Windows 7 continues to be used extensively, although it is becoming more unsafe for consumers every day. According to Statcounter, Windows 7 came into use in December 18 percent of all Windows desktops and laptops. With NetApplication, which also takes other operating systems such as MacOS and Linux into account in its comparison, Windows 7 even comes up 20 percent .

Microsoft finally discontinued Windows 7 almost exactly a year ago and practically gave the operating system, which was very popular up to that point, the coup de grace because you as the end user no longer receives updates. This also applies to security updates, because Microsoft has support on 14. January 2020.

With Windows 10 Microsoft finally had an updated version of the operating system in the summer 2015 brought onto the market, which – at least at the beginning – did not appeal to everyone. It was different with Windows 7. When this operating system 2009 appeared, it was already found to be stable in its first version and was accordingly in demand.

This seems not to have changed for a large number of users. The proportion of Windows 7 users is only shrinking slowly. A look at the market shares of the Windows versions of the statistic service StatCounter shows that Windows 7 was even able to gain more than one percentage point in the last two months. At the beginning of the year 2020 the market share was almost 25 percent, so some of the users are now too Windows 10 or alternative operating systems changed. Netmarketshare measured around 18 percent for Windows 7 in December, after around 26 percent in January.

Statcounter also publishes data for individual regions and countries. In Germany and Austria, Windows 7 can now only be found on around eight percent of Windows computers. 86 – 87 percent use Windows 10. The rest still use Windows 8 (.1), Vista or XP.

ChromeOS thrives in the US About seen all operating systems runs on 78 percent of the German desktops and laptops active on the Internet a Windows version. Just under 20 percent use MacOS X, according to Statcounter, and another 2.2 percent use Linux. In Austria, Windows is two percentage points more common. Worldwide the situation is similar, with Windows with 61 percent far ahead of MacOSX with 17 Percent.

Processors run differently in the USA. Microsoft has to be content there with 61 percent market share on desktops and laptops. This is not only due to the 31 percent for MacOS X, but also the 5.5 percent that convinced Google’s ChromeOS

There are updates for Windows 7, but they cost End users no longer receive updates for Windows 7 , but Microsoft offers companies a support extension for Windows 7 up to the year 2023. This “Extended Security Updates Program” (ESU) is possible for Windows 7 Professional, Enterprise and Ultimate. Microsoft no longer supports Windows 7 Home even for a lot of money.

In the meantime, the prices for the ESU program have doubled, as you can find out from the provider Software-Express, for example. With such an ESU license, Windows 7 users can at least be provided with updates until January 2023 – according to the current status. However, this is primarily for large customers and their volume licenses are interesting, less for small and medium-sized companies.

(fds)