14 DAY TRIAL // Windows 10 is becoming a much more familiar working environment for Windows 7 users, and although Microsoft used the very same approach when Windows 8 came out, it’s pretty clear that the new OS addresses this problem in a much more effective way, simply because it brings back the traditional Start menu.
And creating an experience that’s more like the one in Windows 7 is a priority for Microsoft, with Joe Belfiore, the vice president of the OS group at the company, explaining in a meeting after the BUILD 2015 developer conference in late April that Redmond wants to move the majority of these users to Windows 10.
Windows 7 is currently the world’s number one operating system on the desktop, and stats show that nearly 53 percent of the PCs are running it, so it’s powering more than 1 in 2 computers on the planet. That’s why Microsoft considers Windows 7 users the main target for Windows 10, with Belfiore admitting that some think that Windows 8 wasn’t the right product for them.
Building a new Windows for Windows 7 users
Belfiore was quoted as saying by The Register that Microsoft wants to design a new Windows version that would tackle the needs of Windows 7 users in a more effective way, especially because Windows 8 brought some changes that barely appealed to them.
“There are more of them. We are concerned with both, but the higher volume of people are the Windows 7 people, and the Windows 8 people are more likely to be tech enthusiasts and more adaptable,” Belfiore pointed out.
“But we've heard feedback from touch users on Windows 8, and there's more work that we're doing. The priority for us is Windows 7 users because there are more of them, and a lot of those people feel that Windows 8 was not for them. We need them to think that we're trying to build a product that is for them.”
Windows 10 will have almost the same system requirements as Windows 7 and will be offered as a free upgrade for all computers running Windows 8.1 or 7. The new OS will go live in the summer of 2015, so time will tell if Windows 7 users really find it a proper replacement for their current OS.