Windows 7 still runs on at least 100 million PCs

Windows 7 still appears to run on at least 100 million machines, despite Microsoft discontinuing support for the operating system a year ago. ZDNet analyzed the proportion of PCs still running Windows 7 in various scan reports. While each data source associates Windows 7 with different percentages of market share, most agree that the operating system still makes up around 20% of PCs.

Microsoft has claimed for years that there are 1.5 billion Windows users across multiple versions around the world. It is difficult to get an exact number of Windows 7 users due to the different methods used by analysis companies, but it is at least 100 million. If you reduce Microsoft’s estimate of 1.5 billion Windows users to just one billion (there are 1 billion active Windows 10 users), then Windows 7 is still on a massive amount of PCs. In fact, it could still be used by more than 200 million devices around the world.

Photo by Monica Chin / The Verge

Support for Windows 7 ended in January 2020, almost 11 years after the operating system’s initial launch with its “I’m a PC, and Windows 7 was my idea” marketing campaign. It quickly became a very popular version of Windows, especially with businesses. Looking at the operating system’s market share last year, it was clear that it would take a year or two for Windows 7 to be firmly below 10% market share.

It may take even longer for Windows 7 to finally disappear, especially after a year when many have turned to PCs for remote work and home education. Microsoft has reported an increase in demand and use of PCs due to the pandemic. It’s likely that some of that PC usage also comes from households dusting off old PCs and laptops that they haven’t used frequently, and some of those devices might still be running Windows 7.

It is clear that the pandemic has also influenced the PC market over the past year. We’re still waiting for PC estimates from Gartner and IDC, but some analysts believe we could have seen nearly 300 million PCs shipped in 2020 alone. This would be a significant change for the PC market, after PCs experienced their first year of growth since 2011 in 2019. This growth was spurred by the end of support for Windows 7, and most analysts don’t did not expect the market to grow even more throughout the year. 2020.