AfterDawn: News

Windows 10 is now on more than 600 million machines

Microsoft released the latest iteration of their computer operating system Windows in July of 2015. Now three and a half years later, Windows 10 has become hugely popular and ever growing.

Windows 10 is clearly one of the more important generations of Windows, and it has numbers to back that up. In 2015 Microsoft claimed that in 2018 Windows 10 will pass the billion user mark if you count all the versions of Windows 10 (including tablets and phones).



While we're not yet in that kind of numbers, and 2018 is just around the corner, Windows 10 has passed an impressive milestone. Currently Windows 10 is used by over 600 million users. And you have to remember that the whole Windows 10 phone thing failed miserably which doesn't really help with the target.

Even if one billion might be a little bit off, Windows 10 is growing rather fast. In May Microsoft said that Windows 10 was in half a billion devices worldwide, which makes give us a 100 million user growth over six months. If the rate continues, and that is a big if, Microsoft would pass 1 billion mark around this time of the year in 2019.

That is not Microsoft's prediction, though, as the company has apparently decided to refrain from commenting on new predictions.

Written by: Matti Robinson @ 1 Dec 2017 11:43

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• 13 comments

• hearme0

  This isn't news nor is it strange, odd or out of place as when ANYONE forces their way or their product on you, eventually all succumb.
  
  Windows 10 is the absolute worst OS ever. The shittiness of it actually surpasses that of Windows ME. And 10 has NO PLACE in business.
  
  Constant updates that break other things. 1709 busted the SMB1 protocol that allows "unauthenticated shared drive access"
  
  Every release of 10 whether for home or biz has Candy Crush, Pandora and all that shit installed. WTF do I want spend time imaging or manually removing this crap???
  
  10 spies all over, constantly exchanging data all over.
  
  Every f'ing update (feature updates) re-check all boxes that were previously unchecked.......Example, Win10 is set to "fast startup" which never actually fully restarts a PC. CRAP!!!!!!!!!
  
  Drivers can be an issue much more so than XP or 7, even 2 years after launch.
  
  Win10 doesn't allow the removal of some features like "Connect" or "Cortana". Cortana is about the worst P.O.S. feature ever!!!! Voice activation is nonsense in the home. Nothing like everyone rattling their verbal commands all the time all over the f'ing house. F THAT! Cortana is a true blue waste of space, coding and time in trying to find a pragmatic use for it.
  
  I'm a network architect for Panasonic and this is just a handful of issues I encounter quite often as the sole architect and engineer of our network.
  
  600 million maybe yeah........with 400 million hating 10 with the passion that I have but, stuck with a solution that just sucks for practicality and of course.............the need for an OS-friendly gaming solution.
  
  Sorry for the rant. I HATE WINDOWS 10 and those that defend it with gumption are most likely basic users with little to no advanced applicational use.

  1.12.2017 12:17 #1

• Sqreem

  The day I get Windows 10 is the day my computer dies permanently. Since I don't see my computer dying in the near future I won't be getting Windows 10 in the near future. On that note if I were ever stupid enough to download Windows 10 my computer would die, because the components in my computer aren't compatible.

  1.12.2017 15:39 #2

• Bozobub

  I got Win10, simply because my *pirated* Win7 Ultimate upgraded successfully to *legit* Win 10 Pro ^^'. I'd just replaced my HD with an SSD after a bad failure, so I figured why not give it a whirl..?
  
  Under the hood, yes, Win10 IS better than Win7 is several ways. Even with an HD, for example, boot times are generally far shorter, even from a completely cold start. That said, however, yes, there's also a lot of annoying BS. Much of that, however, is completely fixable (including forced updates for any version of Win10!)
  Some useful resources:
  - WinAero Tweaker - Single best WIn10 tweaking utility out there. Lets you turn off/manage automatic updates exactly as you like for any version of Win10, among other things, as well as turn off most Win10 telemetry, including Cortana. It has a LOT of other useful settings, as well.
  
  - Classic Shell - Replaces the Win10 Start Menu *completely* with one that works even better than the Win7 version. The standard menu is also only a click away, if needed for some reason. This is pretty much a must-have.
  
  - ShellFolderFix - Originally designed for Win7, this happens to also work just fine on Win10. Ever wish folders remembered their size and position once closed, like they did in XP? Well, this utility does exactly that!
  
