesman, said that they had taken a leaf from Microsoft's Windows 10 deployment tactics to increase their market share to the current level, and hoped for further growth in the future.
    • I wouldn't say it "runs", Bob! Now every morning I get to do a hard reboot on my work laptop which refuses to come out of sleep/hibernate.

  • 21% less 1 (Score:2, Interesting)

    by Anonymous Coward

    Less one as of last night... :)
    Someone's W7 became W10 against their will, and they asked me to install a Penguin instead.
    More and more of these as the days roll on.
    My bet is Satan Nutella only counts up, not down. Hopefully when they look again only 2.1% are fool enough to still be running Spyware 10.

    • by Gamasta ( 557555 )

      I know what you mean. These days I'm struggling to reinstall Windows 7 due to all sorts of quirks. What's frustrating is that installing Linux is a breeze on these machines and Windows without a DVD is a royal pain. The W10 installer is probably better, but there's no way I'm going the "computer as a service" route. So once new W7-installations are required, I'm slowly changing them to Linux. Maybe we'll see a bump in W10 market share by 2020 (when W7 support runs out), but most likely not from me.

      • by Mashiki ( 184564 )

        Why are you using a DVD? Slap it on a flash drive and go on your way. Nearly every motherboard out there supports boot from flash, and on top of that you can download the Win7 ISO directly from MS [microsoft.com] with the service packs pre-installed and are unlikely to have the driver issues that the base OS would have.

    • by gsslay ( 807818 ) on Tuesday August 02, 2016 @06:09AM (#52627087)

      "Oh no! I've been upgraded to Windows 10 when I wanted to stay on Windows 7. I'm confused how to use my computer now and maybe some of my software won't work! I know, the solution to my dilemma is to request a switch to a totally different OS that has even less in common with the Windows 7 I wanted to remain on, and most of my software is certain to not work."

      Yeah. That totally happened.

    • Re:21% less 1 (Score:4, Interesting)

      by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday August 02, 2016 @06:40AM (#52627193)

      Someone's W7 became W10 against their will, and they asked me to install a Penguin instead.

      I can't administrate Windows 10 anymore. I have to install Linux on people's computers now.

      This isn't like Mac, where things are named differently, or put in different places. At least there you still get a dialog box, or set of drop downs or radio buttons or whatever and can still fiddle with things. Even on Mac, the computer has settings, things are somewhere and you can figure out what to do eventually.

      Windows 10 is becoming unconfigurable. There are now two control panels. The usual control panel, which increasingly has a lot of stuff taken out, and a Metro/charm based "Settings" panel which works like the worst, most uninteractive mobile app interface you have ever encountered. I went into Windows Update (moved entirely to what I will call "Charm") to try and turn off various updates. In effect, there was nothing to click on. Hyperlinked text did nothing, there were not radio buttons, dropdown lists, checkboxes, nothing. There was bullet pointed text that did....nothing. Most other charm settings were the same. I had never felt so frustrated with a computer since I ditched my Tablet.

      I googled online for help with my problem and after the 8th dubious Q&A website with poorly formatted helpdesk checklists instructions, nearly always involving reboots, some unbelieveably obscure KB3839272618192 update, usually for another the version of Windows, and nearly always answered by someone with an Indian avatar for some reason. Nothing worked. I could not find out how to get things to work. Not even registry keys could be changed since I didn't have super-duper-permission and could not figure out how to get them in any reasonable way.

      After 3 hours, I came to the conclusion that after 25 years of Windows experience, from DOS and 2.0, to 3.11, to Win 95, 98se, NT and 2000, XP, and 7, .... I can't use Windows anymore. Not Windows 8/10 anyway. All my experience and knowledge is basically useless for this new Operating system. It's as if MS was taken over by some dubious Portland startup with grand plans for an operating system and no idea who Windows users actually are, or what Windows is used for.

      I can't do this anymore, so I'm not going to. I've moved several computer novices to linux in the last few years and they did just fine with a browser and email client, and the ability to play movies etc. There's the odd hiccup of course, but for Gods' sake a lot of the people can't even use Windows anymore. Windows. They can't use it; I can't fix it; we're done with it. I suspect this is happening in slow motion all over.

      I predict MSFT will be in deep trouble in three years time, when the scale of this slow motion train wreck becomes too big to ignore.

