14 DAY TRIAL // Windows 7 is set to go dark in January 2020, and despite Microsoft’s efforts to convince users to upgrade to Windows 10, it looks like killing off the 2009 operating system will be really mission impossible.
Market share data provided by NetMarketShare indicates that last month, Windows 7 actually increased instead of going down, despite the fact that in January this OS version officially entered its last 12 months of technical support.
In other news, despite the clocking ticking on Windows 7, users aren’t really keen on upgrading to a newer version of Windows, which makes Microsoft’s mission of killing it off before the January 2020 significantly more difficult.
The good news for Microsoft is that Windows 10 increased too, only that it looks like it’s eating up the market share of other Windows versions, and not of Windows 7. Windows 10 jumped from 39.22% in December to 40.90% last month, while Windows 7 reached 37.19%, up from 36.90%.
Windows 7 hard to kill
The increase isn’t substantial, but it’s another living proof that Windows 7 going dark will be no easy picnic, despite the end of support approaching so fast.
Microsoft expects the upgrades from Windows 7 to accelerate in the remainder of the year, especially in the case of enterprise which will begin moving their entire fleets to Windows 10.
But on the other hand, the slow pace at which these upgrades happen in the last 12 months of support is an indication that not everyone will be ready when the January 2020 milestone is reached, basically turning Windows 7 into the second Windows XP.
Back in 2014 when Microsoft pulled support for Windows XP, more than 25 percent of devices were still running it. The market share of Windows XP eventually dropped in the next months, but it’s still around with 2.76 percent in January.