Happy First Birthday, Windows 7 (240,000,000!)

News
By Marcus Yam
published

Windows 7 Sells 240 Million Licenses in 1 Year

It was a year ago that Microsoft released Windows 7, which many users and critics felt was the best version of Windows since XP.

Surely, Microsoft took a lot of feedback from those who weren't pleased with what Vista brought and changed Windows 7 to be a bit more friendly to… well, everyone.

In that year since release, Microsoft has sold more than 240 million licenses worldwide.

Users are increasingly pleased with it too, with people right now four times more likely to recommend Windows 7 than they were a year ago. IT professionals have taken to it too as those recommending Windows 7 surpassed those recommending Windows XP within the first five months of release.

Other bullet points that Microsoft shared in its blog post on Windows 7 are:

  • Has a customer satisfaction rate of 94%
  • Is on more than 1.2 billion Windows PCs worldwide
  • Is on 93 percent of new consumer PCs, as of September
  • Has over 17 percent of the global operating system share
  • Has inspired nearly 90 percent of companies to upgrade or start upgrading to the new OS
  • On average, can save companies US$140 per PC per year, and a 131 percent return on investment in the first year

Happy first birthday, Windows 7!

Marcus Yam
Marcus Yam
Marcus Yam served as Tom's Hardware News Director during 2008-2014. He entered tech media in the late 90s and fondly remembers the days when an overclocked Celeron 300A and Voodoo2 SLI comprised a gaming rig with the ultimate street cred.
67 Comments Comment from the forums
  • L0tus
    131 percent return on investment in the first year

    That's odd. I certainly didn't receive my +$1000 cheque. Was there a coupon?
    Reply
  • sudeshc
    Off course it is by far the best windows OS, has almost all good features of XP and Vista.

    That 131 % return i guess is for Business's.
    I do feel however it has also made daily work of software industry employees like me alot more fun than before.
    Reply
  • floorpug
    If win 7 has 1.2 billion copies on pcs worldwide, and a 17% share of all OSs, does that mean that there are 7,050,000,000 computers worldwide? WOW
    Reply
  • x3style
    floorpugIf win 7 has 1.2 billion copies on pcs worldwide, and a 17% share of all OSs, does that mean that there are 7,050,000,000 computers worldwide? WOWIf we know 4,294,967,296 is the number of unique ip adresses ipv4 has and its down to the last 200.000.000 according to http://www.potaroo.net/tools/ipv4/index.html to end by next year. and since we know there are more computers then adresses due to NAT. Your number would sound plausible.
    Reply
  • unknown_13
    Happy birthday, Win7 :)
    Reply
  • Milleman
    "Windows 7 Sells 240 Million Licenses in 1 Year"

    Does that include the PC:s that is shipped with Win7 regardless if you want it or not?
    Reply
  • dan117
    Windows 7 Sells 240 Million Licenses
    Is on more than 1.2 billion Windows PCs worldwide
    piracy much?

    Anyway, I think it's the best OS yet, even though it's not perfect (not retard friendly like the mac, you need to be smart to use it without breaking it, but it can do a lot more think, better and faster.
    MS should make a "special edition" of Win7 that has a limited list of apps that can be installed, a good better integrated firewall and AV, better app/driver install/unistall to prevent windows rot. It would be hard to break and limited like a mac, but it would still be a PC.
    Reply
  • 240 million licenses sold, yet it is on 1.2 billion PCs?
    I'm probably missing something, but does that not mean that there are 960 million PCs with pirated versions of Windows 7 out there?
    Reply
  • tri force
    newbie_5000240 million licenses sold, yet it is on 1.2 billion PCs?I'm probably missing something, but does that not mean that there are 960 million PCs with pirated versions of Windows 7 out there?
    dan117piracy much?Anyway, I think it's the best OS yet, even though it's not perfect (not retard friendly like the mac, you need to be smart to use it without breaking it, but it can do a lot more think, better and faster.MS should make a "special edition" of Win7 that has a limited list of apps that can be installed, a good better integrated firewall and AV, better app/driver install/unistall to prevent windows rot. It would be hard to break and limited like a mac, but it would still be a PC.
    Ever heard of VLKs?
    Reply
  • shortbus25
    Hahahahaha Yeah mine is one of them...OOps did I say that out loud! I got mine for $18 bucks through school got six licenses for $18.
    Reply