      • If I may ask, what are you using to watch movies? I haven't watched movies on Linux for a while, and I keep getting the impression that mainstream services aren't compatible because DRM OMG teh piratzz
      • I have a Surface (don't ask, seemed like a good idea at the time). I wish it were as easy as settings in two places. I was trying to make it where I didn't have to enter my password every damn time. There were two different setting locations, neither of them worked. Went into the belly of the beast and fiddled with some of the user profile crap. Didn't work. Found a registry setting that should have fixed it. Didn't work. So even though you have all the settings saying not to check the password, it still ch
    • Satan Nutella

      Worst. Hazelnut spread. EVAR!!!!

    • by antdude ( 79039 )

      I am surprised they didn't ask you to downgrade their Windows. I knows others did. :/

  • by Anonymous Coward

    There's a little known 32-bit release of it that's supported by Microsoft through to 2019.

    It's called Windows Embedded POSReady 2009. It's basically an updated version of Windows XP (I guess you could call it SP4?). It still receives security patches weekly via Windows Update. It doesn't require activation and it's not too hard to find on the internet. It comes as a DVD ISO with an updated installer that lets you partition the disks through the GUI and load additional storage drivers graphically (rather tha

  • I suppose that Microsoft released these figures to continue their message that adoption of Windows 10 devices goes according to plan. But if we do an "equivalent comparison", what does the story look like?

    So for example, what percentage of iOS devices (iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch) remain on older OS releases after a new edition is published?

    Instinct [as opposed to quotable fact] suggests that the adoption of W10 is actually underwhelming.

    And the biggest issue is most definitely the complete lack of tr
    • Hell, compare it to the adoption of XP or 7 after they were released....

    • Comparing Windows 10 to iOS for adoption rates isn't a fair comparison since one is aimed for desktops and the other for phones and tablets. A better comparison would be against Mac OS X which would be Apples desktop OS. The latest version, El Capitan, had a 44.8% adoption rate after 4 months according to this article. http://www.computerworld.com/a... [computerworld.com]

      • I wouldn't consider this a fair comparison, El Cap is an incremental update, W10 is a full on release. Yes, I consider them different.

  • by nateman1352 ( 971364 ) on Tuesday August 02, 2016 @02:42AM (#52626617)

    The data over at Stat Counter seems to agree:

    http://gs.statcounter.com/#desktop-os-ww-monthly-201506-201606 [statcounter.com]

    Looks like MacOS and Linux share has remained roughly flat over the last year. Win8.1 use has declined 48.5% and Win7 by 23.1%. Hence Win10's adoption has been at the expense of Win8.1 and to a lesser extent Win7. Overall it seems Microsoft's free upgrade has largely been successful at retaining existing Windows users, but it hasn't won any converts from Apple, and it hasn't slowed down Android at all. They stopped the bleeding, but its not exactly the "threshold" that would return Windows to growth that Microsoft's upper management claimed it would be.

    • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

      by drinkypoo ( 153816 )

      They stopped the bleeding, but its not exactly the "threshold" that would return Windows to growth that Microsoft's upper management claimed it would be.

      They haven't stopped the bleeding. The bleeding has intensified, and it will reach a state of crisis when Windows 7 goes EOL. This number of converts is an abject failure when you're giving away the product. Sad thing is, I've finally used Windows 10 for a few seconds and I think I'd really enjoy it if it weren't spyware.

      • Well, the same thing was said of Win2k and XP. More people should be using Linux, but it just doesn't happen. There is always that "one app" in industry that needs to be run locally and is business-critical.

        For me, our accounting software is one gem, need to check on what the status is of a good Outlook alternative (although that is one hell of a fight), and if InDesign alternatives are viable for our needs today... but I know that the things we use AutoDesk products for are not viable on Linux or OS X.

  • by hyades1 ( 1149581 ) <hyades1@hotmail.com> on Tuesday August 02, 2016 @02:44AM (#52626621)

    "...Windows 10 is no longer offered as a free upgrade for PCs running Windows 7 or Windows 8."

    I think what the author meant to say was, "Windows 10 is no longer rammed down the throat any user too naive to treat anything coming from Microsoft as a malware attack."

  • By all accounts, Windows 10 has been forced upon unsuspecting and suspecting users alike, forcibly shoved down their throats no matter how vehemently against some may have been.

  • by dbIII ( 701233 ) on Tuesday August 02, 2016 @03:20AM (#52626701)
    Wake me up when it's finished and usable instead of a total mess with two control panels and a requirement to search instead of navigate a menu.
  • 4/5ths (Score:5, Insightful)

    by ledow ( 319597 ) on Tuesday August 02, 2016 @04:08AM (#52626795) Homepage

    "4/5ths of people refused a free upgrade to what was traditionally a very expensive piece of software, despite us trying to forcibly install it on their machines for months on end and making it difficult for anyone other than a techy to refuse it".

