66 Percent of Windows Users Are Still Running XP

Have you upgraded from XP yet?

Windows 7 turns a year old this month, and 12 months after a successful launch, nearly everyone agrees that it is a huge improvement over Vista. However, despite this, the majority of Windows users are still running XP and have yet to upgrade to Windows 7.

Conceivably Tech reports that, though the number of Windows users still running XP is falling, it's falling at a very slow rate. Data released by Net Applications shows that Windows XP accounted for 76 percent of all Windows users when Windows 7 launched and this figure has fallen just 10 points (to 66 percent) in the last year. Though Windows 7's market share is strong and continues to grow, Net Applications data puts XP's overall September share in the OS market at 60.03 percent, down just 0.86 percent from the month before.

Conceivably Tech's Wolfgang Gruener predicts that considering XP's overall OS market share is dropping at a rate of less than one percentage point per month, it could take over a year for the nearly 10-year-old Windows XP share to drop to 50 percent of the overall market share. The data comes as we approach a particularly significant milestone for Windows XP. Microsoft's deadline for manufacturers shipping machines with Windows XP is October 22.

Read the full story here.

_{Source: Conceivably Tech}

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Top Comments

31

tleavit , October 5, 2010 11:46 AM

We have 200 PC's on our network, 10ish now are Windows 7. At this point (since the economy dumped) our average pc is 3 years old and runs Win XP perfectly. Win XP does everything we need it to in a fast moving business. Those PC's will continue to run XP until they die (5 to 10 years life). Any new PC we buy has Windows7. Windows 7 doesn't do anything we need different then XP but it runs well (like XP). We are like every other company out there. WinXp will be around for a long long time.
24

thillntn , October 5, 2010 11:36 AM

I have 7 on my laptop, but do you blame people for keeping XP? It just works!
20

ricardok , October 5, 2010 11:52 AM

I'm still with a desktop that runs XP.. 2 acctually. Both old, both can't handle 7, so, why bother changing them?

Other Comments

24

thillntn , October 5, 2010 11:36 AM

I have 7 on my laptop, but do you blame people for keeping XP? It just works!
8

Randomacts , October 5, 2010 11:41 AM

I know people who have XP at schools and offices that wish they had W7... but they refuse to update it.
31

tleavit , October 5, 2010 11:46 AM

We have 200 PC's on our network, 10ish now are Windows 7. At this point (since the economy dumped) our average pc is 3 years old and runs Win XP perfectly. Win XP does everything we need it to in a fast moving business. Those PC's will continue to run XP until they die (5 to 10 years life). Any new PC we buy has Windows7. Windows 7 doesn't do anything we need different then XP but it runs well (like XP). We are like every other company out there. WinXp will be around for a long long time.
-12

cj_online , October 5, 2010 11:50 AM

Windows 7 > XP.... nuff said.
20

ricardok , October 5, 2010 11:52 AM

I'm still with a desktop that runs XP.. 2 acctually. Both old, both can't handle 7, so, why bother changing them?
0

RogueKitsune , October 5, 2010 11:56 AM

Windows 7 is a huge upgrade over windows XP. Yes it does take time to get use to the UI changes, but once you are comfortable with it you will never look back. But what about the hardware requirements? If you have a computer that was produced in the last 5 years it should be able to run windows 7, maybe not without all the bells and whistles but it will run. On average i have noticed that 7 only uses maybe 10-20% more resources than XP, which is about 10-20% less than vista used(That's just for my computer yours maybe different). For the individual user there is no reason to stick with XP. For companies and schools I understand them not upgrading as it is hard to convince the higher-ups to spend money on something that works for now.
-14

f-14 , October 5, 2010 12:00 PM

1 machine i have has 7, don't really enjoy it as much as XP which i didn't like over win98 despite the huge improvement. things are idiot redundant more and more on each new OS and i am not one of those idiots that needs all control taken from me just to be second guessed every time and always incorrectly. it's a bish trying to assign a specific IP address or set up a network and having windows try to hostily take over the procedure and f'it all up. also i do not like anything trying to seconds guess me as i am so random all it does is instapiss me off. and the resources vista and 7 hog? omg my old intellivision boots faster then that and is more responsive then vista/7 btw it took me 30 seconds to break vista and a lil over a minute to break 7 BSD's i continually BSD them on a daily basis because they refuse to work properly with the internet or the software they won't operate. don't even get me started on the hardware. all i can say is i thank god everyday for dual booting.

if you're good with computers and planning on buying 7 wait until service pack 1 is out, maybe even service pack 2. too many headaches with vista/7 to not want to go postal at microsoft corp every single day. wait for the hardware you need to be designed for windows 7 first and not backward compatiable with vista/xp as you'll pull your hair out.
16

cloudberry , October 5, 2010 12:01 PM

I've built a Phenom X6 computer running Windows 7 for my video editing artist-mother, but I'm still using an ancient, single core, socket 939 machine running an even older Windows XP. The sentimental value I hold in the old thing (along with the old games it can play) goes beyond irrational.
-11

bdonedge , October 5, 2010 12:08 PM

I don't understand why people consciously use XP over 7. 7 is better in every single way
1

luke904 , October 5, 2010 12:20 PM

to me, the differnce between xp and 7 is the difference between driving a stick and an automatic..

