As 2015 comes to a close, Windows 10 surpasses 200 million installs

whs said:

That is not a big deal because W8 was not a blockbuster.

Maybe not to us, but I bet it is to MS.

If W10 turns out to be a failure (i.e. people stop installing it) they will have to bring out W11 despite saying that will never happen.

Winuser said:

I never said Win 10 was a failure. I never said I didn't like Windows 10. I do like Win 10 and have it installed on all of my computers. I'm just curious of what the number would be if Win 10 wasn't a free upgrade. If MS wants to brag about the number of installs of Win 10 they shouldn't stack the deck by giving away the OS for free. They should judge the success of Win 10 by the number of users willing to pay for it.

Exactly. If part of Microsoft's goal is to spur PC sales, it may not have done that quite yet, because they have focused on expanding the Windows 10 user base. I'm interested in that information. And there's nothing wrong with tearing the figures apart to see what's really happening.

BunnyJ said:

Yes it is.. and I take the critique from Win10 users serious.

I see that. May I ask why? It's an OS, not anything more major than that.

BunnyJ said:

As for non users who critique it I take with a very large grain of salt. What it comes off as is you're coming into this forum and complaining about a product that you don't use or want to use.. so tell us just why??

I was in the TP program and I have used a couple final builds. If you'll remember, I praised its boot time very highly (and I was using the 32-bit 10240 build on very old modest hardware with a single gigabyte of RAM - no ideal machine for Windows 10). So I've got as good as any impression as most people on how good or bad Windows 10 is. I've asked questions on possibilities of changing the visual style to something that might endear me more to it. But at the end of the day, I placed Windows 8.1 Eval Edition again on that PC, and it simply ran faster. And with Classic Shell, Windows 8.1 worked how I liked it.

That sounds like I've given the OS a fair shake Bunny. Hey there are people on here that have cited how crappy Vista was based on the first RTM build. They'd have come away with a different opinion using the x64 build with SP2 applied. But you see, not liking Vista is en vogue, so that makes it OK.

BunnyJ said:

Would you do the same in a Linux forum?? Why not spend more useful time in the 8 forums helping others.. that would be a better use of your time.. I would think...

Sure it might be Bunny. Saving the world would even be better, but I have interests in the direction that Microsoft is going with it's company, and Windows 10. I want to follow that and discuss it. I listen to all of the good and bad points. I don't block people and say "La La La I can't hear you" when they praise Windows 10, because I might learn something. I don't usually agree with it. I do sometimes. When people diss Metro and say Microsoft ruined the desktop with it, I reply saying that Microsoft needed to go there to be competitive with Android and iOS. I may not like Metro, but I understand why Microsoft did what they had to. Is that not being fair? I think it is.

whs said:

The statistics clearly say that W7 rules.

I agree; Windows 7 is the new Windows XP, since XP's no longer supported. :) I've said that ever since Windows 8.0 dropped on top of us. But, since I'm a glutton for punishment, when the public preview of 8.0/8.1 came out, I just had to test. Sigh . . . I couldn't even figure out how to shut down the computer in 8.0!

In the long run, there will always be diehard XP users. Once Microsoft drops support for Windows 7, lots of folks will still hang onto it, no question about it. However, eventually, Windows 7 will of necessity go the way of Windows XP. If for no other reason that many updated and upgraded programs [and hardware] will no longer work with Windows 7.

I upgraded from Windows 7 to Windows 8.0 and if Microsoft hadn't released Windows 8.1, I would surely have gone back to Windows 7! I didn't much like Windows 8.1, but since everything I had booted much faster than 7, and was just faster all around, I got used to it.

As a Windows 10 Insider, I will continue to test; however, for now I'm running 1511 (10586.36) RTM and have no problems at all. During the past year and three months, I did have a few problems adjusting to using "Settings" instead of the Control Panel. For me, Microsoft did itself a favor by feeding us "Settings" in small bites instead of dropping it in and removing the Control Panel. Maybe that's what they're doing with Edge and Cortana, but it's not working all that great for me.

I continue to avoid Cortana and Edge. I will get around to trying Cortana later, and I try Edge with each new update, but so far, it's not working well enough to use full time. My time is valuable and Firefox works much better.

Wynona said:

I agree; Windows 7 is the new Windows XP, since XP's no longer supported. :) I've said that ever since Windows 8.0 dropped on top of us. But, since I'm a glutton for punishment, when the public preview of 8.0/8.1 came out, I just had to test. Sigh . . . I couldn't even figure out how to shut down the computer in 8.0!

Quite honestly, from the graph post that you replied to, I was actually surprised to see Windows 8.1 beating out Windows 10 (even if marginally so).

In my humble opinion beauty is in the eye of the beholder and Windows 10 is no beauty but it is a decent os and with time it will probably be the best os ever made. I have had far fewer glitches with 10 then I did on a brand new computer with a fresh install of XP. Windows Vista gave me no issues either and ive had yet to see a complete fail of a OS in my lifetime.

Jody Thornton said:

Quite honestly, from the graph post that you replied to, I was actually surprised to see Windows 8.1 beating out Windows 10 (even if marginally so).

Other than the Windows Insider Program, Windows 10 has only been Generally Available (GA/RTM) for five months, so even with free upgrades, it will take awhile for Windows 10 to gather steam.

Let's compare some apples to oranges here. :) Windows 10 was Released to Market/Marketing/Manufacturing on July 29. Initially we were told that there would be "service releases" to Windows 10, but that doesn't seem to have happened, so I'll call it what it would have been called in Windows 7 . . . We have only had Service Pack 1 (SP1) (November Update) released so far. That's very early times for a new OS.

I'm going to jump off into some muddy water here and hazard a guess as to how upgrading to Windows 10 will go:

Of course, all the Insiders will most likely upgrade; it just stands to reason. We're all most likely to be members of forums like TenForums. Then there are those who come to the forums to learn about new things. They will be more inclined to upgrade also. However, those I'm talking about are a mere drop in the bucket compared to the rest of the world.

Small businesses will jump onto the bandwagon, but still aren't a large enough number to make a lot of difference.

That should take care of the freebie copies of Windows 10 Pro and Home.

The business and educational world are what will make or break Windows 10. These use the Enterprise version of Windows and that's not free! Further, those companies, corporations, schools, colleges, etc., tend to wait until at least the second "service release"/SP2 (some four to five months down the line, I'd guess) before even thinking about upgrading. That's when Windows 10 should overtake Windows 8.1 in the market place.

BTW, for those not aware, Microsoft runs Technical Previews with large corporations and has a TAP program that's pretty large too. So, there's no lack of testers in the corporate world. :)

Its only the first day of 2016 I would like to see where Windows 10 is at once we get to July 29th of this year witch will be the time the free upgrade process stops.