    Amazing how you can change how something reads by just flipping it.

    • Yep they really have lost the plot. They need to ditch Cortana (I mean does anyone seriously use it), Stop gathering every peice of information about their users. And please just bring back the start menu properly. Or better still just roll over and let Linux take over.
      • Yep they really have lost the plot. They need to ditch Cortana (I mean does anyone seriously use it), Stop gathering every peice of information about their users. And please just bring back the start menu properly. Or better still just roll over and let Linux take over.

        They did bring the start menu back as far as I can tell - though it's not quite the same as it used to be.

        • They did bring the start menu back as far as I can tell - though it's not quite the same as it used to be.

          Actually they just took the shite tiles and made them popup when you hist the start button but without taking up the whole screen. What we meant when we were screaming for them to bring back the Start Menu was the good old hierarchical Start Menu where every app had it's own sub menu with everything pertaining to the app within that sub menu. Instead now I have all the components of every piece of installed software all jumbled together in a great big mess.

          MS idea of a user experience is getting progressi

          • They did bring the start menu back as far as I can tell - though it's not quite the same as it used to be.

            Actually they just took the shite tiles and made them popup when you hist the start button but without taking up the whole screen. What we meant when we were screaming for them to bring back the Start Menu was the good old hierarchical Start Menu where every app had it's own sub menu with everything pertaining to the app within that sub menu. Instead now I have all the components of every piece of installed software all jumbled together in a great big mess.

            MS idea of a user experience is getting progressively more "blind fold & bullet"

            Yeah but I see both when I hit the start menu - the "All Apps" and the tiles. Is that not what you see? I have the pro edition so perhaps it is different than Home. I've never used W10 Home.

            • Think of All Apps as All Programs where the fuck are my sub menus and look at all those unistall programs I wonder which ones which
              • Think of All Apps as All Programs where the fuck are my sub menus and look at all those unistall programs I wonder which ones which

                That's got to be the software you're installing, then. Has it been updated recently? All of the software I've installed neatly put everything into its own folders. I don't see random uinstallers lying around in the U section of my apps or anywhere else. My guess is they changed something in the way the start menu creates the hierarchies and some older installers don't handle this properly? But just a guess.

      • Yep they really have lost the plot. They need to ditch Cortana (I mean does anyone seriously use it)

        Cortana is basically Microsoft Bob with a sex change and an NSA telemetry package.

  • by John Allsup ( 987 ) <slashdot@cha l i s q ue.net> on Tuesday August 02, 2016 @04:18AM (#52626825) Homepage Journal

    Using the word 'runs' makes me laugh: poetic license in extremis. I have 'upgraded' many of my machines to Windows 10. Let me tell you that it doesn't exactly run so much as crawls in agony until you put it out of its misery by either reinstalling Windows 7, or booting from a device with Ubuntu Studio on it. Then there is all that cortana crap which you can't fscking switch off. I mean, I'd much rather have a simple scriptable way to make menus. Really: I could make something more useful for me with bit of javascript and a host with a few API hooks. It would be quicker than waiting for cortana to wake from its slumber on an older laptop! If you just had a javascript environment with a couple of predefined objects (akin to the window and document objects in a web browser), you could do something perfectly functional, and hack in whatever clever logic you want. What you can't do with MS's bloated mess, however, is hack _out_ the logic and features you don't need.

    I would say, as a caveat, that the Linux world still has far to go in making things as easy as they can be. The trouble is that we've inherited a philosophy of design from that of companies where building big opaque piles of incomprehensible and incompatible crap that just about worked happened to be excellent development models for software companies. Short, sweet, beautiful and elegant examples of software programming are rarer than diamonds, and some of those 'rarer than diamonds' are locked in vaults and jealously guarded by organisations whose only purpose on life is to make money.

  • Windows 10 probably will be the last version of Windows, but not the way Microsoft imagines it.

    By continuing to nag, snoop, spam and lock-down its users, Microsoft is transforming its core offering - its OS - into the opposite of what it should be: an agent of the owner that compels the computer to obey the owner's intent.

    Its the age-old agency problem [businessdictionary.com]. An agent with a large amount of power (network effects in Microsoft's case) tends to abuse it to the detriment of the principal (Microsoft users). Its same problem when powerful executives persuade their company to reward them richly without commensurate effort. Left uncorrected, the situation worsens (customers quit in disgust, company implodes, etc).