Windows 7, though most of the time can be configured not to, does more for you... I am personally quite capable of doing it myself.
-9

anonymuos , October 5, 2010 12:24 PM

Don't upgrade to Windows 7. You will repent. It's not a bad product but it's worse than XPs usability. Tons of removed features and stuff gone completely for no reason at all. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_features_removed_in_Windows_7 and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_features_removed_in_Windows_Vista. The things removed from Vista aren't there in Windows 7 either. The same problem is happening to IE9, Live Essentials 2011, Windows Media Player 12, Virtual PC. Microsoft products are getting severely dumbed down and all the customizability and power being taken away from users. All it's about eye-candy and minimalism now.
-18

ta152h , October 5, 2010 12:26 PM

Windows XP? I'm still holding the line with Windows 2000. Every time I install XP I wonder why, and go back to Windows 2000.

At least Windows 7 does a few things better than Windows 2000, although certainly not everything. Windows XP is just a bloated, slow, annoying (does anyone with an IQ over 80 not put it back into "classic view"?) version of Windows 2000. I'm glad I skipped it. Windows 7 wasn't really worth the wait though, but it's not bad by Microsoft standards.

It's too bad they don't have any real competition. Unix and derivatives have never qualified as real competition. They're like the team the Harlem Globetrotters play.
11

spectrewind , October 5, 2010 12:44 PM

Let me preface the following with:
I use Win7 Ult x64 and it "agrees with me".

How are we defining "Windows Users"? Are these home users? Parents with college kids that need a laptop? Professionals? Builder/Enthusiasts? Corporate volume users (who do not have a choice in view of IT and company charter)?

I have seen that 99% of what WinXP does in any of the categories I mentioned is still valid, despite WinNT 5.1 being surpassed by WinNT 6.1.

Aside from gaming/entertainment, I have not seen a practical (much less financial) reason for people to switch away from WinXP.
6

arael , October 5, 2010 12:49 PM

I've been using W7 at home since the open beta, but from a business standpoint it can be a step back to upgrade.
All our PCs here are running XP, even though they all have Vista licenses. I think the only time they will consider upgrading to W7 is when they upgrade the PCs again, which won't be for quite some time.
4

adamboy64 , October 5, 2010 12:59 PM

At work here we're running Windows XP, however a lot of these PC's are 7-8 years old. As they're dying we're replacing them with Win7 PC's.

I prefer Windows 7 as I find the interface a lot easier to multitask with. It's a fantastic interface. Dual-monitor seems to be a lot less hassle as well, compared to XP.

I was quite surprised to find that my previous work PC (Intel E7200, 2GB RAM) ran the same speed, if not better under Windows 7 than it did the ol' XP.

I can understand people not upgrading their current PC's to Win7, but if you buy a new PC and put Windows XP on it.. you won't be getting the most out of your hardware. I think to a lot of XP fans, this won't worry them though.
3

damasvara , October 5, 2010 1:07 PM

TA152HWindows XP? I'm still holding the line with Windows 2000. Every time I install XP I wonder why, and go back to Windows 2000. At least Windows 7 does a few things better than Windows 2000, although certainly not everything. Windows XP is just a bloated, slow, annoying (does anyone with an IQ over 80 not put it back into "classic view"?) version of Windows 2000. I'm glad I skipped it. Windows 7 wasn't really worth the wait though, but it's not bad by Microsoft standards. It's too bad they don't have any real competition. Unix and derivatives have never qualified as real competition. They're like the team the Harlem Globetrotters play.

That's just personal sentiments. XP is famous for its versatility, speed is a non issue with some tweaking and modding. While 2000 is famous for, well,I can't remember anything about that particular OS. With XP at 66%, and Vista+7 around 25%, that would put the 2000+95+98+ME at 9%. I wonder what's the percentage for Windows 2000 alone? Hmmm...
6

tuxplorer , October 5, 2010 1:10 PM

Perhaps as a geek my time with Microsoft is done. The evolution of the OS is certainly geared for my 70 yr old mother with no computer experience while I struggle with finding the simple things within the OS.
-1

jupiter optimus maximus , October 5, 2010 1:13 PM

Its no surprise since most companies want to save cash by not spending a new os which the old one already works. Until Microsoft ceases supporting xp, we won't see a swooping upgrade until windows 8 or 9 in 2014-2016. By that time, our computers will have 48 intel cores cpu, octo-sli, 4tb ssd at $200, HAF 982, 1200W PSU 80 plus Platinum, 16 DDR4 4000 MHz. We did come a long way 4 years ago...
1

ibemerson , October 5, 2010 1:18 PM

Maybe 66% of people are focusing on avoiding foreclosure?

Anyways I've used Windows 7 since it came out. I'm pretty sure the "7" refers to the target age group. Windows Explorer is horrificly broken. It has a start menu that only mime (trapped in a tiny box) could like. Search function is crude. I didn't like any of the included color schemes but it wouldn't let me customize it the way I wanted. It took me 3 months of trying various registry edits, third-party shells & utilities to get anywhere close to computing as efficiently as I did with XP.

Yes there were some improvements in Windows 7 but most of the changes were just utterly ridiculous.
1

mrmez , October 5, 2010 1:20 PM

Hardly surprising. After the Vista disaster, people are a bit reluctant to get bitten by another bad product. W7 is good, but I think this shows less about MS and more about peoples computers and their usage. Sure in 2010 most households have a computer, but i think the average computer is old, slow and outdated, with the users not demanding much of them, there is little incentive to upgrade.

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