  - Aero Glass for Win 8+ - NOT free ($5 "donation"), but this little gem returns the "Aero Glass" effect to any later version of Windows, including Win10. I didn't miss it much 'til it was gone, but damn, Win10 is FUGLY with the new look; this helps immeasurably. Just like the original theme in Win7, however, this DOES use a very small amount of system resources, so if you have a wooden PC, it may not be the best idea =o.
  
  Note: You CAN completely remove Cortana, actually, using Powershell, although turning it off works fine for me. If you choose to do so, however, you'll need a replacement search engine for Windows. "Classic Shell" (above) happens to include one =).
  
  I preferred Win7 as well, until I was able to reign in Win10's insane update behavior with WinAero Tweaker. I turned off driver updates (which Pro lets you do natively) BUT each big update (like the "Fall Creators Update") would reset that behavior, thus borking my entire system until I could undo the damage (I use some odd, specialized drivers, such as XBCD for my XBox 360 controller) >.<'.
  
  I will also say that Win10 is even more solid, over time, than Win7. Literally, the only crashes I have seen were temperature faults during bootup (old, very buggy graphics card). I loved Win 7 and it was quite stable, but not nearly so rock-solid.

  2.12.2017 00:24 #3

• KillerBug

  I'm getting ready to buy a used i7...the last one that supported Windows 7. I made the mistake of putting it on an xmas list...so now I can't just buy it today. I was very tempted to get a threadripper rig on cyber monday...but if they won't make windows 7 drivers, they are not getting a sale.
  
  When you make backroom deals with hardware makers to not produce drivers for Windows 7, do automatic upgrades to Windows 10 when people refuse them, and even release intentionally destructive windows updates for Windows 7 and 8, it isn't exactly a surprise that Windows 10 is on a lot of systems. That doesn't make it popular any more than an outbreak makes a disease popular.
  
  And for the doubters...I use Windows 10 basically every day. I know how to get around the bad menu design, I manually stripped out all the bloatware (and strip it out again every time there is a major update), I have a complex firewall setup to keep it from downloading updates over metered connections (because it does it even if you check the box to prevent it), I turn it on every night so that I don't get surprised by a huge update that takes an hour or more to install when I'm trying to shut off my computer that's low on battery (and so when I go to a client it doesn't spend an hour starting windows). I even managed to get a license for the educational edition because until the most recent feature pack they (rightly) thought that shared computers in educational environments should not have talking personal assistants. You can make Windows 10 suck less if you put in enough effort...you can even make it faster than a completely stock Windows 7 install...but you can't make it good, and you really shouldn't need to do all that when Windows 7 just worked well right out of the gate.
  
  Quick summary of Windows history...
  Windows 1.0-3.0 = total garbage, trying to copy something that Xerox had done better over a decade before.
  Windows 3.1 = A DOS GUI that had some crummy native programs but usually had to be closed if you wanted to do anything significant.
  Windows NT 4.0 = A very picky and annoying OS that provided better theoretical capabilities than DOS but which wasn't as good as unix, and wouldn't run most software.
  Windows 95 = Actually pretty good for the time...still little more than a DOS overlay, but after Windows NT 4.0, a DOS overlay was an improvement.
  Windows 98 = An update for Windows 95
  Windows 2000 = The first good Microsoft OS since DOS 6.11
  Windows ME = a really broken version of Windows 95, released after a much better Windows 2000
  Windows XP = An upgraded Windows 2000...there was also a x64 version but that was sort of trash.
  Windows Vista = I'd call it the devil...but the devil can be cool.
  Windows 7 = A working version of the x64 version of Windows XP.
  Windows 8/8.1 = Even microsoft admits this was junk.
  Windows 10 = An OS to make you miss Windows ME.

  2.12.2017 00:41 #4

• nu2duo

  I have a wedding photography and videography business and run windows 10 to edit all my work. Absolutely no issues whatsoever. I don't understand you guys bitching so much. Get a life.

  3.12.2017 16:45 #5

• datunes

  The 1st paragraph reads:
  
  "Microsoft released the latest iteration of their computer operating system Windows in July of 2015. Now three and a half years later, Windows 10 has become hugely popular and ever growing. "
  
  July 2015 + 3.5 years = January 2019 (aka. not the present)
  
  
  

  4.12.2017 05:00 #6

• hearme0

  Originally posted by nu2duo: I have a wedding photography and videography business and run windows 10 to edit all my work. Absolutely no issues whatsoever. I don't understand you guys bitching so much. Get a life. Originally posted by nu2duo: I have a wedding photography and videography business and run windows 10 to edit all my work. Absolutely no issues whatsoever. I don't understand you guys bitching so much. Get a life.
  