    Another company may eventually do to the Microsoft desktop what Apple and Android did to them in mobile. Or Microsoft may wisen up and curb their worst excesses (as they did in the XBox One phone-home fiasco). But it'd be a hard sell to the MS board and would take a lot of imagination on their part to act more directly in favor of consumers, versus short-term shareholder rewards.

    • Its the age-old agency problem. An agent with a large amount of power (network effects in Microsoft's case) tends to abuse it to the detriment of the principal (Microsoft users).

      Microsoft was caught red-handed abusing its monopoly position in pretty much every way in which it was possible to do so. If they had been adequately punished, they wouldn't even be a company any more. Given conditions in DC, it's not much of a stretch to believe that Microsoft is only even really permitted to exist any more in order to deliver spyware to unsuspecting users. (This has long been part of its function, wittingly or no...)

  • Comment removed based on user account deletion
  • Woot! Next they will be paying people for their operating system.
  • by melting_clock ( 659274 ) on Tuesday August 02, 2016 @05:14AM (#52626923)

    Not even the tactics that MS used to push Windows 10 as an updates to earlier versions allowed them to beat Windows 7. Giving Windows 10 away was not enough to convince Windows 7 users to upgrade. This shows the OS is already a failure.

    Many Windows users really did not like the user interface choices that MS made in Windows 8 and stuck with their preferred interface. Although Windows 10 rolled back some of those mistakes, it created many more to replace them and annoyed users by being sneaky about upgrades. MS has annoyed their customers with recent versions of Windows by no giving customers what they want or trying to turn customers into the product.

    I am one of those that is sticking with Windows 7 and we never install the spyware/adware version of Windows that 10 has proven to be. I have already largely to moved to Linux so it will not be any great loss.

    • Many Windows users really did not like the user interface choices that MS made in Windows 8 and stuck with their preferred interface.

      They not only dropped the ball on Windows 8, they fell on it and burst it. Horrible interface out of the box. Who wants their desktop/laptop to be a tablet/phone? (The same people who want "convergence" in the bathroom? Toilet/sink all in one device!!)

      The Win8 to 8.1rev1 fiasco also sucked. Had to revert to Win8 and then get Win8.1rev2 (or "Win8.1 Update" or something confusing like that). Fumble!

      I'm pretty happy with Win8.1 now. I have tweaked away most of the annoying bits. Disabled the touchscreeen, boot

  • by Opportunist ( 166417 ) on Tuesday August 02, 2016 @05:42AM (#52627009)

    A new MS operating system "offering" a free upgrade from its predecessors, so every single user of a previous OS pretty much had to go out of their way to NOT get it, reaches 20% penetration (and I chose that word deliberately, for the way it tried to "convince" you to install it) after a year.

    That is pretty much a declaration of bankruptcy.

    The amount of "computer savvy" people isn't that high to warrant this number. It's not just "paranoid geeks" that saw the wiring under the board and didn't want to be infected. This number pretty much means that four out of five people using Win7 or Win8.1 fought tooth and nail to NOT upgrade.

    And four out of five people aren't paranoid computer geeks. These are "normal" computer users. My hope is that this is the beginning of people getting a clue about their privacy being at stake.

    • by Anonymous Brave Guy ( 457657 ) on Tuesday August 02, 2016 @07:55AM (#52627595)

      To be fair, quite a lot of the other 79% will be professionals. You wouldn't expect most large organisations to migrate to a new OS within a year of its release, and in the specific case of Windows 10, the Enterprise and Education variants seem to be very different products to Home and Pro, so big business and government might move later without the same concerns that the little people like us have.

      I totally agree that the 21% figure is awful given the heavyhanded approach Microsoft have taken to pushing 10 on existing users and the fact that it's now the default OS preinstalled on most off-the-shelf consumer PCs, but we shouldn't overstate the case. It's damning enough already...

  • by Anonymous Coward

    80% refuse to use Windows 10 even when it is forcibly given away for free. That's the real story. Microsoft literally tried to force people to use the free upgrade to Windows 10 for a full year and 80% of the market avoided it.

    • People don't see any need for Windows 10, they are satisfied and happy with what they have in Windows 7.
    • People don't want Microsoft's vision of a desktop tablet. They've been signaling this to Microsoft since Windows 8.
    • People don't want Microsoft's vision of an app store. That has wo
  • by Holi ( 250190 ) on Tuesday August 02, 2016 @07:35AM (#52627451)
    79% of PC owners were able to block Windows 10 from being shoved down their throats.
  • Windows 10 has ~21% but I guess MS had to force upgrades to even get those numbers.

    Nice to see Windows 7 holding steady at 42% [wikipedia.org]

    The funny thing is MS had a 20 years head start on mobile [wikipedia.org] with WinCE and consumers STILL didn't want it. Apple and Google come along and they accomplish in less then 5 years (Android was released on Dec 6, 2010) what MS couldn't do in 20 years!! LOL

    Microsoft still has a ways to go when 2 years ago Linux run on over 1 Billion Devices [engadget.com] and 99.4% of the Top 500 supercomputers [top500.org] run Linux;

  • Like many others, I went through the motions of obtaining a free Windows 10 upgrade license by installing a Windows 7 factory recovery DVD to a clean hard drive and then upgrading to Windows 10. After the process was complete, I reinstalled the original Windows 7 running hard drive back into the PC. I repeated this process for 2 additional machines. I just wanted the free license in case I ever wanted to use Windows 10.

    I kept a copy of Windows 10 running on one test machine to play with and see if I like

  • by fedos ( 150319 ) <<allen.bouchard> <at> <gmail.com>> on Tuesday August 02, 2016 @08:19AM (#52627719) Homepage
    It's a big improvement over Win7. I don't understand the hate.
    • I'm glad you like the Windows 10 experience.

      .
      For me, the extreme data harvesting of my family's data was a show-stopper.

    • Change is scary.

      Most of slashdot is made up of anti rabid MS users who think 1997 is still present who are now also in their 40s where they do not like change by then.

      I saw the same articles on why XP BEST EVER!!!! when Windows 7 was out. Really?? XP was good? When? These same UIDs now say 7 is THE BEST EVER!!

      When Windows 11 comes out you will see the same posters say WIndows 10 IS THE BEST EVER!

      Notice the same response with SystemD. Init BEST EVER! SIgh. Most of these guys are older than 40 and do not want

  • nearly 80% still have chosen not to run it.

    .
    Of those 21% cited, I have to wonder how many actually wanted the upgrade? Of those who fought Microsoft's malware in order not be foreably upgraded, I wonder what percentage are looking to a different OS besides Windows for their next OS upgrade?

    So... this is what Microsoft considers to be good news nowadays?

  • by tbuskey ( 135499 ) on Tuesday August 02, 2016 @08:50AM (#52627911) Journal

    Microsoft decided one UI should work everywhere. WinCE was the Windows desktop put onto phones. Windows 7 was the pinnacle of Desktop UI for Microsoft. Windows 8 was a tablet release, as is Windows 10. No more desktop, they want to compete with the iPad and iPhone.

    You know what? The tablet UI works well on a phone. It's great for casual web, email and games. Or really anything you run one at a time like the days of DOS. If you're switching apps or running multiple apps, like the typical office worker, it's not as good. The desktop UI is great there. For a software developer the tablet is going to be harder for most.

    Even *Apple*, the one choice no upgrades everything sealed Steve Jobs knows best, offers 2 interfaces. macOS for desktops, iOS for handhelds.

    Microsoft needs to stop thinking one size fits all or start offering their core Enterprise apps on other platforms. Outlook (not OWA!), Skype Business, Office and Sharepoint clients for Linux and macOS. Full AD client. If they don't, enterprises will migrate away from AD, Exchange, Sharepoint to something else with a UI that works for their users.

  • It's amazing what happens when you GIVE AWAY upgrades.... Shazam! Folks take you up on the offer and you get a larger market share for the thing you give away for free... Now if you make it an offer I cannot refuse, even if I wanted too....

    Come to think of it, only 20% or so? Really? I would have expected that to be higher given the way they rolled out this "free" ("bet you can't stop us from installing") upgrade to windows 10..

  • Win 10 sucks, and the proof is that people actually took the time to sit down and write utilities that you could use to prevent it from installing itself.

    That's a pretty clear sign of unpopularity by any measure.

    Name me another OS that has had a free utility written to prevent it from installing. I'll wait.......

  • This is the year of the Linux desktop.

  • It may have been installed on that many computers, but I wonder how many were like me, tried it, said "My GOD but this OS sucks" and went back to W7, or how many PCs with W10 pre-installed now are running Linux or BSD?

  • It's pretty bad when there are approximately 150M new PCs sold (Gartner estimate) and you give free upgrades to existing Windows customers, that there are only 50M Windows 10 installations? Seems that the vast majority of those new PCs must have been sold with Windows 7 on them.

  • From talking with friends and clients, about a quarter to third of people who took advantage of the free Win 10 upgrade decided to roll back to their previous OS.
  • Not so much "runs" as "limps"...
  • Internet Explorer is STILL the worlds most widely used browser used for installing better browsers!

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