  This is not a jab at ya.....I promise but, you're a novice man.
  
  Killer and Bozo aren't.......and while I disagree with them from time to time, they are seemingly "extreme vetters" of most OS's and like me, will put the true strain on the little nuances that 99.9% of people don't know of or don't pay attention to. Not sure how voicing concerns or complaints about glaring issues with Win 10 means we don't have lives.......so I'm gonna say to you.....you're a TECNO-MORON and this conversation is surely above your head.

  4.12.2017 12:02 #7

• Bozobub

  Originally posted by datunes: The 1st paragraph reads:
  
  "Microsoft released the latest iteration of their computer operating system Windows in July of 2015. Now three and a half years later, Windows 10 has become hugely popular and ever growing. "
  
  July 2015 + 3.5 years = January 2019 (aka. not the present)
  
  
  Heh; good catch.

  4.12.2017 12:53 #8

• nu2duo

  Originally posted by hearme0: Originally posted by nu2duo: I have a wedding photography and videography business and run windows 10 to edit all my work. Absolutely no issues whatsoever. I don't understand you guys bitching so much. Get a life. Originally posted by nu2duo: I have a wedding photography and videography business and run windows 10 to edit all my work. Absolutely no issues whatsoever. I don't understand you guys bitching so much. Get a life.
  
  This is not a jab at ya.....I promise but, you're a novice man.
  
  Killer and Bozo aren't.......and while I disagree with them from time to time, they are seemingly "extreme vetters" of most OS's and like me, will put the true strain on the little nuances that 99.9% of people don't know of or don't pay attention to. Not sure how voicing concerns or complaints about glaring issues with Win 10 means we don't have lives.......so I'm gonna say to you.....you're a TECNO-MORON and this conversation is surely above your head. LOL ok dude you really think I don't know about computers? And knowing your history here you would be the first to reply to my comment.
  
  

  4.12.2017 22:15 #9

• ddp

  watching.
  

  5.12.2017 21:30 #10

• KillerBug

  @nu2duo:
  
  I wouldn't be at all surprised if you had no major issues with Windows 10. For tasks like video and photo editing, most of the big issues don't show so long as you have a system with decent specs (Windows 10 is a memory hog in spite of what Microsoft claims). Even a lot of gamers don't notice issues as long as they use DX9 legacy mode. I don't mean to insult you in any way; a lot of people are really good at what they do and don't have any good reason to go into the nasty underpinnings of their software, operating system, or hardware. Some of my favorite artists use Apples; which I consider far worse than Windows 10; but that doesn't change the fact that these people are great at what they do.
  
  There are however those of us that expect or need a lot from an operating system...or at least as much as the version that's 10 years older offered...people who would be using Linux exclusively if the software support was there and who have dedicated Linux boxes because it isn't. For us, Windows 10 is a nightmare because we need the most powerful components available and the most efficient operating system that will run our software...and Microsoft has bribed the hardware manufacturers to make sure we can't have both...not for any cost. There are also those who need far less power but simply don't want annoyances like updates that download themselves against your will on metered connections and then install when you are just about to give a presentation, 30 year old free games that are suddenly paid, built-in spyware and bloatware, random 1/2 second hitches, etc, etc, etc.
  
  But if Windows 10 works for you then that's great. I only wish I could say the same.

  8.12.2017 21:58 #11

• Bozobub

  I feel ya, KillerBug, but to address one complaint: You CAN disable all automatic update downloads and/or installs, your choice, on any version of Windows 10 — even Home — w/o mussing with metered connection kludges. WinAero Tweaker (free, link above) will let you specify the behavior you prefer. You may have to reset it after major updates, but otherwise, it's been rock-solid.

  8.12.2017 23:05 #12

• KillerBug

  Thanks for the tip. I configured my phone access point to use a certain local IP and then used a firewall rule to block access to a whole slew of IP's when it is on that IP...but disabling updates when shutting down after being on a non-metered connection would be nice.

  9.12.2017 08:53 #13